Fact of the Day

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - UNIFORMS

Did you know... Royal Air Force WWII uniforms included a pants button that served as a compass.

Tiny, hidden survival tools packed into the waistband of your pants may sound like something fantastical from a spy movie, but in the case of British wartime pilots, they were a reality. During World War II, the Royal Air Force sent its aviators skyward with all the tools they’d need to complete a mission, along with a few that could help them find their way home if they crash-landed behind enemy lines. One of the smallest pieces of survival gear pilots carried was a compass built into the button of their trousers.  

 

Three months after entering World War II, the British military launched its MI9 division, a secret intelligence department tasked with helping service members evade enemy forces or escape capture. Between 1939 and 1945, masterminds at MI9 created a variety of intelligence-gathering and survival tools for troops, such as uniform-camouflaging dye shaped like candy almonds, ultra-compressed medications packed inside pens, and button compasses. The discreet navigational tools were typically made from two buttons, the bottom featuring a tiny needle. When balanced on the spike, the top button acted as a compass that rotated with the Earth’s poles; two dots painted on the metal with luminous paint represented north, and one indicated south.  

 

 

MI9 distributed more than 2.3 million of its button compasses during the war. They could be paired with secretive maps that were smuggled to captured service members inside care packages delivered to prisoner-of-war camps. Often printed on silk for durability and waterproofing, the 44 different maps (sent to different camps based on location) were tucked discreetly into boot heels and board games. The ingenuity worked — by the war’s end, MI9 was credited with helping more than 35,000 Allied soldiers escape and make their way home.

 

Some American colonists were banned from wearing fancy buttons.

Buttons can be an innocuous way to add panache to a piece of clothing … unless you were a colonist living in Massachusetts during the 17th century, that is. Choosing the wrong type of buttons for your garment during that time could have landed you in court and required paying a fine. Puritans in Massachusetts during the 1600s were ruled by a series of sumptuary laws, aka legal codes that restricted how people dressed and interacted with society based on moral or religious grounds. Massachusetts passed its first sumptuary law in 1634, prohibiting long hair and “new fashions” (aka overly swanky clothes), and five years later even banned short-sleeved garments. By 1652, the colony further restricted lower-wage earners from wearing “extravagant” accessories such as silks, fine laces, and gold or silver buttons, unless they had an estate valued at more than 200 British pounds — more than $38,000 in today’s dollars. However, the law did include some loopholes: Magistrates, public officers, and militia members (and their families) were free to choose buttons and other adornments without fear of penalty, as were the formerly wealthy and those who had advanced education.

 

Source: Royal Air Force WWII uniforms

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day -  FASHION

Did you know... If you know one thing about how women’s clothing tends to differ from menswear, it’s that garments made for women are often sorely lacking in pockets. On dresses? Usually nonexistent. Pants? So small as to be functionally useless. According to one study, the disparity is even more severe than you might expect: On average, the pockets in women’s jeans are 6.5% narrower and 48% shorter than those on men’s jeans. A number of companies now seek to correct this oversight, although many legacy brands have yet to get with the times. But why is this lack of pockets a problem in the first place? And while we’re at it, what’s up with that tiny pocket on everyone’s jeans, or the V-shaped stitching on many sweatshirts? Here are the answers to a few common questions about the clothes in your closet.

 

1. Why Don’t Women’s Clothes Have Pockets?

In the late 1600s, women didn’t have pockets in their clothing at all — they had belts with attached pockets that they usually wore under their skirts and accessed via small slits that were meant to be essentially invisible. These were spacious enough to carry everything from fruit to gloves, and often as stylish as the purses of today. Purses themselves became more fashionable (and functional) as dresses got smaller and less conducive to covert storage. It wasn’t until the late 18th century that pockets were regularly sewn directly into women’s clothing; for a time, most of them were even larger than men’s pockets. Then the same thing happened to pants and other garments that had happened to dresses: Smaller, more form-fitting variants became in vogue, making it more difficult to accommodate large pockets. The line of thought was that they ruined the female silhouette, which brings us to perhaps the main crux of this issue: gender inequality. Women have long entreated the fashion industry to elevate function to the same level as form. The Rationalist Dress Society was founded in 1891 to push back against corsets and other constricting garments in favor of clothing that was more comfortable and useful, but it wasn’t until World War II that this really happened en masse — and even that was only because women were performing jobs that had previously been the sole province of men. If you’ve seen A League of Their Own, you already know what happened once the war ended: Things went back to the way they were. Small steps have been made since then, of course, but by and large women are still forced to deal with tiny pockets.

 

2. Why Do Sweatshirts Have Those Vs on Them?

Ever notice how some of your sweatshirts have V-shaped stitching under the collar? Known by some as a V-insert and by others as a Dorito (yum!), this strange little detail seems like it doesn’t really do anything, so far as most of us can tell, and some might find it a strange design choice. However, the V-stitch can serve not one, but two purposes (and you thought it was pointless!). The first has to do with the structural integrity of the sweatshirt. As these garments are worn by placing one’s noggin directly through the collar, they’re prone to stretching. V-inserts originally included elastic ribbing that promoted stretch and prevented the material from losing shape. The second reason has to do with sweat, which has a way of permeating crewnecks and letting the world see how much that last workout raised your heart rate. Ribbed V-stitches absorb some of this perspiration, keeping us looking fresh even when we aren’t feeling that way. While it’s true that many V-inserts you’ll see today are purely decorative, as they aren’t ribbed, some uphold the traditions of yore and keep our sweaters looking like they did the day you bought them. Thanks, V-stitch.

 

3. What’s That Tiny Pocket in My Jeans?

Ever notice the tiny pocket-within-a-pocket in your jeans? As a kid you may have put small change in there, whereas most adults tend to forget it even exists. Despite all the names it’s had throughout time — frontier pocket, coin pocket, and ticket pocket being just a few — it originally had a specific purpose that didn’t pertain to any of those objects: It was a place to put your watch. Originally called waist overalls when Levi Strauss & Co. first began making them in 1879, the company’s jeans have always had this dedicated spot for pocket watches — especially those worn by miners, carpenters, and the like. They only had three other pockets (one on the back and two on the front) at the time, making the watch pocket especially prominent. As for why it’s stuck around, the answer seems to be a familiar one: People were used to it and no one felt inclined to phase it out.

 

4. What About That Loop on the Back of My Button-Down?

If you were to go pick a button-down shirt out of your closet and examine the back of it, you might find something surprising: a small loop of fabric an inch or two below the collar. The origin of locker loops, as they’re known, involves sailors, the Ivy League, and the mid-20th century. Having just heard their name, you can likely guess why they exist: Hanging shirts is a handy, efficient way to store them. Locker loops are believed to have first appeared on the uniforms of East Coast sailors, whose ships tended to have lockers rather than closets, and their function was twofold: They saved space and prevented wrinkles that might arise from clothes being folded. Locker loops were then incorporated into the button-down shirts made by Gant Shirtmakers, Yale's official clothing brand at the time, helping develop an aesthetic that would now be described as preppy.

 

 

Source: Fashion Oddities, Explained

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - WE GLOW?

Did you know... Bioluminescence, the strange biology that causes certain creatures to glow, is usually found at the darkest depths of the ocean where the sun’s light doesn’t reach. While these light-emitting animals seem otherworldly, the trait is actually pretty common — in fact, you’re probably glowing right now. 

 

According to researchers at Tohoku Institute of Technology in Japan, humans have their own bioluminescence, but at levels 1,000 times less than our eyes can detect. This subtle human light show, viewable thanks to ultra-sensitive cameras, is tied to our metabolism. Free radicals produced as part of our cell respiration interact with lipids and proteins in our bodies, and if they come in contact with a fluorescent chemical compound known as fluorophores, they can produce photons of light. This glow is mostly concentrated around our cheeks, forehead, and neck, and most common during the early afternoon hours, when our metabolism is at its busiest. At such a low level, human bioluminescence likely isn’t an intentional product of evolution as it is for deep-sea fish, fireflies, and many other animals. And most other bioluminescent creatures rely on a compound called luciferin (Latin for “light bringer”) — which humans lack — for their light show. Fortunately, we have unique ways of making light that are all our own.

 

The man who discovered the glowing element phosphorus was trying to make gold using human urine.

German merchant Hennig Brand was a dedicated believer in alchemy, a pseudoscience that thought certain elements could be transmuted into gold using what was called a philosopher’s stone. In 1669, Brand focused his attention on turning distilled crystals from human urine into the precious stone. After stockpiling 1,200 fermented gallons of the stuff, he began boiling it. The astonishing result was a white, waxy residue that glowed in the dark, which Brand called phosphorus (Greek for “light bringer,” the equivalent of “lucifer”), and which more fearful folk called the “Devil’s Element.” Brand’s moment of discovery was immortalized in Joseph Wright of Derby’s painting “The Alchymist.” The discovery sparked a new era of chemistry and was one of the first new elements discovered by modern science. Brand never found his philosopher’s stone, but phosphorus wasn’t a bad consolation prize. 

 

 

Source: Humans Actually Glow

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - WATER

Did you know... Is there anything more commonplace than water? Every day, we drink it and bathe in it, and in certain climates, walk right through it. But the reason water is everywhere is the same reason it’s interesting: It’s in almost everything, including us. Humans, and all other life on Earth, literally couldn’t exist without it. So let’s take a few moments to pause and appreciate water — water inside our bodies, water on the surface of the Earth, and even water in space. In what unexpected places can we find water? How does water behave in different places? Grab a glass of water and sip along to these seven interesting facts about H2O.

 

1. Our Bodies Are More Than Half Water

We don’t just need water to survive — water makes up a large part of our bodies. Babies are born at about 78% water, and adults are up to 60% water, though adult women are slightly less watery (55%) than adult men. Similarly, some body parts are more watery than others. Your bones are around 31% water, but your brain and heart are around 73%. The lungs are one of the wateriest parts of the body, at 83%. So what does this bodily water do? It helps regulate your temperature, produce hormones and neurotransmitters, digest your food, deliver oxygen throughout your body, protect your brain and spine, flush out waste, and more — you know, basic survival stuff.

