For centuries, people have looked to owls as symbols of wisdom, mythical guides and protectors, and sometimes even spooky harbingers of death. About 250 species of these captivating birds, with their penetrating stares and mysterious vibes, live on every continent except Antarctica. Here are a few fantastic facts about them, from their asymmetrical ears to their unexpected connection to a medieval poet.
No, owls can’t turn their heads completely around (as a popular myth suggests), but they can swivel three-quarters of the way. They have a few anatomical adaptations that make it possible, such as extra neck vertebrae that allow their heads to turn and rotate at multiple angles. But until a few years ago, it wasn’t clear how owls could do these moves without also twisting their arteries and cutting off blood to their brains. In 2013, a team from Johns Hopkins University injected dye, representing blood flow, into several owls that had died of natural causes, and then manipulated the birds’ heads. The dye pooled into “reservoirs” under the animals’ jaws, which suggested that when owls pivot their heads, these reservoirs maintain a supply of blood for their brains.
An owl’s eyes are proportionally enormous, comprising up to 5% of the animal’s body weight (for comparison, human eyes make up about .0003% of our total weight). Their huge size — along with pupils that dilate extra widely and a reflective layer at the back of their eyes to utilize available light — are adaptations for zeroing in on the movements of tiny rodents and other prey at night. However, they can’t move their eyes much in their tubular sockets. Owls do, however, have binocular vision (the ability to merge information from two eyes into one image, like humans), which increases their depth perception and allows them to judge the distance to their prey accurately.
They’re usually not very noticeable, but owls do have ears, and they serve an important role in hunting. Their ears are often situated asymmetrically, with the right ear a little higher than the left in most species. Sounds made by their prey, like rodents scratching in leaf litter, will hit each ear at slightly different times, allowing the owl to triangulate the location of the sound. Most owls also have circular patterns of specialized feathers to channel sound into the ears. These anatomical arrangements pay off: Experiments with barn owls have shown that their incredibly sensitive hearing helps them find prey in complete darkness; they will often hover over prey and listen to its movements before striking. Great gray owls have also been observed successfully striking prey hiding under a layer of snow.
Owls sport specialized feathers that muffle the sound of their wings flapping and let them sneak up on a meal. The feathers on the leading edges of their wings have comblike structures that dampen air turbulence and cut down on “whooshing” noise, while finer feathers on the top and trailing edges further break up the sound, resulting in a virtually silent flight. Engineers have tried to mimic this quality when designing quieter aircraft, wind turbines, drones, fan blades, and more.
Most of the world’s owl species are nocturnal — they’re more active at night, with physical adaptations for hunting by moonlight. In North America, these denizens of the dark include the adorable, football-shaped northern saw-whet owl and the diminutive eastern and western screech owls. Some species can be seen hunting at dawn or dusk as well as at night; barred owls, great horned owls, and long-eared owls are considered crepuscular (most active at twilight). Diurnal species are primarily active during the daytime: Short-eared owls and snowy owls can often be seen flying over grasslands in search of rodents, while northern pygmy owls and northern hawk owls live in forests and are seldom spotted.
This collective noun has an unusual literary source. In The Silver Chair, one of the books in C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, a talking owl named Glimfeather calls for his fellow owls to form a parliament; the group of birds advises the novel’s two protagonists on their quest. Lewis was actually riffing on a literary antecedent, Geoffrey Chaucer’s 14th-century poem A Parliament of Fowls, in which the narrator dreams that Nature gathers birds together to choose their mates. Thanks to the worldwide popularity of Lewis’ Narnia books, people began using the word “parliament” to define a group of owls by 1968, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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Dolphins are some of the most beloved creatures on the planet. After all, what isn’t to like about these seafaring cetaceans? They’re highly intelligent. They make adorable noises. They’re friendly to humans. They even like to surf. But beyond these crowd-pleasing theatrics, dolphins also boast impressive physiological capabilities and exhibit an array of mind-boggling behaviors. Here are six fascinating facts you may not know about them.
The meanings behind much of the dolphin repertoire of squeaks, grunts, and clicks remain a mystery to marine biologists, but they do know that certain sounds represent an identifying call. For example, the common bottlenose dolphin develops a unique melodic pattern of whistles that makes it recognizable to others within earshot, even when murky underwater conditions distort the voice of the sender. Furthermore, recent research has shown that dolphins “address” each other by imitating the whistles of close companions and family, suggesting a capability for sophisticated interaction rarely seen outside the human world.
As oxygen-dependent mammals that reside in water and voluntarily control their breathing, dolphins simply cannot let themselves slip into a state of complete unconsciousness. As a result, they experience what’s known as unihemispheric slow-wave sleep, in which only half the brain sleeps at a time and the other remains awake at a low level of alertness. Dolphins typically float motionless or swim slowly near the water’s surface when in this state, with the eye opposite the resting side of the brain remaining closed. And while people and dolphins have very different slumbering habits, dolphins typically get about four hours of slow-wave sleep for each side of the brain in a 24-hour period, which matches up with the doctor-recommended eight hours of shut-eye per night for humans.
