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Did You Know?
Why do people snore?
Vibrations of soft tissues located at the back of our throats cause the noisy, annoying sounds of snoring that sometimes prevent non-snorers from getting their ZZZZs.
The palate, uvula and tonsils are the tissue structures that flap against each other when someone has too much tissue at the back of their mouth or when an obstruction is blocking the air passageway to the back of the throat.
People with snoring problems tend to have one of the following conditions:
Poor muscle tone in the tongue and throat
Excessive bulkiness of throat tissue
Long soft palate and/or uvula tissue in the back of the mouth
Obstructed nasal airways
Snoring can be a serious medical problem because it disturbs sleeping patterns and deprives the snorer of necessary rest.
Did you know?
20% of the population experiences snoring problems.
Males and obese people have more problems with snoring.
Snoring tends to be louder when a person sleeps on their back.
There are more than 300 devices registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to help cure snoring.
Why do we get hiccups?
When you hiccup, your diaphragm involuntarily contracts. (The diaphragm is a dome-shaped muscle that separates the chest cavity from the abdomen. It plays an extremely important role in breathing.)
This contraction of the diaphragm then causes an immediate and brief closure of the vocal cords, which produces the characteristic sound of a hiccup. What actually causes the hiccup is difficult to say - in most instances, there is no obvious cause.
Attacks of the hiccups seem to be associated with a few different things: eating or drinking too fast; being nervous or excited; or having irritation in the stomach and/or throat.
In some extremely rare cases, the underlying cause of hiccups can be pleurisy (inflammation of the membrane lining of the lungs and chest cavity), pneumonia, certain disorders of the stomach or esophagus, pancreatitis, alcoholism, or hepatitis. Any one of these conditions can cause irritation of the diaphragm or of the phrenic nerves that supply the diaphragm - it's the irritation that causes the hiccups.
Still, the cause of most attacks of the hiccups remains a mystery.
Why do my feet smell?
The culprits in foot odor are sweat eating bacteria.
The problem begins when bacteria become attracted to the sweat on your feet and start feeding on it.
The bacteria's excretion has a strong odor that causes your feet to smell bad.
Since each foot has over 250,000 sweat glands in it, and produces over a pint of sweat a day there's a lot for the bacteria to eat.
What makes the situation worse are shoes and socks which trap the sweat on your skin. Now the bacteria have their favorite kind of environment: dark and damp, causing them to go into a feeding frenzy. More waste is excreted, and when you take off your socks and shoes, your nose is presented with the results!
Why do some people's feet smell more than others?
The simple answer is, some people sweat more than others. That's also the reason why your own foot odor can vary. You might sweat more at different parts of the day. The more you sweat, the more your feet will smell.
How can foot odor be reduced?
Since more sweat equals more bacteria and more odor, the amount of sweat that collects on your feet must be decreased. This will lessen your bacteria load as well.
� Always wear clean socks. It is even recommended you change sock throughout the day.
� Wash your feet with anti-bacterial soap. This won't lessen the sweat, but it will kill bacteria.
� Give a pair of shoes 24 hours to air out after every wearing. The sweat will evaporate.
� Avoid restrictive shoes like, boots. Well-ventilated shoes whisk away sweat.
� Wear socks made of absorbent materials, like cotton. The sock will soak up the sweat leaving the bacteria nothing to feed on.
� Apply antiperspirant to you feet.
Putting inserts in shoes will mask part of the problem, but they won't solve it as they fail to kill bacteria. If your foot odor is really strong, the best method of prevention is to see a doctor. There are several prescriptions available to treat foot odor.
Where did Band-Aids come from?
Earle Dickson, an employee of Johnson and Johnson developed the Band-Aid� in 1920 for his accident-prone wife, Josephine. His employer, Johnson and Johnson, a company launched by pharmacist Robert Johnson and his two brothers, produced large, dry, cotton and gauze dressings, which remained sterile in germ-resistant packaging until opened. They formed their Company upon the premise set forth by Sir Joseph Lister, of Listerine fame, at a speech given in Philadelphia in 1876, that surgical procedures should be sterile, to reduce the alarmingly high post-operative mortality rates, which were 90% in Britain at the time.