 

2. The Earth Contains 332.5 Million Cubic Miles of Water

There’s a fixed amount of water on Earth, so it’s a good thing that we have a lot of it. All together, the Earth’s water adds up to 332.5 million cubic miles (or 326 million trillion gallons). This includes liquid water, ice, groundwater, water in the atmosphere, and the water that’s in our bodies. The vast majority of the Earth’s water — more than 96% — is in oceans, with ice caps, glaciers, and permanent snow at a very distant second (1.74%) and groundwater a close third (1.69%). You might be wondering: If the amount of water on Earth doesn’t change, why are the sea levels rising? There are a couple of reasons. For one, the oceans are warming, and water expands when it gets hotter. The oceans are also taking in some extra water: The Earth’s water supply includes glaciers, and those are warming up, too. When they melt, they flow into oceans.

 

3. Most of the World’s Fresh Water Is Ice

Oceans are salty, and since they account for so much of the world’s water, very, very little of our water supply is fresh — only about 3%. Out of that tiny fraction of fresh water, nearly 70% of it is frozen. Only about 1% of all water can meet the hydration, agricultural, and manufacturing needs of humans. Most drinking water comes from rivers, which make up only 0.006% of the world’s fresh water. You can convert salt water to fresh water using a process called desalination, but it’s both expensive and costly to the environment, and it’s not just salt that has to come out of ocean water to make it potable (it often contains other contaminants). Still, some desalination plants do exist, especially in the Middle East and Africa, and technology is improving.

 

4. Water Doesn’t Always Boil at the Same Temperature

You may have been taught that water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit, or a tidy 100 degrees Celsius, but that’s not strictly accurate. That boiling point applies to water at sea level, but not at higher altitudes. Water boils when the water vapor’s pressure exceeds the atmospheric pressure around it, and atmospheric pressure drops at higher elevations — so the higher the elevation, the lower the boiling point. In fact, water boils about 10 degrees cooler in Denver compared to Death Valley. At the peak of Mount Everest, it only takes 162 degrees Fahrenheit to boil water. Low atmospheric pressure is why some recipes have separate instructions for high elevations, too.

 

5. Food Counts Toward Your Water Intake

“Drink eight cups of water a day” is a common piece of hydration advice, but it isn’t appropriate for everybody. Some people need more or less depending on all kinds of factors, like their age, activity level, and size. But regardless of your hydration needs, it’s not just glasses of pure water that count toward your fluid intake. We get around 20% of the water we consume from moisture-rich food, like many fruits and vegetables. Snacks that can help you stay hydrated include cucumbers, iceberg or romaine lettuce, celery, radishes, bell peppers, and tomatoes — all more than 90% water.

 

6. 2 Billion People Have Limited Access to Water

Most places in the United States have ready access to clean drinking water, with the occasional notable exception. Worldwide, access to water for drinking or even hygiene can be a little more difficult. For more than 2 billion people, clean water is either unavailable or at least far away. Around 1.2 billion of that group has clean water within a 30-minute round trip. Another 282 million people have to travel more than 30 minutes to collect water. But around 490 million people are left with unprotected or potentially contaminated water — 368 million people get it from unprotected wells and springs, and 122 million from untreated surface water such as lakes and rivers. Access to clean water means more than hydration, of course. Less time spent ill or fetching water means more opportunities to do other things, like work and attend school.

 

7. In Space, Water Forms a Perfect Sphere

You may not think of water as sticky, at least not in the way that glue or chewing gum is sticky, but it does have a unique ability to stick to things. This has to do with the hydrogen bonds in water’s molecular structure — H2O means that each molecule of water has two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom bonded together. Hydrogen bonds form easily and are extremely attracted to one another. These easy bonds cause surface tension in water: The molecules are so attracted to each other that at the surface, with nothing above them to cling to, they form a stronger bond with their neighbors below the surface. The most common way you’ll see water’s stickiness in action is a drop of water hitting a larger amount of water, but it’s both much cooler and much more illustrative to see how water operates in zero gravity. In space, water pulls itself into a perfect sphere because it doesn’t have to work against gravity to bond with itself.

 

 

Source: Fluid Facts About Water

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - THE BIRDS

Did you know.... Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” was partly based on a true story.
With apologies to anyone who already found The Birds terrifying while under the impression that it was wholly fictional: Alfred Hitchcock’s avian thriller was partly based on a true story. Said event took place on California’s Monterey Bay in August 1961, when “thousands of crazed seabirds” called sooty shearwaters were seen regurgitating anchovies and flying into objects before dying on the streets. The Master of Suspense happened to live in the area, and called the Santa Cruz Sentinel — which had reported on the strange goings-on in its August 18 edition — for more information. Long after his movie was released two years later, the bizarre event remained shrouded in mystery: What would inspire birds to act this way, and were they as malicious as they seemed in Hitchcock’s movie?

 

 

The truth ended up being both straightforward and a little sad. The scientific consensus is now that the birds were poisoned by toxic algae found in a type of plankton called Pseudo-nitzschia. The birds weren’t attacking anyone; they were disoriented and barely in control of their actions. That explanation is absent from Hitchcock’s thriller, which also drew inspiration from Daphne du Maurier’s short story of the same name. (Hitchcock’s Rebecca was also a du Maurier adaptation.) A resounding success, The Birds is widely considered one of Hitchcock’s greatest works, alongside Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window, and North by Northwest.

 

One of Hitchcock’s earliest films is lost.

 

A full 86% of American-made films from the silent era (1912-1929) are considered lost, meaning they don’t survive as complete works in their original form. Among them is one by the Master of Suspense himself: 1926’s The Mountain Eagle, the second feature he ever directed. Though some production stills remain, all prints of the Kentucky-set melodrama have been lost. Hitchcock completists have spent the better part of a century bemoaning this, but he wasn’t especially bothered by it — he once referred to it as “a very bad movie.” Even so, the British Film Institute has long included The Mountain Eagle on its 10 Most Wanted list of lost films.

 

 

Source: Movie Based on True Story

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - CLARK GABLE

Did you know... “His ears are too big and he looks like an ape.” So said Twentieth Century-Fox founder Darryl F. Zanuck of the young actor who would become “the King of Hollywood” and appear in more than 60 films. Zanuck was initially no fan, but he eventually changed his mind — and that wasn’t the only time William Clark Gable confounded his critics. Screen idol Gary Cooper turned down a role that Gable accepted, stating, “[That film] is going to be the biggest flop in Hollywood history. I’m glad it’ll be Clark Gable who’s falling flat on his nose, not me.” That film, by the way, was Gone With the Wind, and Gable’s portrayal of Rhett Butler is still legendary. Here are six more interesting facts about one of Hollywood’s most iconic leading men.

 

1. Clark Gable’s Birth Certificate Said He Was a Girl

The birth certificate that showed Clark Gable as a girl must have come as a surprise to his parents, after their son arrived on February 1, 1901, in the small town of Cadiz, Ohio. It’s not clear what led to the error. His mother, Adeline Gable (née Hershelman), died while Clark was still an infant, and his father (also named William) soon remarried. Gable’s stepmother, Jennie Dunlap, encouraged his love of music and literature.

 

2. He Was a Man of Many Professions

Although he aspired to be an actor from the age of 17, Gable held a number of jobs before “making it” in Hollywood. In addition to helping his father farm, he worked in a tire factory, as a wildcatter — his father had also worked on oil rigs — and as a lumberjack and salesman before beginning to land film roles. The studios played up Gable’s rugged appeal, leading one magazine to describe him as a “lumberjack in evening clothes.”

 

3. He Loved His Leading Ladies

Literally. Gable’s first wife, theater manager Josephine Dillon, was 17 years his senior and his agent, helping him control his rather high-pitched voice and improving his acting. After he became leading man material, Gable’s affairs were legendary. He lured Joan Crawford away from her actor husband, Douglas Fairbanks Jr.; fathered a secret child with Loretta Young; and carried on with Lana Turner while married to “the love of his life,” Carole Lombard, who was killed in a plane crash in 1942 (the pair had married in 1939). Gable also had a son, John Clark Gable, with his fifth (and last) wife, Kay Williams.

 

4. Clark Gable Became a War Hero

Like many actors of his day, Gable did his part in World War II. Although above draft age, the actor enlisted as a private before attending Officers’ Candidate School, and then trained as an aerial gunner. Against the wishes of his studio (which wanted him in a noncombat role), Gable flew missions over Europe, producing footage for the film Combat America. He was relieved from active duty in 1944.  

 

5. Hitler Wanted to Kidnap Him

The German dictator was well known for his obsession with movies, and was a big fan of American and British films. During World War II, the Führer even concocted a plot to kidnap the Gone With the Wind star. A $5,000 reward was offered to anyone who could capture Gable and deliver him — unharmed — to Germany. Whether Hitler wanted him for propaganda or other purposes, it’s probably safe to say that the actor did not return the admiration.

 

6. He Probably Did Have Really Bad Breath

He was known for his famous smile, but periodontal disease robbed Gable of his own teeth as a young adult. While filming MGM’s Dancing Lady in 1933, he was hospitalized for pyorrhea, a gum infection that eventually required the removal of his teeth. It’s rumored that the shooting delay and subsequent cost overruns led to him being lent to Columbia Pictures for It Happened One Night, for which Gable won an Academy Award. The actor carried on with a full set of dentures… and halitosis. “Kissing Clark Gable in Gone With the Wind was not that exciting,” Vivian Leigh once said. “His dentures smelled something awful.” (Gable’s smoking probably didn’t help.)

 

 

Source: Interesting Facts About Clark Gable

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - VENOM

Did you know.... Scorpion venom is among the most expensive liquids on the market.
Most rational people are inclined to leave scorpions well enough alone, given those stinger-tipped tails that administer venom capable of paralyzing their prey (and worse). Yet there are certain intrepid souls willing to brave the dangers and coax these arachnids into unleashing their toxins, for the simple reason that scorpion venom can sell for as much as $39 million per gallon. 