To further prove just how intelligent these creatures are: Bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Australia, have been observed using marine sponges to protect their snouts when rooting around the seafloor for small fish. Mothers pass on this nifty foraging method to their offspring, though females usually show far more interest in learning than males. Additionally, scientists have observed dolphins in this region engaging in peer-to-peer learning for another technique known as “shelling.” The dolphins chase fish into empty giant snail shells, push the shells to the surface, and then tip the waiting prey into their mouths.
While dolphins are cunning hunters, they forgo any semblance of dining manners by wolfing down their food without chewing. Thankfully, they have a three-chambered stomach designed to handle the rapid intake. The easily stretchable forestomach is primarily used to store the food, the main stomach is where the majority of digestion takes place, and the pyloric chamber completes digestion and regulates passage into the small intestine. This streamlined process supports the bottlenose dolphin’s average daily intake of 25 to 50 pounds of fish, squid, and crustaceans.
Dolphins possess something of a superpower when it comes to recovering from major tissue injuries. Dr. Michael Zasloff shed light on this ability in a 2011 letter to the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, in which he described studies of dolphins that had withstood significant flesh loss from shark attacks. These animals not only stemmed the blood loss and sustained no infections on the open wounds, but they also regenerated the torn-out tissue to regain their full-body contour within approximately 30 days. The dolphins displayed no sign of distress throughout the process, suggesting that a naturally triggered form of pain relief accompanies their extraordinary healing capabilities.
Since 1959, these smart, adaptable deep divers have served Uncle Sam in the Navy’s Marine Mammal Program, alongside a cadre of equally patriotic sea lions. Dolphins are typically taught to handle two tasks: They use their inherent sonar capabilities to pinpoint and mark the location of underwater mines, and they help apprehend uninvited swimmers by tagging the trespassers with a buoy that drags them to the surface.
And these dolphins aren’t just used for training simulations: Dolphins were deployed in the Vietnam and Iraq wars, and they currently help protect America’s large nuclear stockpile at Naval Base Kitsap outside Seattle, Washington.
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In a metropolis filled with architectural marvels both new and old, the Empire State Building still carries major clout as a defining landmark of New York City. Whether it’s because of the classy art deco design, the attention-grabbing light displays, or the far-reaching views offered from its observation decks, the Great Depression-era skyscraper remains a top tourist attraction and one of the most photographed buildings in the world. Here are six facts you might not know about the longtime stalwart of 34th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
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The Empire State Building Was Built in 410 Days
The brainchild of financier John J. Raskob, the Empire State Building was conceived at a time when multiple developers were racing to leave their imprint on the New York City skyline — and it became a reality with mind-boggling speed. Fueled by the labor of as many as 3,400 daily workers, the structure climbed off the ground at a peak rate of 4.5 stories per week following its formal groundbreaking on March 17, 1930. Remarkably, the massive building — comprising 60,000 tons of steel, 200,000 cubic feet of Indiana limestone and granite, 730 tons of aluminum and stainless steel, and 10 million bricks — was completed ahead of schedule (and below budget) after just 410 days. President Herbert Hoover officially dedicated the new skyscraper on May 1, 1931.
The Empire State Building Was the Tallest Building in the World for Four Decades
Although it’s since been dwarfed by giants such as the United Arab Emirates’ 2,720-foot Burj Khalifa, the Empire State Building once set the standard for human ambition to reach for the skies. At 102 stories and 1,250 feet tall (not counting the later addition of an antenna, which added 204 feet), it was the first building to pass the 100-story mark, and its height easily surpassed the 1,046-foot record previously established by the Chrysler Tower in 1930. The Empire State Building remained the world’s tallest building until the 110-story Twin Towers of Lower Manhattan’s World Trade Center both pushed past 1,360 feet in the early 1970s.
Since May 1980, with the designation of the skyscraper’s very own 10118 ZIP code, the Empire State Building’s tenants have enjoyed the postal privileges of a small city. This was the result of an effort to speed up mail delivery in Manhattan by giving higher-volume areas their own digits. Of the 63 new ZIP codes introduced in the borough that year, 39 were buildings that received at least 5,000 pieces of mail per day. The Empire State Building easily surpassed that cutoff with a daily intake of 35,000 pieces of mail.
The Building’s Colorful Light Displays Began in 1976
Among the Empire State Building’s famed features are the crowning lights that frequently change colors to honor cultural events, organizations, and local sports champions. The building first shone a beacon following Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidential election in November 1932, but the multicolored displays that New Yorkers have come to know and love date back to the red, white, and blue bicentennial celebration of July 1976. The lights have since flashed in a range of colors, such as pink to commemorate Breast Cancer Awareness Month, blue for Frank Sinatra’s 1998 death, and even neon green in 2009 for the 25th anniversary of the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book. The building switched to LED lights in 2012, giving operators the ability to choose from 16 million colors and add special effects like ripples, sparkles, and strobes.