Earle attached small pieces of this sterile gauze, produced by his employer, to the center of strips of surgical tape to bandage poor Josephine's wounds. A colleague of his encouraged him to pitch his invention to Management, which he did. Management initially dismissed his idea, but later reversed its position when Earle demonstrated how easily the bandage could easily be applied by oneself. The powers that be realized the earning potential of this invention, snatched Earle's idea, and ran with it.
The original bandages Johnson and Johnson produced, were not only handmade, but were rather large in size at 2 1/2" in width, and 18" in length. Needless to say, first year sales left much to be desired. By 1924, Johnson and Johnson revamped the production process of the Band-Aid� by using machines, and by cutting down the size of the product. Sales skyrocketed, and Earle's vision became a reality.
By the time of his death in 1961, after being rewarded by Johnson and Johnson with a token vice-presidency and later with a seat on the Board of Directors, sales of the Band-Aid� exceeded $30,000,000, and production to date exceeds one hundred billion. All of this wealth can be attributed to a frustrated husband with an idea, a clumsy, accident prone wife, a piece of sterile gauze, and a piece of surgical tape.
Who invented matches?
The quest for ways to ignite a fire began about 1.5 million years ago, when the caveman discovered that he could start a fire by rubbing two sticks together, and ended with the successful invention of the non-toxic matches we use today.
Today, approximately 500 billion matches are used each year and about 200 billion of these come from matchbooks.
In 1669, an alchemist, one who mistakenly believes that he can change base metals into gold, mixed up a batch of something which was, surprisingly, not gold, but a substance he named phosphorous. Since his recipe did not produce the gold he desired, he tossed it onto the heap of history.
Next was Robert Boyle, an English physicist, after whom Boyle's Law was named. He cleverly coated a piece of paper with phosphorous and, armed with a splinter of sulfur-coated wood, bravely bulled the wood through the paper, which burst into flames.
Much later, in 1826, John Walker stumbled upon a chemical concoction that produced fire. After stirring together a mixture of chemicals, which did not contain phosphorous, John removed the stick he used, only to find a dried lump at its end. When he scraped the stick against the floor to rid it of the lump, the stick ignited. His mixture of antimony sulfide, potassium chlorate, gum, and starch could produce fire. In his rush to demonstrate his discovery to others, John bypassed the patent office.
In no time, a person at one of John's demonstrations, Samuel Jones, spotted an overlooked, golden opportunity, and patented the invention under his name. Mr. Jones produced matches he named Lucifers, which produced phenomenal sales. The widespread availability of the matches actually led to a significant increase in smoking.
The dark side to Lucifers was their ungodly odor, and the fireworks display they gave when ignited. In fact, Lucifers carried a warning label stating that they, not the cigarettes they lit, were dangerous to one's health!
In the 1830s, Charles Sauria, a French chemist, decided to improve upon the existing formula by adding white phosphorous to do away with the stench of the matches. What Mr. Sauria did not know, was that white phosphorous was lethal to those who came into contact with it.
Unknowingly, he created a deadly monster by adding the white phosphorous. The phosphorous was responsible for a nearly epidemic disease known as "phossy jaw," match factory workers developed poisoned bones, and children who sucked on the matches developed infant skeletal deformities. Even the amount of white phosphorous contained in one pack of matches could kill a person, and actually did, through numerous suicides and murders.
Finally, by 1910, the general public's awareness of the dangers of the white phosphorous in these matches led to a worldwide campaign to ban them. Thankfully, Diamond Match Company obtained an U.S. patent for the first nonpoisonous match, which used the harmless chemical sesquisulfide of phosphorous in place of the deadly white phosphorous.
So critical was Diamond Match Company's discovery to public health, that U.S. President Taft made a public plea to the Company voluntarily to surrender their patent rights to the invention. Despite the enormous moneymaking potential of the patent, Diamond Match Company granted President Taft's request on January 28, 1911. Congress followed suit by passing a law that raised the tax on white phosphorous matches to a level so high that their production soon ceased.