 

Who actually dishes out the dough for this potent liquid? The medical industry, as venom from scorpions, spiders, vipers, and an array of other creatures has been found to provide compounds with surprising health benefits for humans. The venom of the deathstalker scorpion, for example, contains a peptide called chlorotoxin, which can pinpoint the location of aggressive brain tumors. Another species, the Diplocentrus melici, produces venom with 1,4-benzoquinone compounds that kill highly infectious bacteria, including the strains that cause tuberculosis.

 

 

Unsurprisingly, the monster dollar signs linked to this particular field have inspired a sub-industry of scorpion farmers and breeders, some of which are endangering scorpion populations. Insiders caution against getting involved for the money, though: For one thing, the venom has to be “milked” in absolutely sterile conditions; it’s a laborious process to do so, and the minute amounts that change hands between buyers and sellers aren’t going to pay off anyone’s mortgage. Additionally, many labs have turned to synthesized versions of the isolated compounds needed for their research. 

 

Antimatter is the most expensive substance on Earth.

 

If you think scorpion venom costs a pretty penny, then imagine the payment plan you’d need to meet the $2.7 quadrillion price tag for one gram of antimatter. As you may recall from high school physics, antimatter is a substance that has the opposite electric charge of the ordinary matter that fills up most of our universe; because naturally occurring antimatter detonates upon contact with regular matter, the only way to obtain it for a significant length of time is by way of high-speed collisions generated by immensely powerful and expensive particle accelerators (currently only available at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research). So what purpose does this elusive material serve? The observation of antimatter production has been used for medical radio imaging, and it’s been speculated that the energy created by matter-antimatter collisions could be harnessed for space travel. Otherwise, the practical applications are pretty minimal, as fascinating as it is for scientists to study. 

 

 

Source: Expensive Venom

 

 

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - EXERCISING

Did you know... Movement does our bodies good. But you know what’s easier than running a marathon? Learning a few quick facts about exercise, no pain or gain required. We aren’t doctors, so we can’t advise you on the best ways for you to exercise — but we can rattle off some trivia about it. Where did the 10,000 steps benchmark come from? What’s the deal with a “runner’s high”? These six interesting facts may not help you get fit, but at least you’ll learn something.

 

1. Exercise Can Get Some People High

You may have heard of a “runner’s high,” or a rush of euphoria after exercise that’s not actually limited to runners. It’s a real biological phenomenon, although it’s relatively rare. The commonly held belief is that it’s caused by hormones called endorphins, but they don’t cross the blood-brain barrier. The more likely culprit is the endocannabinoid system, the same system that cannabis interacts with to create its psychoactive effects. Exercise increases the amount of endocannabinoids in the bloodstream, which can cross the blood-brain barrier. For some people, this can cause a rush of euphoria, reduced anxiety, and improved mood. This isn’t especially common, though, and there’s much about the phenomenon scientists are still trying to figure out.

 

2. Exercise Can Help You Think More Clearly

Ever take a walk to clear your head? It might not just be a change of scenery that gives you a much-needed reset. A growing body of research shows that exercise, including walking, increases cognitive ability. Exercising increases blood flow, including to the brain. The increase in energy and oxygen could boost performance. But it gets more complex than that. When we exercise, the hippocampus, a part of our brain necessary for learning and memory, becomes more active — and when there’s increased energy in the hippocampus, we think more effectively. Regular exercise could even help reverse age-related brain damage.

 

3. Even Babies Need Exercise

Babyhood offers an unparalleled opportunity to mostly just eat and sleep, but in between, infants need at least some exercise. Giving infants several opportunities to move around each day could improve motor skills, bone health, and social development. Tummy time — supervised time with a baby lying face-down — strengthens babies’ neck, shoulder, and arm muscles, too. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that babies are active several times a day, including at least 30 minutes on the stomach. Babies still get plenty of dozing time, though; the WHO recommends 12 to 16 hours of sleep for infants 4 months through 11 months of age.

 

4. 10,000 Steps Was Invented for Pedometer Marketing

If you have a smartwatch or other fitness tracker, you might get a little celebratory notification when you hit 10,000 steps — or maybe you’ve just heard someone refer to “getting their 10,000 steps in.” That benchmark persists because it’s a nice, round number that's easier to use in marketing materials, not because there’s any scientific basis for it. Way back in the 1960s, a Japanese company invented a pedometer called Manpo-kei, or “10,000 steps meter,” building off momentum from the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Nearly 60 years later, it’s still the default setting in many step counters, including Fitbit devices. While getting 10,000 steps a day is a healthy habit, you don’t have to take that many to see benefits from walking, according to experts. One study found that just 4,400 steps a day can lower the risk of early death by 41%. Benefits increased with additional steps, but topped out at around 7,500 (at least in one study looking at mortality in older women). Of course, your mileage may vary depending on your goals, exercise pace, and general health, but there’s no reason to feel discouraged if you’re not getting a full 10,000 in every day.

 

5. “Gymnasium” Comes From the Greek for “School for Naked Exercise”

Today, “gymnasium” or “gym” can refer to a lot of things having to do with physical activity, like a school gymnasium, a health club, or a playground jungle gym. It comes from the ancient Greek word gymnasion, or “school for naked exercise.” Gymnos meant “naked,” and the people using the gym didn’t wear clothes — they just oiled or dusted themselves up. In ancient Greece, physical education was just as important as the arts, and these facilities eventually grew more elaborate, with surrounding changing rooms, baths, and practice rooms.

 

6. Gardening Counts as Exercise

Getting your hands dirty in your garden isn’t just a mood-boosting pastime — it’s great exercise, too. All that digging, hauling, and moving works all your major muscle groups, improves mobility, and boosts endurance. It burns some serious energy, too: Even light gardening or yard work can burn more than 300 calories per hour for a 154-pound person, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s comparable to going dancing or taking a hike. For heavy yard work, like chopping wood, the number jumps up to 440 calories per hour, although the exact number will vary depending on the nature of the work and each individual body. It’s easy to build a more strenuous workout from your existing gardening routine with simple adjustments like carrying heavier cans of water, switching to a push mower, or increasing walking around your yard. And there’s an additional healthy bonus to garden exercise: Fresh veggies!

 

 

Source: Interesting Facts About Exercising

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - HIDDEN MESSAGES

Did you know... There’s more than one way to go hunting for Easter eggs. When it comes to movies, you can find them all over the place — and not just on a specific day of the year. Filmmakers have been hiding subtle hints, messages, and references in their movies for almost as long as they’ve been making movies at all, often as a wink-wink allusion to other movies they themselves love. You usually have to look carefully to notice them, but once seen they can’t be unseen. Here are six of them.

 

1. 2023: A Barbie Odyssey

Some Easter eggs are subtle, while others are… less so. Greta Gerwig’s massively popular Barbie, which is all but certain to become the highest-grossing film of the year at the time of writing, opens with one of the not-so-subtle variety. As little girls play with old-fashioned dolls in a barren landscape, the narrator (Helen Mirren) intones about how things will soon change with the arrival of a new doll: Barbie (Margot Robbie), who appears out of the ether as Richard Strauss’ “Also sprach Zarathustra” plays. It’s a direct callback to the opening credits and first sequence of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, which likewise heralds the dawn of a historical event with massive implications for the future of humanity as that famous piece of music reaches its crescendo.

 

2. The "Pulp Fiction" Epitaph in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier"

Among the many quotable scenes in Pulp Fiction, one has proved especially popular over the years: Samuel L. Jackson’s recitation of Ezekiel 25:17. Jackson plays a hitman who quotes the Bible before doing his victims in, using the passage as a kind of calling card: The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who in the name of charity and good will shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee. The sequence is so iconic, in fact, that the makers of Captain America: The Winter Soldier decided to reference it when Nick Fury, also played by Jackson, fakes his death. As the ruse requires a tombstone, the epitaph reads, “Col. Nicholas J. Fury: ‘The path of the righteous man…’ —Ezekiel 25:17.” Given how fond Pulp Fiction writer-director Quentin Tarantino is of alluding to other movies, it only makes sense for other filmmakers to reference his work.

 

3. Into the Tarantino-Verse

Speaking of Tarantino, it isn’t just other filmmakers whose work he references — it’s also his own. Many of the Oscar-winning writer-director’s works take place in a shared universe, with brands like Big Kahuna Burger and Red Apple cigarettes popping up in several of his films. There’s also the fact that Michael Madsen’s character in Reservoir Dogs and John Travolta’s character in Pulp Fiction are brothers: Vic and Vincent Vega, respectively, about whom Tarantino was at one point developing a spinoff. Perhaps the deepest connection is between Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill, as the TV pilot that Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) starred in, Fox Force Five, in the former bears a striking resemblance to the female assassins in the latter. “There was a blond one, Somerset O’Neil, she was the leader,” Mia says of the show. “The Japanese fox was a kung fu master. The Black girl was a demolition expert. The French fox’s speciality was sex… according to the show, [my character] was the deadliest woman in the world with a knife.” These archetypes align strongly with the women of Kill Bill, a connection made even stronger by the fact that The Bride (also played by Thurman) titles her hit list “Death List Five.”

 

4. The Starbucks Cups in "Fight Club"

The first rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is: When breaking the first rule, be sure to point out that almost every shot in Fight Club features a Starbucks cup. David Fincher’s cult classic, an adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s counterculture novel of the same name, has become an anti-establishment rallying call since it first hit theaters in 1999. Few companies symbolize the kind of corporate ubiquity the film satirizes quite like the coffee behemoth, leading Fincher to feature their instantly recognizable cups throughout. Somewhat surprisingly, Starbucks approved of this: “They read the script, they knew what we were doing, and they were kind of ready to poke a little fun at themselves,” Fincher said.