Competitors Race to the Top in the Annual Empire State Building Run-Up
For those with energy to burn (and maybe a masochistic bent), the Empire State Building Run-Up offers runners from around the world a chance to scale the majority of the skyscraper by foot. An annual tradition since 1978, the Run-Up covers 1,576 steps over 1,050 vertical feet, from the lobby to the 86th-floor observatory. The fastest record for what is billed as “the world’s first and most famous tower race” was set by Australian Paul Crake, who completed the grueling climb in nine minutes and 33 seconds in 2003. And while that’s obviously slower and more strenuous than the sub-minute it would take to ride an elevator, it does hold some appeal, given the lines to visit the observatory stretch the average elevator wait time to upwards of 45 minutes.
As one of the world’s most famous structures, the Empire State Building has made numerous appearances on the big screen. Just how many is impossible to determine, considering the number of low-budget films that fly under the radar, but the Empire State Building’s website once cited an estimate of “more than 250 movies.” The most famous ones include King Kong (1933), which features the titular ape swatting at planes from the newly completed skyscraper; Independence Day (1996), which sees the Empire State Building destroyed by a giant alien spaceship; Sleepless in Seattle (1993), which features an unforgettable meeting between the main characters in the film’s finale; and Andy Warhol’s Empire (1965), which focuses solely on the iconic building over the course of its eight-hour run time.
Tim Ott
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Tim Ott has written for sites including Biography.com, History.com, and MLB.com, and is known to delude himself into thinking he can craft a marketable screenplay.
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Milk plays a major part in human life — even for the most dedicated of vegans. Homo sapiens are biologically wired to be raised on our mother’s milk; the substance protects against short- and long-term illnesses while also sharing the mother’s antibodies with the newborn. Milk has also been the backbone of entire empires, and the substance even describes the very galaxy in which our planet resides. Here are seven amazing facts about milk (and its tasty plant-based alternatives) that’ll make you appreciate that carton in your fridge in a whole new way.
Although milk tastes much different than the H2O that comes out of the tap, the beverage is mostly water. Whole milk, for example, is 87% water, and the other 13% contains protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. Because of its high water content, milk is also a good hydration source during hot summer days. For all the talk of different milk types (whole, 2%, or skim), the difference in water content is only 3% at most.
Milk looks white because it’s reflecting all the wavelengths of visible light, and the combination of reflected colors creates white. The particles in milk — including the protein casein, calcium complexes, and fat globules — scatter light, much as light scattering on snow makes it appear white. Sometimes milk can have a slight yellow hue caused by a cow’s diet — the pigment carotene, found in carrots and other vegetables, can cause color variations — and the vitamin riboflavin can also cause a yellowish-green hue. Skim milk, which is low in fat content, can sometimes be a bluish color because casein scatters blue slightly more than red.
Humans Are the Only Mammals That Drink Another Animal’s Milk
Humans stand alone as the only mammals that drink the milk of another mammalian species. This is due to our history of animal husbandry, along with a genetic mutation that allows some humans to retain the enzyme lactase — which breaks down milk’s lactose sugar in the digestive system — beyond infancy. However, this mutation is not found in the majority of the 8 billion Homo sapiens on planet Earth — in fact, 68% of us experience some form of lactose malabsorption.
Although humans stand alone when it comes to mammals, some other species do drink milk from other animals. The red-billed oxpecker is known to steal milk from the udders of impala, and shorebirds such as seagulls have similarly swiped milk from the teats of elephant seals.
The horse tribes of the Eurasian Steppes were one of the first cultures to adopt dairying, some 5,000 years ago. Because their vast plains weren’t fertile ground for agriculture, these nomadic tribes instead relied on animals and their milk for sustenance. Because they received much-needed calories from horse’s milk, these tribes could travel across land more quickly and maintain larger empires than their neighbors.
One of the remaining mysteries of milk’s importance in this era of human history is that 95% of Steppe people today lack the gene variant for digesting lactose, yet the population still gains a large portion of their calories from dairy products. One theory is that the microbiome found in the gut of Mongolians has somehow adapted to a millennia-long, dairy-heavy diet.
In 1857, French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur discovered that microorganisms in the air caused lactic acid fermentation, aka the souring of milk. Pasteur also discovered (after a request from Emperor of France Napoleon III) that certain microbes caused wine to go bad, but by briefly heating the libation to around 140 degrees Fahrenheit, those microbes died off, leaving behind a sterilized (or as it would be later known, “pasteurized”) liquid that would stay fresh for longer.
Pasteurization for milk wasn’t introduced until 1886, but it was a game-changer, as diseases introduced via contaminated milk killed scores of infants in the 19th century. With the introduction of pasteurization, that number dropped significantly.
For years, dairy producers have sued alternative milk companies for using the word “milk” on their packaging — but history is not on their side. Evidence suggests that Romans had a complex understanding of the word “milk,” as the root of the word “lettuce” comes from “lact” (as in “lactate”). Many medieval cookbooks make reference to almond milk, and the earliest mention of soy milk can be found on a Chinese stone slab from around the first to third century CE. However, coconut milk has the longest history; archaeologists have recovered coconut graters among relics from Madagascar and Southeast Asia that date back to around 3000 to 1500 BCE.