Discussion of the match would be incomplete without mention of the matchbook. John Pusey, in 1892, invented something he named the matchbook. He had the right idea, but had it backwards, as he placed the striking surface for the match on the inside of the book of 50 matches, so when one match was struck, the remaining 49 also ignited!
Once again, Diamond Match Company intervened and saved the day, by purchasing the patent to the matchbook, by moving the striking surface to the outside of the cover where it belonged, and by marketing the revamped match as the "safety match."
Why do clock run Clockwise?
Mechanical clocks were invented in the northern hemisphere by inventors who were trying to make models of the sun's movement in the sky.
To watch the sun from the northern hemisphere, you have to face south. Then the sun will rise on your left and pass over your head to set on your right. Since the hour hand on the clock was made to follow the sun's motion through the sky, it moves from left to right over the top of the clock - clockwise. The hands are actually modeled after the shadow on a sundial.
What would happen if there was no dust?
Most of us who have ever cleaned a house would be much happier if there were less dust.
However, without dust there would be less rainfall and sunsets would be less beautiful.
Rain is formed when water molecules in the air collect around particles of dust. When the collected water becomes heavy enough the water droplet falls to the earth as rain. Thus water vapor could be much less likely to turn to rain without the dust particles.
The water vapor and dust particles also serve to reflect the rays of the sun. At sunrise and sunset, when the sun is below the horizon, the dust and water vapor molecules reflect the longer, red, wavelengths of light such that we can see them for more time (starting earlier in the case of sunrise and lasting longer in the case of sunset) than any of the other wavelengths. The more dust particles in the air the more colorful the sunrise or sunset.
Why are stoplights Red, Yellow and Green?
Stoplights are red, yellow, and green, because traffic officials, early on copied the code system railroad engineers devised for track systems controlling the trains.
The goal of the railroad engineers in crafting this code was to prevent often fatal train collisions, by giving the trains advance warning. Therefore they did not take their task lightly in selecting the symbolic colors for the signals.
Red, the color of blood, proved a logical choice for the stop signal, as for thousands of years, this color forbade danger. The color alone, railroad engineers reasoned, should give people cause to pause, to abide by the signal, and to stop or suffer the consequences of death and destruction.
Engineers used the trial and error method in selecting the other colors. The first trial in the 1830s, that of choosing green for the caution signal, and clear for the go signal, failed miserably. Clear as a choice for the go signal, varied slightly from the light cast from typical street lamps, or from the glare of the sunlight, and, thus could quite easily be mistaken for the go signal...after the fact.
This failure prompted the railroad engineers to alter their color selections to red for stop, green for go, and yellow for caution. Traffic engineers, either lacking in ingenuity or a work ethic, scurried off with this system of color coding, and instituted the very first electric stoplight in Cleveland, Ohio in 1914. The first signal did not include the color yellow for caution, but that was later added within a few years. Railroad engineers, not traffic engineers, should be credited for the lives saved in the interim, by their system of coding warning signals red, yellow, and green.
How do mirrors work?
We see objects in a mirror, because a mirror, when hit by particles of light called photons, reflects the photons back to us and some reach, and enter, our eyes. Photons that hit a rough surface will bounce off of the surface in a haphazard manner, while those that hit a smooth surface, such as a mirror, only bounce off of the surface at the same angle at which they hit the object. The scientific term for this phenomenon is reflection.
Not all smooth surfaces reflect photons back to us, even though, technically, they should bounce back at the same angle at which they hit the surface. This exception to the rule results, because some smooth surfaces absorb the light particles hitting them, making it impossible for them to bounce back.
Another apparent exception to this rule is that, although our bodies are rough, uneven surfaces, off of which light bounces at random angles, our images reflect off of a mirror. The reason for this apparent contradiction is simply that when we stand in front of a mirror, some, but not all, of the light particles bouncing off of us will hit the smooth surface of the mirror. The ones that do reflect our images back to our eyes at exactly the same angle at which they hit the mirror.
In other words, photons that bounce off of any part of our bodies and hit the mirror reflect back to our eyes from only one place on the mirror, and at only one angle. It follows that each point on our bodies that reflects back to our eyes from one point on the mirror produces an image in the mirror. All of the images together make up our reflections, like it or not. And remember that mirrors don't lie!
