• Of all the Star Wars characters, it’s Darth Vader who earns the most money from his likeness being used for merchandise, including Halloween costumes, figurines, coffee mugs, and toasters that burn the likeness of Darth Vader into the bread. • Only four people knew of the surprise ending in “The Empire Strikes Back” where Darth Vader reveals he is Luke’s father: George Lucas, Mark Hamill, James Earl Jones, and director Irwin Kershner. George Lucas told Prowse to deliver the line: “Obi-Wan Killed your father!” which was later dubbed over by James Earl Jones. Even the people on set or […]
May 2024
TIDBITS® Listens To The Voice
by Janet Spencer Where would civilization be if not for the human voice? Come along with Tidbits as we learn to talk! IT’S A FACT • A baby in the womb can recognize their mother’s voice by 25 weeks of development. Babies prefer their mother’s voice over all others when they’re born. VOICE FACTS • The human voice originates from the larynx, a small organ made of cartilage and flesh in our throats. It’s also called the voice box. It sits on top of the windpipe. Inside are two flaps of skin called the vocal cords. To speak, sing, or […]
Belly Button – BEAUTIFUL BODY –
– BEAUTIFUL BODY – • The belly button is the remnant of the place where the umbilical cord connects a baby to the placenta. The word “umbilical” springs from the Latin word meaning middle or center, originally referring to a scroll’s ornamental end. • Every mammal with a placenta also has a belly button: elephants, dolphins, bats. Some mammals may have a very faint belly button, including the platypus, which lays an egg, and marsupials, where the cord falls off while the baby is still in the pouch. • Birds and reptiles, while not being mammals, also have a faint […]
THE HINDENBURG
It was floating over Manhattan just minutes before it burst into flames and crashed to the ground. This week, Tidbits focuses on the Hindenburg, the massive airship that met a fiery end 87 years ago this week. • Construction began on the Hindenburg in 1931 by the German-based Zeppelin Company. Some of the airship’s parts were salvaged from a British airship that had crashed in October, 1930. • The airship was named for the late Paul von Hindenburg, who had been Germany’s president from 1925 to 1934. The Nazis had wanted to name the ship after Hitler, but […]
TIDBITS® Studies Australian animals
by Kathy Wolfe More than 80% of Australia’s animals are found nowhere else in the world. Travel with Tidbits to learn more about creatures from down under. • Of the estimated 330 species of marsupials in the world, about two-thirds live in Australia. This order of mammals has a pouch on the female’s abdomen to carry the young. The females give birth just a month after conception. The endangered marsupial Tasmanian Devil is only found in Australia’s Tasmanian wilderness and national parks. Looney Tunes’ Tasmanian Devil gives us the impression that they are wild and vicious creatures ready to tear […]
Lungs – BEAUTIFUL BODY –
– BEAUTIFUL BODY – Take a deep breath and soak up these facts on the human body’s lungs, the most important organs in the respiratory system. • The lungs are responsible for extracting oxygen from the air we breathe and transferring it to the bloodstream, where it is sent to the cells. The lungs also remove carbon dioxide as a waste gas through exhaling. When we inhale, air travels down the throat, through the larynx, and into the trachea. The trachea has two air passages, or bronchial tubes, with one leading to the left lung and one to the right. […]
Cops & Donuts
• The New York Times once said, “No profession is as closely identified with food as police work is with doughnuts.” The correlation between doughnuts and cops began long ago. What started as a simple convenience grew into a symbiotic relationship. Here’s the story of how that happened. • Often, police are on duty overnight while most citizens are asleep and nearly all businesses are closed. Nighttime food options were limited in the days before gas station convenience stores became common. All-night restaurants and fast food joints such as Denny’s, IHOP, McDonalds, and Taco Bell were not yet on the […]
The Thumb – BEAUTIFUL BODY –
– BEAUTIFUL BODY – • Humans are not the only animals with opposable thumbs. Most (but not all) species of primates have thumbs, as well as certain species of frogs, rats, mice, lemurs, birds, pandas, and even dinosaurs. The opossum does, and also the chameleon. • But in humans, it made all the difference. “Increased manual dexterity in the form of efficient thumb opposition was among the early defining characteristics of our lineage, providing a formidable adaptive advantage to our ancestors,” says paleo anthropologist Katerina Harvati. The thumb has been described as “mankind’s greatest app.” • The development of the […]
TIDBITS® is color blind
by Janet Spencer It’s estimated that there are about 300 million color blind people worldwide, nearly equal to the population of the U.S. Come along with Tidbits as we look at the facts! COLOR BLIND FACTS • Color blind people are more accurately called “color deficient.” • There are many different severities of color vision deficiency, from nearly normal color vision up to complete color blindness. • It’s estimated that 98% of those with color blindness have red-green color blindness. Of those, 75% have trouble seeing green, while 24% have difficulty seeing red. • The recessive gene for red-green color […]