Our Galaxy’s Name, “Milky Way,” Comes From a Greek Myth
The galaxy is home to hundreds of billions of stars, and stretches for truly mind-boggling distances. If you traveled the speed of light, it’d still take you 200,000 years just to cross its entirety. Its Western name — Milky Way — comes from a Greek myth in which the queen goddess Hera, while nursing the hero Heracles, pulled away her breast and sprayed her divine lactation across the cosmos. In fact, the root of the word “galaxy” is the Greek gála, meaning “milk.” The Romans also referred to the cosmos in Latin as Via Lactea, or “Road of Milk.” However, other cultures use different names to represent the great expanse of the starry sky. China, for example, calls it “銀河,” meaning “silver river,” and Sanskrit’s “Mandākinī” roughly means “unhurried.”
Darren Orf
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Darren Orf lives in Portland, has a cat, and writes about all things science and climate. You can find his previous work at Popular Mechanics, Inverse, Gizmodo, and Paste, among others.
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Waterfalls are still a scientific enigma. Though people have admired their beauty and power for millennia, only in the last few decades have geologists focused on the forces that give rise to them and the unique ecosystems they support. Here’s the word on waterfalls, from the science behind them to their impact on art, culture, and industry.
You might think that all it takes to create a waterfall is hydrogen, oxygen, and gravity, but not every downward-flowing stream fits the bill. One guidebook suggests a waterfall is “a more or less vertical stream of water that flows over the edge of a cliff that has eroded away.” Water flowing over uneroded rocks, meanwhile, is considered a rapid. In addition, most experts agree that a fall has to be a minimum of 5 feet tall to qualify as a waterfall, and it needs to be fed by a stream, river, or creek that is replenished at least annually, such as by rain or melting snowpack.
Scientists used to believe that waterfalls were caused only by external geological or climate forces, but recent research has demonstrated that waterfalls can actually create themselves. Streams and rivers erode the rock over which they flow unevenly, and carve paths of least resistance over the landscape. Whether it’s washing across vertical or horizontal planes, water wears away soft rock like limestone and shale faster than hard rock like granite or basalt. Eventually, all that’s left is hard rock in ledges, steps, or walls, which creates the topography for a waterfall.
The beauty of waterfalls lies in the way they flow over varying kinds of terrain, and many can be categorized according to their structure. Among the most scenic are plunge waterfalls, such as Bridalveil Fall in Yosemite National Park, which flows over a cliff without making contact with vertical rock. Tiered waterfalls flow over consecutive ledges of rock; Kaaterskill Falls’ two dramatic drops inspired painters of the Hudson River School in the early 19th century. A block waterfall, like Niagara Falls, occurs when a massive river flows over a cliff in a giant sheet. Horsetail falls make some contact with the vertical rock behind them and create picturesque sprays as they flow downward. Makahiku Falls in Maui, Hawaii, is one spectacular example. Other types include cataracts, sluices, fans, and waterslides.
Earth’s biggest waterfall is under the surface of the Denmark Strait, the waterway separating Iceland and Greenland. How, you might be asking yourself, can a waterfall form completely underwater? The answer is in part a quirk of geomorphology — namely, a troughlike formation in an oceanic mountain range. Because cold water currents are denser than warm water currents, they sink downward, and in this particular spot cold water collects in the trough. Eventually, it overflows the rim of the trough and then sinks downward against the mountainside — and boom, underwater waterfall. The rim, called the Denmark Cataract, is 11,500 feet tall, making this waterfall at least three times as tall as its tallest counterpart on land.
Among land-based falls, Angel Falls in Venezuela takes the crown. Known as Kerepakupai Merú in the Indigenous Pemon language, the waterfall plunges 2,648 feet in a continuous flow from the Auyan Tepui sandstone plateau in Canaima National Park. (A 1949 National Geographic Society expedition calculated the falls’ height at 3,212 feet, but the measurement methods are disputed.) The falls are so tall that the huge volume of water surging from on high vaporizes before reaching the ground.
Most waterfall surveyors consider Angel Falls to be the tallest uninterrupted waterfall on Earth, but some argue that Tugela Falls, in South Africa’s Drakensberg Mountains, supersedes it, with a height that may be 3,225 feet over at least five segments. And then there’s Victoria Falls (also called Mosi-oa-Tunya), along the Zambezi River bordering Zimbabwe and Zambia, which is considered the world’s largest sheet of falling water. It maxes out at only 344 feet tall, but it’s more than a mile wide.
