• Most humans are right-handed, with a small percentage being left-handed, and the same holds true for bottlenose dolphins. In fact, dolphins are even more strongly right-handed than humans. A team led by Florida’s Dolphin Communication Project studied the feeding habits of bottlenose dolphins and found that the animals turned to their left side 99.44 percent of the time, which actually indicated a right-side preference, because the maneuver puts the dolphin’s right side and right eye closer to the floor of the ocean as it hunts. • Humpback whales produce the longest and most varied songs in the animal world. […]
July 2023
Nicholas White – PEOPLE WORTH REMEMBERING –
– PEOPLE WORTH REMEMBERING – • Nicholas White had it all together back in 1999: a great job working as an editor for “Business Week”, a girlfriend, an apartment, and a savings account. All that changed due to a disastrous smoke break. • It was around 11:00 pm when 34-year-old Nicholas, still at work at his office on the 43rd floor of the 51-story McGraw-Hill building in New York City, needed a cigarette. He told his co-worker he was stepping out and took the express elevator to the lobby, where he went outdoors for a smoke. He returned to the […]
TIDBITS® Writes Left-Handed
By Janet Spencer The more research is done, the clearer it becomes there isn’t always a clear line between being left-handed and right-handed. Are you a lefty, righty, or something in between? LEFTY OR RIGHTY? • The language center in the brain is located in the left hemisphere for about 99% of right-handers. The original theory was that the brains of lefties and righties would be mirror images of each other, and therefore the language center would be located in the right hemisphere for most left-handers. Surprisingly, the invention of the MRI and fMRI proved this to be untrue; the […]
Big Birds/Little Birds
• The ostrich is the world’s largest bird, with a documented weight of 346 lbs. (157 kg), although the average is around 230 lbs. (104 kg). These flightless birds stand nearly 7 feet (2.13 m) tall, but can reach a height of 9 feet (2.75 m). Beautiful long eyelashes protect their eyes, eyes which happen to be larger than their brain! The female ostrich lays about 70 eggs a year, eggs that are 6 inches (15 cm) long, 5 inches (13 cm) wide, with a weight of 3 lbs. (1.4 kg). Although the ostrich egg is the largest […]
Frank Wills – PEOPLE WORTH REMEMBERING –
– PEOPLE WORTH REMEMBERING – You may not have heard of Frank Wills, but you’re probably familiar with his deeds. Check out the actions of this security guard who changed political history. • The early life of Frank Wills wasn’t an easy one. Raised by a single mother in South Carolina, Frank dropped out of high school at 17. When the opportunity came along to be part of the Federal War on Poverty employment training program known as the Job Corps, Frank joined up and was sent to the men’s center in Battle Creek, Michigan. It was a good move […]
TIDBITS® Flies with Some Weird Birds
by Kathy Wolfe The National Geographic Society estimates there are between 50 billion and 430 billion birds on Earth. This week, Tidbits focuses on a few of the rare and unusual ones. • New Zealand’s kakapo parrot is seriously endangered, with only 248 known birds in existence, found only on four small islands off the coast of New Zealand. The kakapo is the heaviest of all the parrot species, reaching 6.6 lbs. (3 kg) for males, with a length of 25 inches (64 cm). They have beautiful yellow-green plumage and large blue feet. These nocturnal birds are also known as […]
The Bonneville Flowood
• During the last Ice Age, a vast lake covered more than 25% of the total landmass of what is now the state of Utah, as well as parts of Nevada and Idaho. It was equal in size to the combined states of Vermont and Massachusetts. A dam of dirt and debris held the lake back at the location now called Red Rock Pass in Idaho. • The lake covered 20,000 square miles and was over 1,000 feet (305 m) deep in places. If the entire shoreline were straightened into a line, it would reach from Red Rocks Pass in […]
Betty Lou Oliver – PEOPLE WORTH REMEMBERING –
– PEOPLE WORTH REMEMBERING – • Betty Lou Oliver was 20 when she reported to work at the Empire State Building on July 28, 1945. She was an elevator operator in what was, at the time, the world’s tallest building. Betty was in charge of Elevator #6 out of the 73 in the building. This was her last day at work. As a newlywed, she took the job when her husband went off to war, but now he was coming home. They had plans to move to Fort Smith, Arkansas. • That same day, Lieutenant Colonel William Franklin Smith was […]
TIDBITS® VISITS IDAHO
by Janet Spencer Idaho has so much more than potatoes, so come along with Tidbits as we visit Idaho! HOW DID IT GET NAMED? • George Willing was a physician in the mid-1800s when he got caught up in the gold rush, ending up at Pike’s Peak in what is now Colorado. He ran for office but lost and became a lobbyist instead. When it came time to choose a name for the region, Willing lobbied hard for “Idaho” claiming it was an Indian term meaning “gem of the mountains.” When it later came out that he made up the […]
More Explorers
• Although Sir Francis Drake was declared a hero for being the first Englishman to circumnavigate the Earth, accomplished in 1577-1580, this explorer was one of the world’s leading privateers, with a reputation of piracy against Spanish ships and possessions. Queen Elizabeth I granted Drake a privateer’s commission, giving him the right to plunder the Spanish ports of the Caribbean. He also participated in the slave trade as early as 1567. Drake sailed up the western coast of North America, as far north as Vancouver, Canada, entering San Francisco Bay on the return south, claiming the area for Queen […]
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