Did you know?
a "mirror image " is actually a backward image.
Why do we get a shock from electricity?
To fully understand why the chance encounter of these two electrical forces results in a shock to our systems, we must first understand the fundamentals of electricity itself.
In scientific terms, electricity is considered a fundamental force, one that is extremely basic, and has been in existence since the beginning of time. Further simplified, it is so basic, that it defies explanation, and is Mother Nature's way of saying "Because I said so"!
Electricity comprises positive and negative charges, opposite charges attract each other, and similar charges repel each other. Those charges attracted to each other can be separated, with the end product being potential energy, that is, energy that will be released as voltage, should the two reunite. We pay electric companies to separate the positive and negative charges for us, so that we have electrical energy at our disposal.
In order for the charges to reunite, and for the potential energy to be released as voltage, a conductor, a channel that they can flow through, is needed. Insulators, such as paper and glass make poor conductors, while wire and water make excellent conductors. Unfortunately, since the human body consists primarily of water, it too provides a superb conductor for electrical energy, or voltage.
If, by chance, outside electrical energy enters our bodies, now conductors, we will be shocked when the voltage encounters, and interferes with, the internal electrical energy our nervous systems produce. The shocks to our bodies, and the amount of damage the electricity does to them, depends upon the voltage our bodies are subjected to, upon its level of energy, and upon how much our bodies resist the flow of the electrical energy.
When we are shocked, a variety of things may occur, none of which is desirable. Our muscles may twitch, we may experience problems in the nerve centers that control our breathing, or we may experience problems with our heart rhythms. The worst case scenario from being shocked is death.
Why is it that if you tickle yourself it doesn't tickle?
There are so many external and internal stimuli hitting you at once that your brain has learned to filter them out.
The first ones that get ignored are ones that you do; which is why you probably don't notice your vocal chords when you talk, your tongue movements when you chew and why you can't tickle yourself.
When you are tickled, your laughter is the reaction that occurred because that ticklish feeling sends us into a state of panic. You most likely weren't expecting that person to sneak up behind you and tickle your sides, were you? This was probably a defense mechanism that developed in our cave-men ancestors to detect predators.
When you try to tickle yourself you are in complete control of the situation, there is no need to get tense and therefore there is no reaction.
The part of the brain that cancels out stimuli it is expecting is called the cerebellum. The cauliflower-like mass can be found at the back, under the brain. The cerebellum is known to basically be the party planner, it coordinates movement control in relation to sensory signals received in other areas of your brain.
It is possible to tickle yourself though!!!
You would have to fool your cerebellum. Studies have shown that with as little of a 200-millisecond delay between you moving your hand and the tickling, you would react. However there is only one way to do this- by remote control.
Did you know?
Science has been able to design a robot that allows people to tickle themselves. To use the machine you would have to lie on your back with your eyes closed. The robot, located near you, would have a piece of soft foam attached to a plastic rod which you would control by joystick. You would maneuver the remote control and after a short delay, would respond. This takes advantage of the delay in the cerebellum.
What is a fart and why does it smell?
Ever pull someone's finger and hear a weird noise come out of his or her butt?
Ever sit in a tub of water and see bubbles come out of your hiney?
This strange noise and vibrating sensation that came from your butt is most likely caused by a fart.
A fart is a combination of gases (nitrogen, carbon dioxide, oxygen, methane, and hydrogen sulfide) that travels from a person's stomach to their anus. When a person swallows too much air or eats foods that the human digestive system cannot digest easily gas becomes trapped in his/her stomach. The only way for this excess gas to exit the body is through the anus.
The gas that makes your farts stink is the hydrogen sulfide gas. This gas contains sulfur which causes farts to have a smelly odor. The more sulfur rich your diet, the more your farts will stink. Some foods that cause really smelly farts include: beans, cabbage, cheese, soda, and eggs.
A scientific name for a fart is flatus or flatulence.
The word fart is just one of many different terms used to describe the release of gasses from the human body. Other popular names for farts or farting include: gassers, stinkers, air biscuits, bombers, barking spiders, rotten eggs, and wet ones. You can pass gas, break wind, blast, beef, poof, rip one, let one fly, step on a duck, and cut the cheese.