Credit: Heritage Images/ Hulton Fine Art Collection via Getty Images
Waterfall Tourism Was a Thing in the 18th Century
Tourists flocking to famous falls didn’t start with the thousands who show up for “firefall” in Yosemite (when the setting sun in February appears to set Horsetail Fall on fire) or even with newlyweds at Niagara. European travelers of the Romantic era — roughly the late 18th century to the 19th century — also made a point of visiting especially scenic waterfalls, which they saw as paragons of the sublime. The waterfalls at Tivoli near Rome inspired tourists as well as moody, atmospheric paintings. The Marmore Falls near Terni in Italy — constructed by Roman engineers in 271 BCE, and at 541 feet the tallest human-made waterfall in the world — was one of the most popular stops on the Grand Tour. Romantic-era artists such as John Sell Cotman and J.M.W. Turner in Europe, as well as the Hudson River School members in the U.S., painted scenes of waterfalls that increased the public’s thirst for landscape beauty.
A Waterfall Fueled America’s Industrial Revolution
In the 1790s, Alexander Hamilton established the United States’ first planned industrial town around the Great Falls of the Passaic River in New Jersey. Hamilton envisioned the city of Paterson as a hub of American industry, with unlimited hydropower drawn from the falls. Over the next several decades, state-of-the-art mills and factories producing cotton, paper, silk, munitions, and railroad machinery opened, reaching peak productivity in the 1890s. Today, the old manufacturing sites and the waterfall make up the Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park, which honors the city as one of the birthplaces of the American industrial revolution.
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In 1783, the Montgolfier brothers — a pair of French aviation pioneers — set up a hot air balloon and placed inside the basket a sheep, duck, and rooster. Surrounded by a roaring crowd, these creatures would become the first passengers of a balloon flight in history. Ever since, humanity has been reaching higher and higher into the sky — and testing what they could up bring with them. Here’s a list of some of the strangest things to make it beyond Earth’s orbit.
We’ve sent fruit flies, mice, dogs, squirrel monkeys, and rabbits into space. All of these creatures functioned as mere passengers — but not Ham the Chimp. He was trained to interact with the spacecraft, pulling levers in response to light cues. In 1961, he was launched into space, performed his tasks correctly (thus demonstrating that human astronauts would also be able to perform physical tasks in orbit), and survived the trip back to Earth. He lived for another 22 years, enjoying retirement at various zoos.
Pizza
In 2001, Pizza Hut delivered a few slices of extra-salty salami pizza to the International Space Station. The lucky recipient of the delivery — which reportedly cost $1 million — was Russian cosmonaut Yuri Usachov. It’s unclear if he left a tip.
The crew of Apollo 15 brought two wads of cash onto the moon with the intention of selling them as souvenirs back on Earth. Unfortunately, they forgot one pack of bills. (Maybe it could be used for that tip?)
Harmonica and Bells
In December 1965, Gemini astronaut Wally Schirra reported back to Earth: “I see a command module and eight smaller modules in front. The pilot of the command module is wearing a red suit.” Schirra then began playing “Jingle Bells” on a harmonica, with his co-pilot playing the bells — the first musical instruments (and prank!) launched into space.
In 1971, astronaut James Irwin left a Bible on the dashboard of the Lunar Roving Vehicle. His time on the moon was, quite literally, a religious experience: One year later, he quit the astronaut corps and founded an evangelical organization.
Hammocks
Sleeping on the moon was extremely uncomfortable. So starting with Apollo 12, astronauts were given hammocks made of beta cloth (the same woven glass-fiber cloth used in NASA spacesuits). “They also had blankets, insulators, and Velcro attachment pads to help them settle in, not fall, and keep warm,” according to Discover magazine. Much of it was left on the moon.
Credit: NASA
Document Proclaiming “University of Michigan Club of the Moon”
Apollo 15 astronauts James Irwin, Alfred Worden, and David Scott all had a connection to the University of Michigan. To celebrate, they left a document proclaiming a “University of Michigan Club of the Moon,” an official branch of the alumni association, on the moon’s surface. As far as we know, it’s still up there.
Urine Receptacle System and Defecation Collection Devices
NASA maintains a 796-item catalogue of “Manmade Material on the Moon.” The list includes vomit bags and various means of collecting human excreta, which were left on the lunar surface. (Teasel Muir-Harmony, a curator at the National Air and Space Museum, once told Popular Science that “Buzz Aldrin often claims to be the first person to urinate on the moon.”)
The creator of the original Star Trek series, Roddenberry was the first person to make space his permanent resting place. In 1992, some of his ashes were launched into orbit aboard the space shuttle Columbia. More of his ashes went to space aboard a private spacecraft in 1997.
Wrist Mirrors
Apollo astronauts had a tough time leaning over. This made reading the frame counter on their cameras difficult, since it was fixed to the front of the spacesuit. The wrist mirror, however, helped the Apollo 16 and 17 astronauts read how much film they had left. (The mirrors were also useful for shining lights into dark areas.) When they lifted off, they left some of these mirrors on the moon.
The youngest man to walk on the moon, Charles Duke, left a picture of him with his wife and two children on the lunar surface. On the back is written: “This is the family of astronaut Charlie Duke from planet Earth who landed on the moon on April 20, 1972.”
Used Wet Wipes
The used wet wipes discarded on the lunar surface were rather useless when it came to their original purpose. Moon dust is surprisingly static. According to the Soil Science Society of America, “Cleaning the resulting charged particles with wet wipes only makes [the dust] cling harder to camera lenses and helmet visors.”