 

5. He’s Off to See the Wizard

You might love The Wizard of Oz, but you probably don’t love it as much as David Lynch. The revered filmmaker behind favorites such as Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, and Mulholland Drive, who has earned four Oscar nominations throughout his storied career, has sprinkled references to the Judy Garland classic in several of his films. The most overt comes in Wild at Heart, when an effervescent figure bearing a strong resemblance to Glinda the Good Witch descends from the sky, but it’s far from the only Easter egg. Lynch also has a habit of naming characters Judy and featuring red shoes in his movies, even once admitting, “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about The Wizard of Oz.” The connection is so strong that it recently became the subject of a documentary, the appropriately named Lynch/Oz.

 

6. These Are the Droids You’re Looking For

Raiders of the Lost Ark was directed by Steven Spielberg, but it was dreamt up by George Lucas shortly after he finished American Graffiti in 1973. The blockbuster starring Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones was eventually produced by Lucasfilm, with the production company’s namesake receiving a story credit, so it makes sense that the final product would contain a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it allusion to his best-known work: Star Wars. When Indy finally finds the Ark of the Covenant near the end of the film, a set of hieroglyphics can be seen to his right that depict R2-D3 and C3PO. It isn’t the only Star Wars Easter egg in the series, as the opening scene of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom takes place in Club Obi Wan.

 

 

Source: Hidden Messages in Popular Movies

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - YOUR CAR

Did you know.... Cars really have one job: Getting you from point A to point B. But there are plenty of conveniences that can make your journey a little easier — some obvious, some a little more subtle. Nothing’s a replacement for driving safely and watching the road, of course, but some features are designed to give you a little backup. Others are just convenient, like special hidey-holes. Not sure what that dash light or that button on your key fob does? These seven stealthy features could make you feel like you have a brand-new car.

 

1. Gas Tank Side Indicator

It can be hard to remember what side your gas cap is on, especially in a car you’re not used to driving. Fortunately, there’s usually a pretty easy way to tell: In many cars, there’s a little arrow next to the gas symbol on your fuel gauge that points to the side of the car that should be facing the pump. This tiny, easy-to-miss feature can save you a whole lot of awkwardness pulling a rental car into the gas station. Even if you’re pretty sure your car doesn’t have it, double-check — it’s sneaky!

 

2. Tire Pressure Monitor

If you’re used to driving a car from before 2008, there’s a new standard dash light that may look unfamiliar: a yellow exclamation point in the middle of what looks like two parentheses with a dotted line below. It’s supposed to look like a cross section of a tire, and that light tells you that your tire pressure is low. Some cars have more fully featured tire pressure monitors that show all four wheels. The dash light is designed to illuminate when at least one of your tires is 25% below the recommended tire pressure. If you’re seeing it, either check your tire pressure or head to a tire store — many of them will check for free. (But remember that you should be checking your tire pressure monthly anyway; tire pressure can become dangerously low before this light comes on.) The indicators became mandatory in American vehicles after the United States Congress passed the TREAD act; the bill was from 2000, but the requirement didn’t kick in until 2008. Some car manufacturers got a head start and started including them in 2006 or 2007 models, too.

 

3. Stability Control

Do you sometimes see a dash light that looks like a car with wiggly lines underneath it? That means you have an electronic stability control (ESC) system, sometimes called vehicle stability control, electronic stability program, or dynamic control system. It closely monitors your steering to determine when your car might be out of control, and softly adjusts the brakes on each wheel to compensate for over- or understeering and to prevent rollovers. If you see the dash light flickering, chances are the system has been activated and is trying to keep your car on track, or driving conditions are just slippery. If it’s steady, it could mean the system is malfunctioning. Some cars have a button that can turn it off.

 

4. Backup Mechanical Keys

If you drive a newer car, chances are you’re not turning a key in the ignition. Key fobs have become the standard way to unlock vehicles, which is convenient until your key battery dies or you have some other kind of tech malfunction. The good news is that you might have a lower-tech backup plan built right in. Many key fobs have little mechanical keys hidden inside that you can usually release by pressing or sliding a small button, although you may have to check the owner’s manual to figure it out. Some key slots are better hidden than others; yours could be right next to the unlock button on the door, underneath the door handle, or under some sort of cap.

 

5. Secret Storage Compartments

Whether you have something to hide or you’re just trying to squeeze a little extra storage out of your vehicle, it’s worth looking for secret pockets of space. Some Toyota Prius models have storage underneath the floor of the trunk. The Buick Enclave has both subfloor storage and a false floor under the center console. The Infiniti G35 had a flap in the rear armrest with a small compartment behind it. Some Volkswagen models even have a little drawer under the driver’s seat that’s perfect for documents.

 

6. Blind Spot Monitoring

The rear sides of your car are called “blind spots” for a reason — they’re really hard to see, and even if you dutifully check them before changing lanes, accidents can happen. Some newer cars (and some not-so-new luxury vehicles) come with blind spot monitors (BSMs) that let you know when a car’s occupying this sneaky spot next to you. Some of these monitors are more obvious than others. It could be lights on your side mirrors, dashboard, or the pillar between your driver’s side window and your windshield. A few cars even have audible warnings if your turn signal is on but the lane next to you is occupied. Even lower-end cars have BSMs now, but some higher-end indicators go above and beyond and steer your car away. A couple of trucks even have BSMs that extend to the trailers they’re towing. Just make sure to keep using your eyes — the monitors aren’t foolproof, and often miss vulnerable road users like pedestrians and cyclists.

 

7. Shortcut for Rolling Down Your Windows

If you look at your key fob, you’re probably not going to see a button that rolls down your windows, but that doesn't mean it can’t do it. Check your manual, because sometimes a specific key sequence can lower all your windows from outside the vehicle so you can cool it down on a hot day. It’s not just newer models, either — cars more than a decade old have this function, too. Even if you’re not planning on using this feature, you should at least figure out how not to do it by accident.

 

Source: Features You Didn’t Know Your Car Had

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - TOASTING

Did you know.... Today, cultures around the world have specific rules and phrases for the common toast. In South Korea, one accepts a drink with two hands, and in Italy, locking eyes is absolutely essential. But how exactly does the word “toast,” as in dry bread, figure into all of this? Well, it turns out dunking literal pieces of toast into a drink during celebrations in someone’s honor was commonplace centuries ago. Historians believe the practice came from the idea that the bread soaked up unwanted bitter or acidic sediments found in wine, thus making the drink more enjoyable. By the 18th century, the term “toast” somehow became more entwined with the person receiving the honor than the bread itself, which is also where the phrase “toast of the town” originates. 

 

 

Although dipping crusty bread into your beverage isn’t a common custom today, you don’t have to look hard to find remnants of the practice in literature. In William Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, the hard-drinking Falstaff quips, “Go, fetch me a quart of sack [wine]; put a toast in ’t,” a reference to the bread-dipping ritual. Lodowick Lloyd’s The Pilgrimage of Princes, written in 1573, also contains the passage “Alphonsus … tooke a toaste out of his cuppe, and cast it to the Dogge,” confirming that the alcohol-infused bread didn’t always go to waste after being dunked. Because general toasting in 16th- and 17th-century Europe was often an excuse to drink heavily, many temperance movements, including one in Puritan Massachusetts, banned the practice in the name of health. Of course, these bans didn’t stick, and today toasts — sans actual bread — are central to some of the biggest celebrations in our lives.

 

Libation is an ancient drink-pouring ritual found in many cultures.

Today the word “libation” is mostly used as a stand-in for “alcoholic beverage,” but such a definition omits the complex history of the religious and secular ritual known as libation — the act of pouring out a drink to honor the deceased or a deity. Libation is one of the most widespread yet least understood rituals in human history. The act of pouring out liquid (whether on the ground or on an elaborate altar) can be found in cultures throughout the world dating back to the Bronze Age. The Papyrus of Ani, dated 1250 BCE, reads, “Pour libation for your father and mother who rest in the valley of the dead,” and religions with seemingly little connection, such as Greek paganism, Judaism, Christianity, and traditional African religions, all feature some sort of libation ceremony. Even tribes in pre-Columbian South America, separated by an entire ocean from these other examples, performed similar liquid sacrifices. Today, forms of libation rituals still occur in Kwanzaa celebrations, weddings, the hit comedy show Key & Peele, and in bars around the world, where patrons (usually metaphorically) “pour one out” for the dearly departed.

 

 

Source: The concept of toasting

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - AUTUMN TRADITIONS

Did you know.... There’s more to autumn than pumpkin spice — it’s also filled with pumpkin pie, pumpkin patches, and even a semi-obscure sport known as punkin chunkin (not to mention other non-squash-related customs). If you’ve ever wondered why you have the sudden urge to wander through a corn maze in the fall, or what it is about October that’s so conducive to bobbing for apples, read on — here are the surprising origins of eight autumn traditions.

 

1. Corn Mazes

In 1993, Joanne Marx and Don Frantz created the “Amazing Maize Maze,” a 1.92-mile labyrinth on three acres of land at Annville, Pennsylvania's Lebanon Valley College. Though they and other maize maze makers have a long tradition of hedge mazes to inspire them, the newer form distinguished itself in notable ways — namely, that corn mazes are usually cut in fun shapes or interesting images when seen from above, rather than basic geometric patterns. That, and they often have stacks of hay and piles of pumpkins around for pictures.

 

2. Leaf Peeping

This one goes back more than 1,200 years, which is another way of saying it didn’t originate in America. Rather, it appears we have Japan to thank for the custom. Their version of it, which carries the considerably more evocative name of momijigari (“autumn leaf hunting”), dates back to at least the Heian Era of 794-1185. A renaissance of sorts, that epoch brought about both visual art that celebrated the vibrant colors of fall and the endlessly influential Tale of Genji, which explicitly mentions “an imperial celebration of autumn foliage.” As for how it became an American tradition, a professor of Asian art history has a theory: Japan and New England were connected via shipping routes, resulting in New Englanders being exposed to Japanese lacquerware featuring a maple-leaf motif that made them more inclined to seek out gorgeous leaves without traveling halfway across the world.