Farts can be stinky, wet, loud, or silent but deadly. Pee-eeew!!!
Did you know?
On the average, a healthy person farts 16 times a day.
Hey guys, don't be fooled by girls who tell you that they never fart. Everyone farts, including girls. In fact, females fart just as much as males.
Many animals fart too. Cats, dogs, and cows. Elephants fart the most.
People fart the most in their sleep.
Farts that contain a large amount of methane & hydrogen can be flammable.
How does a thermometer tell the temperature?
A thermometer measures temperature through a glass tube sealed with mercury that expands or contracts as the temperature rises or falls.
The tiny size of the bulb and micro-fine size of the tube help the mercury reach the temperature of what it is measuring very rapidly.
Bulb thermometers follow the simple principle that liquids change their volumes relative to their temperature. As temperatures rise, the mercury-filled bulb expands into the capillary tube. Its rate of expansion is calibrated on the glass scale. Two different scales can be found on thermometers--the Fahrenheit scale and the Celsius scale.
With the Fahrenheit scale, Daniel Fahrenheit decided that the freezing and boiling points of water would be separated by 180 degrees and he pegged freezing water at 32 degrees. So he made a thermometer, stuck it in freezing water, and marked the level of the mercury on the glass as 32 degrees. Then he stuck the same thermometer in boiling water and marked it 212 degrees. He then put 180 evenly spaced marks between those two points.
In Celsius scale, Anders Celsius decided that the freezing and boiling points of water would be separated by 100 degrees and he made the freezing point of water at 100 degrees. (His scale was later inverted, so the boiling point of water became 100 degrees and the freezing point became 0 degrees.)
Bulb thermometers are most commonly found in two places--outside on our porches measuring the temperatures outside or under our tongues measuring our bodily temperatures.
With the age the technology came the invention of other types of thermometers. Each different type of thermometer has their own distinctive means of measuring or controlling temperature. For instance, bimetallic strip thermometers are extremely effective for controlling temperatures. Although bulb thermometers are good for measuring temperature accurately, they are harder to maintain set temperatures.
While bulb thermometers measure our changing temperatures when we feel feverish, bimetallic strip thermometers help us bake our favorite cakes by maintaining a set temperature in ovens. The bimetallic strip thermometer, because it is made of metal, is good at maintaining the same temperature for a long period of time.
Recent technology has created new ways to measure temperatures with electronics. The most common device is known as a thermoresistor (or thermistor). This sensor changes its resistance with changes in temperature. A computer or other electronic circuit measures the resistance and converts it to a temperature, either to display it or to make decisions about turning something on or off.
The heat is on�
The first attempt to make a standard temperature scale was done by Galen in AD 170. In his medical writings, Galen created a standard "neutral" temperature consisting of equal quantities of boiling water and ice. On each side of this "neutral" temperature were four degrees of heat and four degrees of cold.
The earliest devices that were used to measure temperature were referred to as thermoscopes. A thermoscope was a glass bulb with a long tube extending downward into a container of colored water.
Did you know?
In 1610 Galileo supposedly used wine instead of water in thermoscopes.
In 1641, the first sealed thermometer that used liquid rather than air as the thermometric medium was invented for Ferdinand II, Grand Duke of Tuscany. His thermometer used a sealed alcohol-in-glass device, with 50 "degree" marks on its stem but no "fixed point" was used to zero the scale. These were referred to as "spirit" thermometers.
Robert Hook, Curator of the Royal Society, created in 1664 the thermometer that eventually became the standard temperature-measuring instrument of Gresham College and was used by the Royal Society until 1709. (The first intelligible meteorological records used this scale).
Mercury's unique characteristics are perfect for measuring temperatures for the following reasons:
It has large and uniform expansion abilities,
Its silvery appearance allows for easy reading,
Its ability to remain a liquid over a wide range of temperatures.
Where did the Yo-Yo come from?
Some inventions begin as one thing, and wind up as another.