When Alan Shepard visited the moon with Apollo 14, he used a modified sample device to wack some golf balls. Shepard joked that his second shot traveled “miles and miles.” (More like a couple yards.) While the balls are still sitting in the lunar sand traps, the “club” now rests at the USGA Museum in New Jersey.
Laser Range Retroreflector
Nearly every item left on the moon is junk, discarded to lighten a return trip’s load. One exception: The Laser Range Retroreflectors on the moon’s surface. These devices (special mirrors that reflect light in a particular way) are still used to measure the distance between Earth and the moon to an accuracy of three centimeters. The data has even helped test Einstein’s theory of relativity.
In February 2018, SpaceX launched a Tesla Roadster and a mannequin wearing the company’s namesake spacesuit into orbit. The launch was, ostensibly, a demonstration of the Falcon Rocket. But it was also a publicity stunt, with the car playing David Bowie’s “Life on Mars” on loop. To our knowledge, the jam is still playing.
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Whether you’re venturing out to a new restaurant or sharing a home-cooked meal with friends, chances are most of the foods you encounter are pretty self-explanatory. Mashed potatoes, scrambled eggs, or chocolate cake — even without much of a description, it’s usually easy to discern what will be gracing your plate. But even some of the culinary delights that have become standard American fare carry unusual monikers that may have you wondering about their mysterious origins. Let the backstory on these seven oddly named foods give your brain a mental palate refresher.
Despite originating in Germany, hot dogs are an essential American food — an estimated 7 billion hot dogs are served up each summer in the U.S. alone. And with that many sausages on the grill, the name for a food that doesn’t involve any actual dogs has become completely mainstream. But where did it come from? Some food historians believe that early songs and jokes gave the wieners their name, suggesting that sausage meat came from dogs. But a more likely story is that German butchers named early American frankfurters “dachshund sausages” after the long and skinny dogs they resembled, which was eventually shortened to “hot dogs.”
Beware the common confusion about sweetbreads: They’re neither sugary nor baked. That’s because sweetbreads aren’t at all a pastry, but instead a type of offal (organ meats). These small cutlets are actually the thymus and pancreas glands from calves or lambs. While sweetbreads may seem off-putting to some diners, they’re known by many chefs to be exceptionally tender with a mild flavor — which could explain their misleading name. The first recorded mention of the British dish dates to the 1500s, a time when “bread” (also written “brede”) was the word for roasted or grilled meats. In conjunction with being more delicate and flavorful than tougher cuts, the name “sweetbread” likely took hold.
There’s no dairy involved in making head cheese. In fact, the dish more closely resembles a meatloaf than a slice or wedge of spreadable cheese. That’s because head cheese is actually an aspic — a savory gelatin packed with scraps of meat and molded into a sliceable block. As for the name, head cheese gets its label in part from the remnants of meat collected from butchered hog heads. And while not a cheese, it’s likely the dish is named such because early recipes called for pressing the boiled meats together in a cheese mold. Head cheese is popular throughout the world, especially in Europe, where it’s known by less-confusing names. In the U.K. butchers call the dish “brawn,” and meat-eaters in Germany refer to it as “souse.”
Most bread names are self-explanatory: cinnamon-raisin, sandwich wheat, potato bread. So what exactly is a “pumpernickel”? Originating in Germany, this dark and hefty bread combines rye flour, molasses, and sourdough starter for a dough that bakes at low heat for a whole day. Many American pumpernickel bakers speed up the process by using yeast and wheat flour, which makes for a lighter loaf that reduces (or altogether removes) pumpernickel’s namesake side effect: flatulence. German bakers of old acknowledged the bread’s gas-inducing ability with an unsavory nickname: pumpern meaning “to break wind,” and nickel for “goblin or devil.” Put together, the translation reads as “devil’s fart” — a reference to how difficult pumpernickel could be on the digestive tract.
If there’s any vegetable that suffers from bad branding, it may just be the Jerusalem artichoke — a bumpy root crop that’s not actually an artichoke and doesn’t have any link to Israel. Unlike their real counterparts, Jerusalem artichokes are actually the edible tuber roots of a sunflower species, similar in appearance to ginger root (real artichokes produce purple, thistle-like flowers that turn into above-ground edible bulbs). Jerusalem artichokes were first called “sunroots” by Indigenous Americans, who shared the tubers with French explorers in the early 1600s. Upon arriving back in France, the vegetables were called topinambours. Italian cooks renamed them girasole, aka “sunflower,” in reference to their above-ground buds. As sunroots spread throughout Europe, the girasole morphed into “Jerusalem” thanks to mispronunciation, with the addition of “artichoke” in reference to the vegetable’s flavor.