 

3. Oktoberfest

Beginning in the third weekend of September and lasting until the first Sunday in October, Oktoberfest has long served as an excuse for revelers to do as the Germans do and wet their whistle at the local beer hall (lederhosen optional). The first Oktoberfest was a wedding reception: On October 12, 1810, the citizens of Munich gathered at the city’s gates to celebrate the marriage of Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. The event (known locally as d’Wiesn) was so popular that it took place again the following year — and the year after that, and so on and so forth until it became the world-famous festival of Bavarian culture that it is today.

 

4. Election Day

Though rarely thought of in the same way as apple cider and leaf-peeping, American elections take place in autumn for a reason. Out of consideration for farming schedules, Congress chose November (when the harvest was finished but it hadn’t usually begun to snow yet) in its 1845 decree establishing the date. As for Tuesday? Weekends were a no-go due to church, and Wednesdays were off the table because farmers usually went to the market to sell their goods. Thus, Tuesday emerged as a sort of compromise, and the tradition stuck.

 

5. Bobbing for Apples

It may not be as popular now as it was a century ago, but bobbing for apples persists as an autumnal activity, especially on Halloween. Long before kiddos dressed up on October 31, however, British singles played the game as a sort of courting ritual. Each apple represented a different eligible bachelor and, if the young woman bobbing for said apple bit into it on her first try, the two would live happily ever after; succeeding on the second attempt meant that the two would be together for a time but the romance would fade; and not getting it right until the third try foretold doom.

 

6. Punkin Chunkin

What exactly is Punkin Chunkin? For the past two decades, “chunkers” have created slingshots, trebuchets, and even pneumatic cannons to hurl pumpkins as far as possible. The World Championship Punkin Chunkin Contest has taken place in Bridgeville, Delaware, every November since 1986, with First State native Bill Thompson claiming credit for inventing the sport.

 

7. Tailgating

Tailgating is now a year-round activity at sporting events and concerts, but it's always been especially popular at football games. One theory posits that it dates all the way back to the first college football game, a contest between Rutgers and Princeton that took place in 1869, when some in attendance sat at their horses' “tail end” while grilling sausages before the game began. Another theory centers around the Green Bay Packers, whose fans are said to have coined the term “tailgating” when the cheeseheads first began supporting the team in 1919. Ever industrious, they positioned their trucks around the field and sat in the beds for comfortable viewing while enjoying their food and drinks.

 

8. Candy Corn

It may be the year’s most polarizing candy, but its history is long and sweet. Candy corn dates back to the 1880s, when a confectioner at the Wunderle Candy Company began producing it under the even-less-appetizing name of Chicken Feed. The corn-shaped sugar molds were then manufactured by the Goelitz Confectionery Company, who made the product famous (you may now know Goelitz as Jelly Belly). More than 35 million pounds (or nine billion individual pieces) of candy corn are produced every year, so someone must like the stuff.

 

 

Source: The Intriguing Origins of Autumn Traditions

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - PHARAOHS

Did you know... “Pharaoh.” The word conjures up images of ancient wealth, divine power, and Yul Brynner in The Ten Commandments. The royal title was applied to Egyptian kings beginning with the New Kingdom (circa 1539 to 1070 BCE), a period of revitalization following the expulsion of rulers who had come from modern-day Syria and Israel. The New Kingdom saw an explosion of Egyptian culture, wealth, and influence, as pharaohs including Thutmose III, Hatshepsut, Akhenaten, Tutankhamun, and Ramses II expanded the kingdom’s borders and built monumental temples and tombs. Read on for more insight into the pharaohs’ place in history.

 

1. Pharaohs Were the Political and Spiritual Leaders of Egypt

The most important duty of pharaohs was preserving the cosmic order, called maat, which they did by enacting laws, defending the kingdom against its enemies, managing all the land (which belonged to the pharaoh), and even collecting taxes. Both pharaohs and ordinary Egyptians were expected to live according to the moral principles of maat, but the pharaoh was additionally tasked with maintaining peace between the gods and the people and keeping chaos at bay. As the intermediaries between the gods and humans, pharaohs led religious festivals, built temples honoring deities, and carried out divine imperatives.

 

2. Pharaohs Identified With the Gods Horus and Osiris

The story of Osiris, the Egyptian god of the underworld, fertility, and rebirth, forms the foundation of ancient Egyptian kingship. In the myth, Osiris was the first king of Egypt and ruled with Isis, his queen. Benevolent Osiris taught the people to prosper, but he had an evil brother, Seth — embodying the opposite of maat — who killed and dismembered Osiris so he could take the throne. Isis was able to put his parts mostly back together, and Osiris became the god of the underworld, while his son Horus got revenge on Seth and became pharaoh. (According to one story, Horus killed Seth with a spear after the latter had transformed himself into a hippo.) The legend served as a model for the actual pharaohs, who were identified with Horus during their lifetime and then with Osiris after death, and whose rule was characterized as a continuation of the existential battles between Horus and Seth.

 

3. Pharaohs Were Believed to Control the Nile

The Nile was central to ancient Egypt. It provided food and water, fertile lands for agriculture, and a blue highway for travel and shipping — and without the river, it’s unlikely that the desert dynasties would have existed. Its annual flooding, which replenished the lands for crops and livestock, was personified in a god named Hapi who had green or blue skin (representing water) and a pot belly (signifying fertility and abundance). As the religious leaders of the Egyptian people, pharaohs conversed with Hapi to ensure the flooding occurred on time. But if the floods were too strong or destroyed homes and farms, the pharaohs were blamed for not keeping the cosmic order up to snuff, which led to political instability.

 

4. Women Were Influential Pharaohs

Generally, pharaohs were men whose power passed to their sons, but some female pharaohs ruled Egypt in their own right. Hatshepsut, the queen of Pharaoh Thutmose II, rose to power after his death and reigned as pharaoh from 1472 to 1458 BCE. She led military campaigns and built massive temples, and at the height of her influence was depicted in statuary as a muscular, bare-chested monarch wearing a false beard like male pharaohs sported. Scholars debate whether Nefertiti ruled explicitly as pharaoh in the 1330s BCE, but it’s certain that she was the queen of Pharaoh Akhenaten and likely the stepmother of another pharaoh, Tutankhamun. She is shown in artifacts in ways normally reserved for pharaohs — and then there’s that undeniably regal bust of Nefertiti, unearthed in 1912, which fueled speculation about her true role. She may have assumed power after Akhenaten’s death while Tut was still young, but the debate continues. Cleopatra VII, who reigned from 51 to 30 BCE, is probably the most famous female pharaoh of all, thanks to the 1963 Hollywood epic starring Elizabeth Taylor. Though that movie focuses on her love affairs, Cleopatra was much more than a seductress; she was a popular ruler who made reforms of the monetary system, helped increase Egypt’s wealth through trade with Eastern nations, and allied with Roman factions in an attempt to keep Egypt independent.

 

5. Pharaohs Were Buried in Extravagant Tombs

Pharaohs were laid to rest in huge, richly ornamented tombs to ease their transition to the realm of Osiris. In the Fourth Dynasty (2575 to 2465 BCE) of the Old Kingdom, the three Pyramids of Giza were commissioned for the pharaohs Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure. Each pyramid there is essentially solid stone with a small burial chamber at ground level or underneath; unfortunately, thieves plundered the tombs centuries ago, and the items buried with the pharaohs to aid them in the afterlife are lost. A thousand years later, in the New Kingdom, pharaohs were buried in smaller, multi-chambered tombs in the Valley of the Kings, about 330 miles south of Giza. About 64 tombs are scattered across the valley, including those of Thutmose I and his daughter Hatshepsut, Ramses II (aka the Great), and Tutankhamun. All but Tut’s were looted long ago, which is what made the 1922 discovery of his nearly intact tomb, with its hoard of gold objects and furniture, a world-shaking event.

 

 

6. Pharaohs Issued Curses — But Not the One You May Be Thinking Of

According to legend, King Tut supposedly cursed the British archaeologists who disturbed his eternal rest. Roughly nine people involved in the tomb’s excavation died within a few years of their discovery, which the media whipped into stories about a “curse of the pharaohs.” No actual curses were found inside Tut’s tomb, however, and the Egyptologist David P. Silverman argues that pharaohs rarely issued them, since they already enjoyed protections from the gods. The few known royal curses serve as warnings against enemies of Egypt or members of court, and they could be pretty graphic. “As for [anyone] who will come after me and who will find the foundation of the funerary tomb in destruction,” a curse in a temple devoted to Pharaoh Amenhotep warns, “His uraeus [a serpent-shaped headdress ornament] will vomit flame upon the top of their heads, demolishing their flesh and devouring their bones.”

 

 

Source: Important Facts About Pharaohs

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - BEHIND THE COLORS

Did you know.... Some colors tend to come and go as fashion dictates, but a few have been chosen by humans for very specific, utilitarian purposes. Whether it’s about leveraging the advantages or limitations of human sight, or just evoking a particular emotional response, civil engineers and designers have used color to shape our world in ways you may not expect. Here are the stories behind the colors of five everyday objects — and why these hues are perfect for their assigned tasks.

 

1. School Buses

Glimpse a fleet of buses parked at any U.S. public school, and you’ll notice they’re all the same deep yellow — and it’s been that way for nearly a century. In an effort to standardize school bus construction around the country, thus ideally making them both safer and cheaper to mass-produce, school transportation officials met at Columbia University in 1939 to discuss the universal color for these vehicles. Fifty shades were hung up on the walls, ranging from lemon to deep orange. The color that was finally selected — known today as National School Bus Glossy Yellow, or Color 13432 — was chosen because of its ability to stand out from the background. Education officials didn’t know it at the time, but Color 13432 is wired to capture our attention, as the shade stimulates two of the three types of cones in the human eye — sending double the transmission to the brain compared to many other colors. That’s one reason a big yellow school bus is just so hard to miss.

 

2. Green Screens

In the age of computer-generated imagery, the green screen is nearly as ubiquitous as the film camera. The technique using green screens, called chroma keying, has been around since the early days of film, but why is the screen green, exactly? Turns out, this verdant hue has more to do with human skin tones than the color itself. Most human skin is essentially some shade of orange, and because green (and in some cases blue) is far away from this hue, the color can be used by a “chroma keyer” to replace the background image without affecting the human in the middle. This also explains why meteorologists can’t wear green on St. Patrick’s Day, since they would “disappear” on newscasts; the chroma keyer would include their green-hued clothes along with the green screen.