In ancient Greece, the toy was made of wood, metal, and terra cotta with the two halves of the yo-yo decorated with pictures of gods. As a rite of passage into adulthood, Greek children often gave up their toys and placed them on an altar to pay homage to their gods. Around 1800, the yo-yo made its way to Europe from the Orient. In Britain it was called the "bandalore," " quiz," or the "Prince of Wales' toy." The French used the names "incroyable" and "l'emigrette."
In the Philippines around 1500, the Yo-Yo was a weapon. It consisted of a four pound stone attached to a rope about 20 feet long. Tribesmen used it in two ways. When hunting, they stood off to one side, held one end of the rope and threw the rock towards the legs of an animal. The rope became tangled around the animals legs, and with a tug, the hunter brought the animal down. Against enemies, the stones would be dropped on their heads. The tribesmen would quickly recover the stones, ready for a second blow if necessary.
The modern story of the yo-yo starts with a young gentleman from the Philippines named Pedro Flores. In the 1920s, he moved to the USA, and worked as a bellhop at a Santa Monica hotel. Carving and playing with wooden yo-yos was a traditional pastime in the Philippines, but Pedro found that his lunch break yo-yo playing drew a crowd at the hotel. He started a company to make the toys, calling it the Flores Yo-Yo Company. This was the first appearance of the name "yo-yo," which means "come-come" in the native Filipino language of Tagalog.
Donald F. Duncan, an entrepreneur who had already introduced the Eskimo Pie, Good Humor Ice Cream, was co-patent holder of a four-wheel hydraulic automobile brake, and would later popularize the parking meter, first encountered the yo-yo during a business trip to California. A year later, in 1929, he returned and bought the company from Flores, acquiring not only a unique toy, but also the magic name "yo-yo." About this time, Duncan introduced the looped slip-string, which allows the yo-yo to sleep - a necessity for advanced tricks.
Throughout the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, Duncan promoted yo-yos with innovative programs of demonstrations and contests. All of the classic tricks were developed during this period, as legendary players toured the country teaching kids and carving thousands of yo-yos with pictures of palm trees and birds. During the 1950s, Duncan introduced the first plastic yo-yos and the Butterfly� shaped yo-yo, which is much easier to land on the string for complex tricks. Duncan also began marketing spin tops during this period.
The biggest yo-yo boom in history (until 1995) hit in 1962, following Duncan's innovative use of TV advertising. Financial losses at the end of the boom and a costly lawsuit to protect the yo-yo trademark from competitors forced the Duncan family out of business in the late 60s. Flambeau Products, who made Duncan's plastic models, bought the company and still owns it today.
The genuine Duncan yo-yo is a classic toy that has endured for 70 years. With more than 600 million sold, it is probably the most popular toy in history, and was recently inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.
Why do doughnuts have holes?
The question as to why doughnuts have holes has been raised by dozens of bakers over the years, but most agree that the answer to this sticky question lies in the fact that the interior of these fried cakes would not cook fully without a hole in the center. In short, the consistency of a doughnut lacking a hole would be, quite simply, doughy.
Another riveting theory as to the origin of the bulls eye in the doughnut holds that a sea captain named Hanson Gregory, while manning his post one stormy night, found it impossible both to steer his vessel and to eat his fried cake. Out of sheer frustration, and probably out of hunger, he impaled his cake over one of the spokes of the ship's wheel, thereby creating a finger hold with which to grip the cake. Quite pleased with his ingenuity, Mr. Gregory ordered the galley's cook to fry the cakes in that manner henceforth.
Whatever the reason for the hole in the doughnut, this fried cake, with or without a hole, has been incorporated into the diets of people throughout the world for centuries. In fact, archaeologists found petrified fried cakes with holes amongst the artifacts of a primitive Indian tribe.
Many credit Dutch settlers to America with introducing the non-holed olykoeks, or "oily cakes," to this continent, and with their subsequent popularity.
There is no disputing the fact that the fried cake became the rage in New York and in New England, and that before long, it became the specialty of coffee shops. Fried cakes came into their own in 1673, when a self-made New York marketing guru, Anna Joralemon, made their purchase at the market possible.
To this day, doughnuts, in any shape or form, remain married in our minds to coffee and police officers, and are here to stay.