Few foods are universal, but pancakes may be the exception. While they may be made with culture or region-specific ingredients, nearly every country has some variation of the pancake. Queue the Dutch baby, a baked treat with a name that misidentifies both its origin and size. Also known as a German pancake or pfannkuchen, Dutch babies are a blend of popovers and crepes baked in a large skillet or cast-iron pan, topped with fruit, syrup, or powdered sugar. So how did these dinner-plate-sized pancakes get their most popular moniker? Culinary legend attributes the misnomer to the daughter of a Seattle restaurant owner, who mistakenly subbed “Dutch” for “Deutsch” (meaning German). The eatery downsized its versions into miniature servings and deemed the pancakes “Dutch babies.”
Close-up of the The grasshopper pie dessert.
Grasshopper Pie
Insects are protein-packed main courses in many countries, but the idea of chomping down on bugs isn’t appealing to all stomachs. Luckily, this bug-branded dessert is entirely free of its namesake insect. Grasshopper pie features a cookie crust and fluffy filling made from whipped cream, mint and chocolate liqueurs, and green food coloring. Fittingly, grasshopper pie often makes its appearance at springtime celebrations just as the leaping bugs are emerging from their winter slumber, but that’s not where the name comes from. While hitting peak popularity during the 1950s and ‘60s, grasshopper pie is actually a dessert version of the grasshopper cocktail, which first debuted some four decades prior. Philibert Guichet, a New Orleans restaurateur, invented the drink as part of a cocktail competition in 1919, naming his creation for its bright green hue.
Nicole Garner Meeker
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Nicole Garner Meeker is a writer and editor based in St. Louis. Her history, nature, and food stories have also appeared at Mental Floss and Better Report.
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Bunnies are one of the harbingers of springtime, whether they’re feasting in newly green fields or nibbling on freshly planted gardens and the first soft blooms of the year. Some, like the mythical Easter Bunny, even perform the much-welcomed deed of delivering baskets of chocolate or facilitating a large-scale Easter egg hunt. Here are six facts about rabbits to ponder.
More than 29 species of wild rabbits can be found throughout the world, on every continent except for Antarctica. However, one region has an exceptional population: North America is home to nearly half of the world’s rabbits, and the species has developed more biodiversity there than on any other continent. Australia, conversely, doesn’t have any native rabbit species; the European rabbit was introduced by immigrants for sport hunting there in the late 1700s, and today the creatures are considered invasive.
The word “hare” is often used interchangeably with “rabbit,” though it’s not an accurate swap, since rabbits and hares are actually separate species within the Leporidae family. The species have major temperament and anatomical differences, starting from birth. Hares have longer pregnancies than rabbits (about 42 days compared to about 30 days), and their newborns, called leverets, are fully developed when born, meaning they have fur and can open their eyes. Rabbits, on the other hand, are born earlier and have no fur, and they can’t open their eyes until about a week later. Both animals have sleek pelts that shed, but only hares have dramatically color-changing fur; for example, the snowshoe hare sheds its summertime brown pelt for a white coat as cooler weather arrives, allowing it to blend into snowy ecosystems.
While rabbits can be domesticated as pets or livestock, hares are incredibly skittish and untrusting. In the wild, rabbits live communally in colonies of up to 20 bunnies, and dig extensive underground tunnels called warrens. Hares (which do not burrow) aren’t as sociable, but will group up at mealtimes to safely forage for food. If frightened, hares can move at top speeds, covering distances equal to 37 of their body lengths per second — in comparison, cheetahs, the world’s fastest land animal, only move at 23 body lengths per second.
Despite being blind for their first week of life, rabbits develop an amazing range of vision. Once they can peek through their eyelids, bunnies have a nearly 360-degree view, which helps them spot predators. Rabbits also have the ability to sleep with their eyes open, because of a nictitating membrane, aka a translucent third eyelid, which keeps the eyes moist.
Beyond their eyes, bunnies rely on two other noteworthy senses — their sound and smell. Rabbits breathe only through their noses, which allows them to smell the world around them, even while eating, and detect danger. Their ears are also incredibly sensitive; rabbits can rotate each ear 180 degrees, picking up on sounds and potential threats up to 2 miles away.
The Word “Bunny” Was Once Used for Both Rabbits and Squirrels
Modern English speakers often refer to rabbits as bunnies, a word that likely came from 16th-century England. Back then, the word “bun” was used in England for both rabbits and squirrels. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “bunny” appears to have become a more widely used term by the 1700s.
Elsewhere in Europe, rabbits were called “coneys,” from the French word conil, with further roots in the Latin word cuniculus. The term “rabbit” was often used for young coneys, but over time “rabbit” became the more popular word. Today, the word “coney” survives in the place name Coney Island.
One Hare Breed Caused an Adoption Frenzy in the Early 1900s
Beatrix Potter, the Victorian-era author behind The Tale of Peter Rabbit and The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies, had a love for rabbits and hares — which just so happened to be a popular pet in the late 19th century. Some, like the Belgian hare (which Potter owned and based her Peter Rabbit character on) became so sought-after that adopting one was an extravagant purchase. Belgian hares were first bred in their namesake Belgium, using both domestic and wild hares, and made their way to American rabbit shows in 1877. Between 1898 and 1901, thousands were imported to the U.S. for adoring buyers.