 

3. Traffic Lights

Traffic lights today help motorists navigate busy intersections, but this helpful technology is actually a direct descendant of railroad traffic lights. Before the dawn of the automobile, railroads used the color red to mean “stop” because red has the longest wavelength in the visible spectrum — meaning it could be seen farther than any other color. This was (and is) especially important on the rails, because trains can take at least a mile to come to a stop. Initially, green meant “caution” and white meant “all clear,” but when some conductors confused starlight as an all-clear signal, green eventually replaced white. In the very early years of the automobile era, traffic lights were only two colors — green and red. The first yellow light wasn’t introduced until 1920, and the three-way traffic light we know today wasn’t patented until 1923. Yellow became known as “caution” due to the fact that it’s the second-easiest color to spot, after red. Originally, yellow was also used for stop signs as it was easier to see the color at night, but the invention of reflective materials and non-fading dyes soon saw the spread of red stop signs throughout the country.

 

4. Surgical Scrubs

Walk into any hospital (or watch any medical drama), and surgeons are almost always wearing bluish-green scrubs. Because blue and green are far removed on the color spectrum compared to red, these cooler colors help refresh a surgeon’s eyes when operating on a patient (whose insides are essentially various shades of red). Because surgeons are visually focused on red-hued environments, glancing at a white background (the chosen hospital color of times past) can leave a ghostly green after-image, much like what your eyes experience after a camera flash. However, if the surrounding environment is green, then those after-images simply blend into the background.

 

5. Airplanes

Although today’s Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s can feature colorful airline logos, the majority of the plane is painted white — and that’s for a good reason. Because the color white contains all colors in the visual spectrum, it’s also the most reflective, which helps keep airliners cool, especially when taxiing on runways. Airplanes are usually cooled by air sucked into engines during flight, or by external units hooked up to planes at the gate. However, if a plane experiences a long delay on the tarmac and engines are idle, things can get toasty really quick. So airlines will use any trick in the book, including lowering sun shades, opening air vents, and yes, painting planes white, to help keep passengers in the cabin as comfortable as possible.

 

Source: The Stories Behind the Colors of Everyday Objects

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - OYSTERS

Did you know.... Oysters contain multitudes: They’re protein-rich treats, highly efficient water filters, reef builders, and pretty rock-makers. They exist in coastal regions all over the world, from the Aleutian Islands of Alaska to the warm waters around New Zealand, and we’ve been eating them for thousands of years. Yet as Jonathan Swift wrote in his book Polite Company, “He was a bold man that first ate an oyster.” After all, the shellfish can be a little treacherous to open, and what’s inside isn’t everybody’s cup of tea. But how much do you really know about oysters? Do they all make pearls? Have they always been a delicacy? What can you do with the shells? Pry open these six interesting facts about some of the world’s most divisive shellfish.

 

1. Not All Pearls Are Shiny

Pearls, the semiprecious gems popular for jewelry and other adornment, are created when some kind of unwelcome object, such as a grain of sand, enters an oyster’s shell. The oyster shields itself by wrapping the irritating object in a substance called nacre, a tough material that develops inside the shells of oysters from the Aviculidae family, also known as pearl oysters. The nacre builds up into a pearl, which can be of several different colors. Oysters cultivated for food are from the Ostreidae family, or true oysters. They create pearls when things sneak into their shells, too, but their pearls don’t have the same lustrous coating that those of pearl oysters do — so they end up just small and bland.

 

2. Oysters Can Change Sex

Many of the oysters commonly used for food, including European flat oysters, Pacific oysters, and Atlantic oysters, change sex during their lifetimes — sometimes a few times. European flat oysters alternate based on seasons and water temperature. In other species, most oysters are born male and eventually the population evens out. Most older oysters are female, but some change back at some point. The exact mechanism that makes this happen is still something of a mystery.

 

3. One Oyster Can Filter Up to 50 Gallons of Water a Day

Oysters are a critical part of marine ecosystems because they eat by filtering water, removing sediment and nitrogen in the process. One adult oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water a day, although the exact rate depends on water conditions. A typical ocean environment has stressors, like high or low temperatures, predators, and especially dirty water, that can slow down their feeding process. In more typical conditions, an oyster filters 3 to 12.5 gallons of water a day, which is still extraordinarily helpful. All this water filtration does have a couple of drawbacks: Too many oysters can reduce the nutrients in the water for other animals, and because they take in a lot of junk, they can pass toxins onto us when we eat them.

 

4. Oyster Shells Are Recyclable

Don’t throw away your oyster shells when you’re done shucking — they’re the best material for rebuilding oyster beds, which sometimes create giant reefs that can be home to all kinds of marine life. When oysters reproduce, they release larvae into the ocean, which float around looking for somewhere to attach themselves. With the loss of reef habitats, those spots can be harder to find. Those larvae love to cling to old oyster shells, which makes discarded shells one of the best tools for sustainable oyster farming and rebuilding marine ecosystems — something they certainly can’t do in a landfill. Many municipalities and conservation groups in oyster-rich areas offer some kind of recycling program.

 

5. Humans Have Been Cultivating Oysters for Thousands of Years

Oyster farms, particularly sustainable oyster farms, are nothing new. A 2022 archaeological study in the United States and Australia found that Indigenous groups cultivated oyster reefs as far back as 6,000 years ago, and managed to maintain healthy oyster populations for as long as 5,000 years, even with intense harvesting. The oldest oyster middens — hills of oyster shells — were in California and Massachusetts. One midden in Florida contained more than 18 billion oyster shells. Overharvesting has damaged modern-day oyster populations; the study also found that 85% of oyster habitats from the 19th century were gone by the 21st century.

 

6. Oysters Were Much More Popular in 19th-Century America

Oysters certainly have their fans in the 21st century, but not like they did in the 19th century. Back then, they were a staple protein because they were both abundant and extremely cheap. They were equally treasured in both fine dining establishments and on city streets. Oyster houses were incredibly common, and inspired the kind of camaraderie and revelry that bars do today — some of them sold beer with oysters as a free snack. Their popularity wasn’t limited to coastlines; middle America couldn’t get enough of them, either. Oysters were shipped via rail even before beef was. Households would buy them by the barrel and put them in soups, sauces, and even stuffing. So what happened to the oyster craze of yesteryear? Several things. With overharvesting, the supply wasn’t as great as it once was. Growing cities started dumping sewage into the water, and oyster beds became disease vectors. New food safety regulations — and an end to child labor — meant businessmen couldn’t get away with shady practices that made oysters cheap. The final nail in the oyster coffin was Prohibition. Oyster bars had already mostly disappeared by then, but they lost their drinking clientele to speakeasies, and their nondrinking regulars thought they were still too much like saloons.

 

 

Source: Interesting Facts About Oysters

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - VENTS IN THE SEAFLOOR?

Did you know... It’s generally understood that ocean water gets colder the farther one gets from the warming rays of the sun, but there’s an exception. Hydrothermal vents can pump out fluids at temperatures above 700 degrees Fahrenheit — hot enough to melt lead.

 

 

Hydrothermal vents are created by fissures in the seafloor in regions of significant tectonic plate activity. As seawater trickles through the crust, it’s infused with dissolved gases and minerals en route to mixing with magma from the underlying mantle. The superheated liquid then reverses course and shoots back through the seabed, where chemical reactions produce the precipitation of minerals that are generally classified into two categories. Black smokers are vents that release dark deposits of iron sulfide, while white smokers unleash the lighter-colored accumulations of barium, calcium, and silicon. 

 

 

Beyond generating impressive sediment chimneys, the vents have been found to nurture a bustling ecosystem of marine life, from microorganisms that derive fuel from chemical energy to swarms of tubeworms, fish, shrimp, clams, and crabs that thrive despite the absence of sunlight. Unfortunately, the discovery of gold, silver, and copper among the mineral deposits has ignited commercial interests in mining that could cause environmental damage. Yet scientists are hopeful that the abundance of life-forms, and the potential they offer for more discoveries, will lead to stricter protections for these underwater hot zones.

 

 

Some scientists believe that life on Earth began at hydrothermal vents.

We know that hundreds of distinct creatures make their homes near and even below seafloor vents, but is this also where life as we know it on the planet originated? One popular theory holds that around 3.7 billion years ago, positively charged protons from acidic seawater mixed with negatively charged hydroxide ions from hydrothermal fluids within the vents to spark the formation of cellular membranes and RNA. These primitive cells then developed a “pump” to self-power reactions, enabling them to leave the vents and spread more complex life-forms through the ocean and beyond. Those who subscribe to this belief point to experiments that have successfully created protocells from simple molecules in hot, alkaline seawater, as well as the discovery of the world’s oldest fossils in rocks that were likely part of an ancient hydrothermal vent. The answers to where and how life began are far from settled, but this is one theory that at least seems to hold plenty of water.

 

 

Source: There are vents on the seafloor hot enough to melt lead.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - NOVEL INSPIRATION

Did you know... If you’ve ever immersed yourself in an entirely different world while reading a book, you’re not alone. Stories that take place in intriguing locations are often the ones readers enjoy the most — in such books, the setting becomes almost as important as the characters themselves. Writers often draw inspiration for these stories from their real-life surroundings. Here are six fascinating locations that inspired some of the world’s best-known novels.