Where did the dollar sign come from?
It is only appropriate that an Irish immigrant to the United States be the one credited with originating the dollar sign. Oliver Pollock sailed the high seas at the age of twenty-three, and settled in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. This young entrepreneur rapidly established himself as a wealthy and influential West Indies trader.
Pollock moved his operation to Louisiana, where he amassed even more wealth as a trader, and as a plantation owner. His success enabled him to provide supplies to the Patriots� cause in the Revolutionary War, and to maintain close contact and a degree of influence with Congress. Pollock�s success allowed him easily to purchase military supplies to support "the cause," as the Spanish Empire had an outpost in New Orleans, Louisiana. In his dealings with the Spaniards, Pollock used their currency, the peso.
In true Spanish tradition, Pollock used an abbreviation for pesos, yet his penmanship made the abbreviation appear to be the transposition of the letters "p" and "s."
Prior to 1775, the fledgling nations monetary system was in disarray, and needed to be revamped. By 1775, Congress decided to rectify the situation by backing all of its legal tender with the most commonly circulated coins that were, coincidentally, Spanish coins minted in the New World. Americans then began trading with "Spanish milled dollars," later termed "dollars," as Americans shed the "pounds" that were the vestiges of British rule.
Congressman Robert Morris, to whom Pollock addressed his billing records, perpetuated the use of the dollar sign, and was the first high government official to give his blessing to the "s" with the two lines through it.
The appearance of the dollar sign in print, in a 1797 book by Chauncey Lee, signified the acceptance of the dollar as a purely American symbol, much as is the bald eagle. And, no, the dollar sign formed by placing the letter "U" over the letter "S" is not an abbreviation for Uncle Sam, as some have suggested!
Where does a compass really point?
A compass in the Northern Hemisphere truely does point in a northerly direction, but not to the North Pole. Instead, the compass points to the North Magnetic Pole, which, as Sir James Clark Ross discovered in 1831, is located at the northernmost point of the Artic coast of North America. Similarly, a compass in the Southern hemisphere always points to the South Magnetic Pole, which is firmly planted south of Australia, in Antarctica.
The different directions their compasses pointed, when traversing the high-seas of the Northern Hemisphere, baffled ancient mariners. Their modern counterparts understand, and compensate for, the differences in the North Pole and the Northern Magnetic Pole, and chart their courses accordingly. The differences in the poles proves minor, in comparison to the tricks the Northern Magnetic Pole pulls from its home of Boothia. The bane of boyscouts, as they attempt to navigate with, or without, the benefit of their trusty compasses, is the fact that this Pole chooses to roam about in a 20-mile circle, and to shift its course between day and night.
This 20-mile variance, however, is not one of global proportions. Modern sea-farers compensate for the Northern Magnetic Pole's perpetual motion, by using charts, and tools other than the compass. All things considered, 20 miles is a minor measure for distant travelers to take into account in adjusting their travel agenda.
Thankfully, the Southern Magnetic Pole spares sailors the navigational nightmare its Northern nemesis does. In the south, compass needles actually do point true South, to the South Magnetic field.
Can dogs see colors?
No.
Man's best friend is colorblind, but, fortunately, his survival does not depend upon the ability to see colors. His keen sense of smell compensates for his inability to see colors, and enables him to differentiate between things.
Extensive scientific testing on dogs supports the conclusion that they live in a colorless world. The testing done primarily focussed on the dogs' responses to colors for food. Dogs could not tell the difference between one color, a signal for food, and other colors, that were not for food. Similar tests conducted on cats produced similar results, which led scientists to conclude that they, too, are colorblind and live in a gray world.
The inability of most animals to see colors, from an evolutionary standpoint, is quite simple to understand. Many colorblind animals have dull-colored coats, hunt for food in the dark of night, or graze in the dim twilight hours. Their other senses have developed to the point where the lack of color vision in no way impairs them. For them, life in a colorless world is neither a handicap, nor a threat to their survival.
The only animals, other than man, scientists can conclusively say have color vision are monkeys and apes. Both can be trained to open a colored door, behind which is food, and man can be trained to open a refrigerator door of any color!
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