A near-mania called the “Belgian hare boom” emerged, with hares sold at extravagant prices, including a record $5,000 for one creature (about $179,000 today). Around 1900, it was believed that more than 60,000 Belgian hares could be found in Southern California alone. However, like all fads, the Belgian hare market burst when the breed fell out of favor around 1917, and by the 1940s, they were scarcely seen in the U.S. Today, breeders have worked to keep Belgian hares from going extinct.
There are many theories as to how bunnies became associated with Easter — like the supposed Anglo-Saxon goddess who turned an egg-laying bird into a rabbit, or how Neolithic communities in Europe buried hares in religious rituals. What is known is that by the 1600s, English hunters specifically sought out hares for Easter meals, possibly linked to a folk tradition thought to scare away witches, who supposedly took the form of hares to cause mischief and illness.
Around the same time, German children celebrated spring’s arrival by receiving gifts from the “Easter hare,” whom they anticipated by making nests for the hare to lay its eggs — possibly the origin of the Easter basket. German immigrants relocating to America brought this tradition with them, and over time it transformed into the chocolate-delivering Easter Bunny many children await each spring.
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In an increasingly cashless society, all physical currency has become comparatively rare: It’s never been easier for most people to simply use their debit card, Venmo, or saved payment information to complete most of their purchases. Even so, approximately $1.87 trillion in physical U.S. currency is still in circulation — the vast majority of which naturally consists of the six most common notes ($1, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100). They weren’t always the most common, however, as America has produced many now-rare forms of currency throughout its financial history. Here are six of them.
The next time you’re charged a fraction of a penny for something and bemoan the fact that you don’t have exact change, feel free to curse fate — and the U.S. Mint — for discontinuing the half-cent coin way back in 1857. Making the humble penny look like big money in comparison, it was introduced as a result of the Coinage Act of 1792 and had five different designs during its run. All of them were variations of Liberty herself, and the coin was made of 100% copper. A fraction of a cent is referred to as a mill (₥), a now-abstract unit of currency that lives on in accounting (and occasionally gas prices); milles were usually used for small purchases such as sales tax before losing most of their real-world value.
No childhood was complete without a random $2 bill stored away for a rainy day, especially if it was gifted to you by a relative. Every kiddo’s favorite banknote featured Thomas Jefferson on the front (or obverse, as it’s called) and John Trumbull’s painting “Declaration of Independence” on the back (reverse), with the U.S. Currency Education Program estimating that there are still 1.2 billion in circulation.
A lesser-known fact is that the note is actually still issued by the Federal Reserve Board, which orders new currency from the Treasury’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) every year. Unlike the bills you’re more familiar with, however, the $2 bill is only ordered every two to four years. There’s a good reason for that: Most of these orders are to replace notes that have received too much wear and tear to remain in everyday use; because $2s aren’t used as often, they don’t need to be replaced as often. In some ways, this is actually a self-fulfilling prophecy: Because people think the bills are uncommon, they treat them that way, inadvertently ensuring that they maintain this rarefied status.
Though it hasn’t been in circulation since 1969, the $500 bill is unique among discontinued currencies in that it’s still considered legal tender. First introduced on a federal level in 1862, the high-denomination bill featured everyone from John Quincy Adams and William Tecumseh Sherman to Abraham Lincoln and William McKinley throughout its tenure. Now a sought-after collector’s item, it’s worth much more than $500 if you can get your hands on one.
Credit: Heritage Auctions Lot 4032, 23 April 2014
Three-Cent Coin
The problem with three-cent stamps is that there’s no way to buy them without receiving change back. Prepare to be amazed, dear reader, as such a coin used to exist from 1851-1889: the noble three-cent piece, whose convenience was unmatched in antebellum America. They were made of silver, which helped lead to their downfall — that precious metal was frequently hoarded during the Civil War, meaning that the three-cent coin wasn’t as widely circulated as it was intended to be. Then, when the price of stamps was eventually increased, our intrepid hero’s utility was drastically reduced and it stopped being produced.
There’s rare, and then there’s the $5,000 bill. Originally created to help fund the Revolutionary War, this fine specimen didn’t come into official government use until 1868, when another history-altering war was raging. It was blessed with a portrait of our fourth president (or James Madison, as his friends called him) and recalled by the 37th, one Richard Nixon, in an effort to prevent money launderers from carrying out their ill deeds with its assistance. Only a few hundred remain, making them as valuable as they are rare.
Everyone knows that the $100 bill is the highest denomination of U.S. currency. What the $100,000 bill presupposes is … maybe it isn’t? The note, which featured an image of Woodrow Wilson on the obverse, was never issued for public use or circulated into the general economy. Rather, the gold certificate was created at the height of the Great Depression (1934, to be precise) by the BEP for Federal Reserve Banks to make transactions with one another. Only 42,000 were made, and they can’t be held by collectors due to legal reasons, but institutions like the Smithsonian and the Museum of American Finance are allowed to exhibit them.
Michael Nordine
Staff Writer
Michael Nordine is a writer and editor living in Denver. A native Angeleno, he has two cats and wishes he had more.
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