 

1. Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England: "Harry Potter" and "The Lord of the Rings"

Two of the world’s most famous book series share a connection: England’s fantastical Forest of Dean. Here, you’ll encounter winding paths, deep green foliage, looming moss-covered branches, and an air of hidden secrets within the trees. J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter) grew up in Gloucestershire and spent time in the forest, which serves as the inspiration for the series’ Forbidden Forest. There are also traces of her childhood cottage home here (which the author secretly purchased in 2011), such as in the tiny closet under the stairs that served as Harry’s bedroom. J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit) also spent time in the Forest of Dean as a child. He was inspired by the forest’s labyrinth of caves and geological formations called scowles, created by erosion in the limestone soil under the woods. Middle Earth, the elaborate setting for his books, contains several mystical forests such as Mirkwood, Lothlórien, Fangorn, and the Old Forest — all influenced by the Forest of Dean’s unusual features. A popular area of the forest to visit is Puzzlewood, where you’ll find mazes, a café, a playground, farm animals, picnic tables, and a gift shop. Puzzlewood’s other claim to fame is as a film set — Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Secret Garden, Dr. Who, Merlin, and Jack the Giant Slayer are just a few of the television shows and movies that have been shot here.

 

2. The Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colorado: "The Shining"

If you’ve read Stephen King’s horror thriller (or seen the movie adaptation starring Jack Nicholson), you’ll undoubtedly remember the hotel where most of The Shining takes place. Its long spooky hallways, eerily empty bar, and isolated location set the scene for the chilling tale. Estes Park lies on the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park, and due to the snowy, mountainous location, much of the park and town shut down for the winter. In 1974, King was living in nearby Boulder and working on a novel titled Darkshine, but reportedly wasn’t happy with its setting. For a change of scenery and inspiration, he and his wife headed to Estes Park and spent one night in the Stanley Hotel, a 142-room Colonial Revival-style resort built in 1909. No other guests were in the hotel because the hotel was closing for the winter the following day. The couple dined alone in the large dining room with chairs on all the other tables as pre-recorded orchestral music played in the background. When his wife retired to Room 217, King wandered the empty corridors and visited the hotel bar, where the bartender served him drinks. King reported having a disturbing dream that night about a firehose chasing his terrified young son down the hotel corridors. The nightmare, combined with the hotel’s eerie desolation, was the inspiration King was looking for, and Darkshine became The Shining, which takes place at the fictitious Overlook Hotel. The Stanley Hotel, which overlooks the majestic Rocky Mountains and Estes Lake, has since been restored to some of its former grandeur. Room 217 is the hotel’s most requested room, and the hotel added a hedge maze to mimic the one in the movie. The hotel has a reputation for being haunted, and its rumored paranormal activities are often featured on TV shows and online.

 

3. Ngong Hills, Kenya: "Out of Africa"

Danish author Karen Blixen wrote Out of Africa under the pseudonym Isak Dinesen, chronicling her time living on a coffee plantation from 1913 to 1931 at the base of Ngong Hills in Kenya (when it was known as British East Africa). Blixen arrived in Africa in 1913 to marry her second cousin, Swedish Baron Bror von Blixen-Finecke. But the marriage eventually fell apart, and Blixen, who had fallen in love with Africa and its people, took over his plantation. During this time, an English big-game hunter named Denys Finch Hatton became Blixen’s long-term romantic companion. The plantation eventually failed due to falling coffee prices, droughts, and an unsuitable elevation, and Blixen was forced to sell the land and return to Europe. But she never stopped longing for Africa and wrote her memoir detailing the breathtaking wildlife and vast savannahs around Ngong Hills. In 1985, Meryl Streep and Robert Redford starred in a film adaptation of Out of Africa, directed by Sydney Pollack. The film was nominated for 11 Oscars and won seven, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Cinematography. (Streep received a Best Actress nomination.) Several scenes featured Streep and Redford against the stunning backdrop of the Kenyan landscape. Blixen’s plantation home, near Nairobi, has been converted to the Karen Blixen Museum. The fertile green Ngong Hills that Blixen wrote so favorably about lie just a few miles northwest of the museum and are a popular hiking spot.

 

4. Great Neck, New York: "The Great Gatsby"

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, primarily takes place during the Roaring Twenties in West Egg and East Egg, fictitious towns on Long Island’s north shore. Both communities housed wealthy families who lived in lavish mansions, but with one significant difference — “old money” families who had been wealthy for generations lived in East Egg. Across a small bay, West Egg’s inhabitants were considered “new money.” Jay Gatsby, the main character, lived in West Egg and often threw elaborate parties. He pined for his love Daisy, who lived across the bay and married another man. The two communities are based on real-life Sands Point (East Egg) and Great Neck (West Egg), separated by tiny Manhasset Bay. Fitzgerald and his wife rented a home in Great Neck from 1922 to 1924. They befriended some of its newer inhabitants, who had recently earned their wealth as famous writers, actors, and comedians. At the time, “old money” families such as the Vanderbilts and the Guggenheims owned estates in Sands Point. Fitzgerald hosted and attended parties in both communities and often sat on the porch drinking in the evenings and watching the happenings across the bay in Sands Point, according to Ruth Prigozy, executive director of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society. He started working on The Great Gatsby while living in the shorefront home, which still stands in Great Neck. (It sold for about $3 million in 2016.) Two of the Guggenheim mansions, Falaise and Hempstead House, still stand in Sands Point and are part of the Sands Point Preserve Conservancy.

 

5. Hannibal, Missouri: "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"

Who can forget the lively Adventures of Tom Sawyer in Mark Twain’s famous novel? The book is set during the 1840s in the fictitious town of St. Petersburg, Missouri, along the mighty Mississippi River. Twain, whose real name was Samuel Clemens, grew up in Hannibal, and St. Petersburg is based on his boyhood hometown. He worked as a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi (among other jobs) before becoming a writer. Many of his boyhood antics made it into the novels, and several of the characters are based on people Twain knew. In the book, Tom and his girlfriend Becky get lost inside a cave for several days, and later cave scenes involve villains and buried treasure. The real-life town of Hannibal has created several tourist attractions in honor of its most famous former resident. You can tour caves in the Mark Twain Cave Complex, take a cruise on the Mark Twain Riverboat, and visit his childhood house, which has been restored and converted to the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum. You can even “paint” a replica of the whitewashed fence from one of the book’s most famous scenes in one of the museum’s interactive exhibits.

 

6. Whitby, England: "Dracula"

Gothic horror’s most famous villain, Count Dracula, lived in Transylvania, part of modern-day Romania. However, Bram Stoker, the Irish author who created him, never set foot in Romania. In the novel, Dracula traveled from spooky Transylvania to Whitby, England — a seaside Victorian-era vacation destination — aboard the Russian ship Demeter. By the time the ship arrived in Whitby during a turbulent storm, the entire crew was missing, and the corpse of the captain was lashed to the ship’s steering wheel. Observers noted a large, black dog-shaped animal leaping from the ship’s deck to shore and running up the 199 steps to the Whitby church — the shapeshifting Dracula had arrived in England. Stoker’s inspiration for Dracula began in Whitby during a four-week summer vacation in 1890. Stoker had already been working on a gothic tale about a character named Count Wampyr, set in Styria, Austria, when he discovered a book in the Whitby public library that mentioned a sadistic 15th-century prince named Vlad Tepes, who served as the inspiration for the world’s best-known vampire. Stoker found additional inspiration in his surroundings. Looming over the town are the ruins of Whitby Abbey, an imposing Gothic church dating back to the 13th century. Perched on a cliff below is St. Mary’s ancient parish church, which can be reached by a 199-step stone staircase. The church’s adjacent cemetery contains many crumbling tombstones. As Stoker walked the abbey, church grounds, and among the graves, he noted names and dates that later showed up in the novel. Stoker also would have likely learned about an 1885 shipwreck of the Russian vessel Dmitry that was carrying a cargo of silver sand to Whitby, inspiring Dracula’s journey in the novel. Whitby is still a popular seaside tourist destination and has embraced its Dracula connection. You can tour the abbey ruins and participate in various activities and tours that follow the novel's events.

 

 

Source: Fascinating Locations That Inspired Bestselling Novels

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - INFLUENCE TO BUY

Did you know.... Big grocery brands carefully plan the layouts of their stores, and it’s not usually about convenience for customers. Even if you’re perfectly prepared for a grocery shopping trip — you’re not hungry, you have a list, your coupons are clipped — one well-laid psychological trick can leave you with a higher bill than you planned at checkout. Even some more obvious sales strategies, like free samples, are deeper than they appear. Here are six ways that stores upsell you even on the quickest of grocery runs.

 

1. Listing the Sale Price for Multiple Items

You’ve probably seen a sale tag that advertises multiple items at a certain price — like two cans of soup for $5 — but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to buy two to get the deal. Take a closer look, because chances are those cans are actually $2.50 each. It’s worth looking carefully at the tag just in case you do actually have to buy multiple things, but most of the time it’s just a technique to upsell you.

 

2. Displaying Items From Different Aisles Together

Chocolate syrup isn’t frozen, so why do you sometimes find it near ice cream? It’s the same reason you might find marshmallows next to graham crackers, whipped cream in the produce aisle, or red pepper flakes near frozen pizza: to get you to go in for one thing and leave with two. You were perfectly happy to just buy cheese when you walked in the store — you don’t need fancy crackers, too.

 

3. Displaying Full-Price Items Like They’re on Sale

The short sides of the aisle are called end caps, and they’re often the source of deals. Sometimes the producer negotiates a low price with the store for visibility, and other times, especially in the back, it’s where discontinued or clearance items go. But new or seasonal products sometimes end up in flashy end-cap displays, too — at full price, occasionally with the bonus upsell of pairing up two items from different aisles that go together.

 

4. Stocking Essentials in the Back

One thing you might notice about shopping at a grocery store is that staples like eggs, cheese, and bread are rarely placed toward the front entrance — making you walk through a labyrinth of potential impulse purchases (and other sales techniques) on your way to your essentials. That makes it hard for even the most diligent list-makers to stay immune from heavy merchandising. Keep this in mind on your long journey to the back, especially if you can’t afford to buy extra snacks.

 

5. Stocking Expensive Items at Eye Level

Ever notice that store brands tend to be lower on the shelves than name brands? This makes the more expensive items easier to spot and more likely to end up in a shopping cart. There’s a very common exception to this rule: More expensive children’s cereals tend to be a little lower down, at eye level with smaller shoppers. Some are even designed so that the cartoon characters on the boxes are looking directly at the kids.

