July 31 – August 6 has been designated “Happiness Happens” Week, so Tidbits is delving into what makes us happy! • According to the U.S. Declaration of Independence, we are all endowed with the right of the pursuit of happiness. Surveys reveal that the majority of people consider happiness more important than wealth and material goods. • Science suggests that each person has a genetic fixed point of happiness, which they return to after both good and bad events. After a person achieves a valued goal, he or she experiences a euphoric sense of accomplishment, but it usually diminishes […]
Butter Facts
• Butter is made from the milk of cows, sheep, goats, donkeys, horses, water buffaloes, and yaks. Camel’s milk has very small fat globules and is difficult to churn into butter. • The word butter comes from the Latin “butyrum” which may be a compound of “bous” meaning ox or cow plus “turos” meaning cheese. • The foods with the highest calorie content are (in order): animal fat (lard), vegetable oil, margarine, butter, and alcohol. Margarine and butter essentially have the same number of calories pound for pound. • In 1957 margarine consumption overtook butter consumption for the first time […]
Exoplanets
– OUT OF THIS WORLD – • The first major discovery of an “exoplanet” – a planet outside our solar system – happened in 1992. Two astronomers found not just one but two planets orbiting not a sun but a pulsar 2,300 light years away. Pulsars, named for the regular “pulses” they give off in radio frequencies, are remnants of supernova explosions, when a massive star runs out of nuclear fuel and becomes unstable. A pulsar packs the mass of the entire sun into a ball only 12 miles (20 km) across, so dense that it can easily […]
TIDBITS® Avoids Venom
by Janet Spencer If you swallow it, inhale it, or absorb it and it kills you, it’s poisonous. But if it is delivered to you via fangs, spines, stingers, stinging cells (jellyfish), squirting (cobras, cane toads) or spurs (platypus), then it’s venomous. Come along with Tidbits as we avoid venom! THE DANGER • The potency of venoms is measured using a method called “Median Lethal Dosage” in which researchers calculate how much of a substance it takes to kill half of a group of test subjects, where the substance is measured in milligrams of toxin per kilogram of body weight, […]
Garage Beginnings
Lots of big businesses started with a storefront, but how about these that were established in the garage? • Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard met on a camping trip in 1934, and became classmates at Stanford University, studying electrical engineering shortly afterward. The pair pooled their funds of $538 and began building devices in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California. In 1938, they invented an oscillator to test sound equipment, and their efforts were rewarded with the purchase of eight of the devices by the Walt Disney Company, launching HP’s success. They moved out of the garage in […]
Hot-Air Balloons
– OUT OF THIS WORLD – Up, up, and away! This week, Tidbits researches the rich history of hot air balloons. • Manned balloon rides first took place in the 1700s, but the Chinese had been experimenting for more than 2,000 years before. It’s believed that Chinese military strategist Zhuge Liang invented a balloon when he and his army were trapped by their enemies. He wrote a message on a paper lantern requesting help, and nearby allied forces saw the lantern and came to his aid. • France’s Montgolfier Brothers are celebrated for launching the first manned hot air balloon […]
TIDBITS® Starts with business beginnings
by Kathy Wolfe These businesses have become household names, but how did they get their start? This week, Tidbits delves into the humble beginnings of some of our best-known businesses. • The nation’s number one pharmacy has been around since 1901, when 28-year-old Charles Walgreen opened a 20 x 50-ft. drugstore on Chicago’s south side. Competition was tough, with more than 1,500 drugstores already in operation. He brought a little experience with him – he’d been working at a neighborhood pharmacy since 1889, when he was 16, then became a registered pharmacist at age 20. A Walgreens employee invented […]
The Medusa Mess
• Greek mythology began with Gaea (the Earth) and Uranus (the Sky) who were the parents of twelve Titans, who were the first gods and goddesses. Later, these Titans gave rise to, and were subsequently overthrown by, all the rest of the Greek gods. • One of the Titans was named Pontus, who ruled over the sea. When Gaea got disgusted with Uranus because he threw some of their ugliest children into the underworld, she ditched him and married her son Pontus. They became parents of a son named Phorcys and his sister Ceto. Phorcys and Ceto ruled the oceans […]
Cape Canaveral
– OUT OF THIS WORLD – • Cape Canaveral is the name of a city in Florida located on the Atlantic Coast. It’s the location of the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, which is adjacent to John F. Kennedy Space Center. The entire area is collectively known as the “Space Coast.” • The word “Canaveral” is Spanish, meaning “reed bed” or “sugarcane plantation.” The place name of Cape Canaveral is one of the oldest surviving European place names in the U.S. The name appeared on maps as early as the year 1564. Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León visited […]
TIDBITS® Examines Spiders
by Janet Spencer ARACHNIDS • Spiders are not insects. They are arachnids. What’s the difference? All insects have six legs, whereas spiders have eight. Most insects have wings and antennae, but spiders do not. Insect bodies are divided into head, thorax, and abdomen, but spiders have only head and thorax. Spiders, insects, and crustaceans are all members of the Arthropod phylum, which includes all creatures that have segmented bodies and pairs of jointed legs. Spiders are members of the arachnid class, which also includes ticks, mites, and scorpions. There are over 45,000 kinds of spider in the world. • Nearly […]