 

6. Free Samples

This one may seem obvious. Of course you’ll want to buy an item you try first if it’s delicious — and that’s a big part of it. Sales of an item can go up as much as 2,000% if customers get to sample it, partially because they know what they’re getting, but partially because they feel bad for getting something for free. Yet the psychology goes deeper than just the product itself. After sampling something good, customers may be more likely to buy other things that they like throughout the store, not just the sampled product. In other words, while free samples can be great, just make sure to check your instincts after filling up on tiny bites.

 

Source: Tricks Grocery Stores Use to Influence What You Buy

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - CODES AND CIPHERS

Did you know... Whether they appear in magazine puzzles or top-secret security measures, codes and ciphers have long served as sources of fascination. Some have taken centuries to decode, while others have yet to be solved. The following six ciphers successfully shielded content from prying eyes, and continue to intrigue casual and serious cryptologists alike.

 

1. The Caesar Cipher

The use of coded messages for military means goes back into the shadows of antiquity. In fact, Roman general Julius Caesar was the mind behind an early documented use of simple substitution ciphers. The one that would eventually bear his name called for shifting alphabet letters three places ahead; in English, that means an A becomes a D, B becomes E, etc. It may seem like child's play compared to the more complicated codes that later emerged, but the Caesar Cipher was easy for allies to remember, confounded the largely illiterate hordes who resisted intrusion, and allowed Caesar to significantly expand the Roman Empire en route to consolidating his power as dictator.

 

2. The Great Cipher

Developed by a father-son team that encrypted messages for the French monarchy in the 17th century, the Great Cipher repelled all attempts at penetration until military cryptanalyst Étienne Bazeries unlocked its secrets some 200 years later. As described in Simon Singh's The Code Book, Bazeries broke through when he realized the cipher's 587 unique numbers generally represented syllables, though he remained hindered by the built-in traps; some numbers did stand for individual letters, while others served to delete the previous number. Bazeries' success enabled historians to read letters dated from the reign of Louis XIV, with one seeming to point to the identity of the infamous Man in the Iron Mask as a disgraced military commander named Vivien de Bulonde.

 

3. The Voynich Manuscript

In 1912, a rare books dealer named Wilfrid Voynich enjoyed a dream discovery in the form of a 240-page vellum manuscript filled with letters, numbers, and symbols alongside vivid drawings of plants, nude women, and fantastical creatures. Now housed in Yale University's Beinecke Library, the 15th-century codex has been carefully categorized into six sections — botanical, astronomical and astrological, biological, cosmological, pharmaceutical, and recipes — but otherwise remains indecipherable to those who've attempted to extract meaning from its passages. Researchers in recent years have suggested that the text is Semitic, and an Egyptologist claimed to have followed that scent to a breakthrough in 2020, though skeptics contend that the manuscript is just one big, elaborate hoax.

 

4. The Enigma Machine

After the conclusion of World War I, the German military began laying the groundwork for future conflicts with the development of a typewriter-like contraption that generated an ever-changing system of encrypted messages. Said to have been named for Elgar's Variations, the Enigma Machine enabled users to type in letters that wound through a series of interior rotors before spitting out different letters; the recipient of a coded missive would adjust his machine's rotors to the same position, enabling him to read the original message. Of course, one good encryption machine deserves another, and British mathematician Alan Turning managed to automate his code-breaking techniques into what became known as the Bombe, helping the Allied forces decipher crucial messages during World War II.

 

5. The Copiale Cipher

Like the Voynich Manuscript, the Copiale Cipher is a centuries-old book filled with unusual writing, symbols, and diagrams, but this one at least has proven to be a repository of legitimate, albeit still mysterious, information. Going on the assumption that its language was German-based, a University of Southern California machine-translation expert dove into the 75,000-character text and determined that its Roman characters stood for spaces and that symbols with similar shapes represented the same letter. With help from two European academics, who helped refine crucial areas of translation, the 105-page book was revealed in 2011 to be the work of an 18th-century secret society, opening a window into one of the underground orders that populated the Western world during the Age of Enlightenment.

 

6. The 340 Cipher

The Zodiac Killer earned a place in pop culture lore for murdering at least five people in the San Francisco Bay area in the late 1960s, and for the encoded messages he sent out to thumb his nose at authorities. While he was never (knowingly) captured, a team of three amateur sleuths at least solved one aspect of the mystery in late 2020 by cracking a 340-character cipher of letters and symbols mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle 51 years earlier. Using a computer program to run through 650,000 possible combinations, the team eventually found legible words by splitting the message into three parts and reading the letters diagonally, the results corresponding to other messages from the author. Two other ciphers attributed to the Zodiac Killer remain unsolved, and while some claim to have unveiled the words within, these messages are considered too short to produce verifiable answers.

 

 

Source: Intriguing Codes and Ciphers From History

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - FAMOUS BUILDINGS

Hall of Records, Mount Rushmore, Keystone, South Dakota

 

Did you know.... We think we know most of what there is to know about the world’s famous buildings, but some unusual features are hiding in plain sight. Sometimes, that’s by design, such as when it comes to hidden amenities or spaces for the rich and famous. Other secrets are buried beneath the surface — in at least one case, quite literally. A few are just bizarre, like the European monument that’s secretly a giant telescope. Do you know all the secrets of these six buildings? Even if you can’t see these features on your next trip, they’re still fun to think about.

 

1. The Eiffel Tower Has a Secret Apartment on Top

Apartments with Eiffel Tower views are highly sought after — but what about an apartment with a view from the Eiffel Tower?

The iconic Parisian landmark was designed by bridge engineer Gustave Eiffel’s firm for the 1889 International Exhibition. Even though it was designed for a huge public event, Eiffel left a little treat for himself at the very top: a 1,076-square-foot apartment with a wrap-around balcony that he famously did not let anybody else stay in (although he would occasionally entertain high-profile visitors, including Thomas Edison). When the tower was built, it was the tallest human-made structure in the world, making the abode that much more luxurious. The studio apartment was outfitted with a table, couch, piano, and three small desks (as well as a kitchen and bathroom facilities), and Eiffel supposedly never slept there, preferring to use it as an office where he could tinker with scientific experiments. It’s open to the public now, and staged with wax figures of Eiffel, his daughter, and Edison.

 

2. The Waldorf Astoria Hotel Has a Secret Train Station

The Waldorf Astoria is one of New York City’s most iconic luxury hotels, with many high-profile galas and celebrity guests since it was built around 1930. It’s a popular destination for dignitaries, including many United States Presidents — a few of whom took advantage of the hidden train station in the depths below. The most famous user of the secret train station was Franklin D. Roosevelt, who escaped from the platform via his private train car in October 1944 so the public wouldn’t see his wheelchair. Generals of the Army John J. Pershing and Douglas MacArthur both made use of it, too. And Andy Warhol once threw a big party down there. Apparently it’s still available for visiting Presidents wishing to make a speedy exit.

 

3. The Washington Monument Has a Tiny, Underground Twin

When the Washington Monument was in its last phase of construction in the late 1880s, it had a puzzling little structure at its base: a scale replica, just 12.5 feet tall. The mini-me helped surveyors calibrate their equipment and ensure their readings were accurate as they measured the topography around the area. Soon after the monument’s completion, the whole area was graded (meaning it was landscaped to be level), which involved burying the base of the monument past the height of the miniature. The smaller monument was encased in brick with a utility cover on top. While the mini monument is not necessarily common knowledge, it’s well known to government surveyors, who still use it as a geodetic control point, one of some 1.5 million such markers across the country.

 

4. The Real Taj Mahal Sarcophagi Are Hidden

The Taj Mahal, built in the 17th century in what’s now India, is an architectural marvel — it’s packed with clever optical illusions, and even changes color at different times of the day. Mughal Emperor Shah Jahān had it built after the death of his most beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal, as both a memorial and a tomb — and although he reportedly planned on building himself a matching one, it ended up being his final resting place, too. Two structures that look like sarcophagi sit in the center of an eight-sided room decorated with semiprecious stones and a marble lattice, but they’re just cenotaphs for show. The actual sarcophagi are resting below. Shah Jahān’s cenotaph is slightly off-center, possibly since he hadn’t actually planned to be buried there; it’s the only thing that throws off the building’s otherwise perfect symmetry.

 

5. The Monument in London Is Secretly a Telescope

London’s The Monument, a 202-foot tower that looks like a pillar topped with a flaming orb, commemorates the Great London Fire of 1666. Visitors can climb more than 300 steps up a spiral staircase to see the view from the top. But it’s not what it appears. Its design is often attributed — even on its own plaque — to famed architect and astrologer Christopher Wren. However, it was actually the brainchild of his friend Robert Hooke, a wildly influential scientist who coined the word “cell.” Hooke was tasked with building a monument, but he also wanted a giant telescope, so he ended up combining the two. The top end of the telescope is the orb, which opens up to let in the night sky. The bottom end is through a hatch below the tower, in Hooke’s former physics lab. When both the orb and the hatch are open, you can look upward from the basement lab to view the night sky. The telescope wasn’t actually feasible with the technology available at the time, because the lenses were destabilized by traffic vibrations from the busy road outside. It still worked out for Hooke, though — there weren’t a lot of high buildings at the time, so he ended up using it to study atmospheric pressure.

 

6. The Leaning Tower of Pisa Is a Big, Empty Tube

The Leaning Tower of Pisa was built in multiple stages between the 12th and 14th centuries. The first three stories were built before the foundation settling in the soft soil that caused the tilt was noticeable. A century later, five more stories were built on top of those already-tilted three stories, attempting to correct the lean — but making it lean further. Its enduring stability despite its dramatic pitch has made it a major landmark popular with tourists… but what’s actually in there? The answer: It’s a big empty tube, with no floors, no decoration, and no windows. Its original purpose was a bell tower, but the bells were eventually removed to help keep the tower stable. Tourists can walk up a spiral staircase along the tower’s walls to a view deck at the very top, but there is quite literally nothing to see inside.

 

Source: Secrets of Famous Buildings

Edited September 28, 2023 by DarkRavie