Not everyone has the ability to relax the ciliary muscles needed to help their eyes unfocus.

The cigarette industry diverted attention away from the dangers of cigarette fires by recruiting trusted names in fire safety to emphasize the hazards of flammable furniture. They planted Peter Sparber, a former tobacco executive inside the National Association of State Fire Marshalls, where he provided talking points and agenda notes for the other members.

“It wasn’t that they argued that cigarettes don’t cause fires, they just argued that the better way to address the problem was to have flame retardant furniture,” Callahan said.

There is a family of sharks that have evolved to “walk” on land, though they are much smaller, cuter, and less ravenous for human flesh than their counterparts on film.

These walking sharks belong to the Hemiscyllium family, which is the newest lineage of sharks on Earth, according to a study published on Monday in the journal Marine and Freshwater Research. Using specially adapted fins, the sharks are able to pull themselves across reefs in their tropical Indo-Australian habitat, even when they are not submerged by water.

Researchers used data from 65 existing studies to estimate that the Earth is home to 25 million metric tons of spiders. They then applied that number to the amount of food spiders need to consume for survival. Their findings, published in journal The Science of Nature, that the total spider population eats up to 800 million metric tons of animal prey annually.

To put that number in perspective, researchers compared the spiders’ smorgasbord to the amount of prey consumed by other, much larger species. Spiders fall in “the same order of magnitude” as whales, which eat 280-500 million tons per year, the researchers write in the study. Spiders may also exceed humans’ total animal consumption, which tallies to about 400 tons of meat and fish annually.

A husband-and-wife team created the schedule for every MLB season from 1982 to 2004, one of the most impressive streaks in baseball, until they were finally replaced by a professional computing firm. By comparison, the NBA, whose schedules were written by the Stephensons in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, switched to more advanced technology back in 1985.

The coastal waters of northern California were once home to undulating forests of bull kelp, a type of seaweed that offers shelter to a host of sea creatures. But a series of adverse ecological events have jolted the region’s marine ecosystem out of whack. Populations of purple sea urchins, a voracious, kelp-eating species, have exploded. And now, according to a new study in Scientific Reports, more than 90 percent of bull kelp canopy along 217 miles of California’s coast is gone.

A research team from the University of Nottingham, UK, estimates that there may be 36 active communicating intelligent civilizations in our home Galaxy. The team, led by Christopher Conselice, developed their own approach, which uses simple assumptions for how life developed: basically, assuming that intelligent life formed in a similar way to Earth. “There should be at least a few dozen active civilizations in our Galaxy under the assumption that it takes 5 billion years for intelligent life to form on other planets, as on Earth,” he said in a statement. “The idea is looking at evolution, but on a cosmic scale. We call this calculation the Astrobiological Copernican Limit.”

Somatic hypermutation (or SHM) is a cellular mechanism by which the immune system adapts to the new foreign elements that confront it (e.g. microbes), as seen during class switching. A major component of the process of affinity maturation, SHM diversifies B cell receptors used to recognize foreign elements (antigens) and allows the immune system to adapt its response to new threats during the lifetime of an organism.

Somatic hypermutation rates are about 106-fold higher than the background mutation rates observed in other genes

The Centripetal Spring Chair or Armchair was a 19th-century American office chair, and one of the first modern designs for office chairs.

The chair exhibited all features of today’s office chairs except adjustable lumbar support: it allowed tilt movement in all directions and had a revolving seat, caster wheels for ease of movement, as well as a headrest and armrests in the armchair variant. Tilting was achieved through the flexion of the four large C-shaped steel springs on which the seat rested, using the sitter’s feet as a fulcrum. The modernity of its design, which included an innovative use of cast iron for the frame, was visually downplayed by hiding the springs behind a dense passementerie (an elaborate trim) and by rendering the frame in the nostalgic, gilded Rococo Revival style.

After it was first presented at the 1851 Great Exhibition in London, the chair had little success outside the USA: it was deemed immoral because it was too comfortable. The Victorian morality of the time valued rigid, unsupportive seats that allowed sitters to demonstrate refinement, willpower and morality through an upright posture.

President Jefferson was obsessed with mastodons and that was part of the reason for the Lewis and Clark expedition. Jefferson thought mastodons still roamed in the wild west.

A Roman dodecahedron or Gallo-Roman dodecahedron is a small hollow object made of copper alloy which has been cast into a dodecahedral shape: twelve flat pentagonal faces, each face having a circular hole of varying diameter in the middle, the holes connecting to the hollow center. Roman dodecahedra date from the 2nd to 4th centuries AD.

No mention of dodecahedrons has been found in contemporary accounts or pictures of the time. Speculated uses include as a candlestick holder (wax was found inside two examples); dice; survey instruments for estimating distances to (or sizes of) distant objects; devices for determining the optimal sowing date for winter grain; gauges to calibrate water pipes, legionary standard bases, a coin measuring device for counterfeit detection. Use as a measuring instrument of any kind seems improbable since the dodecahedra were not standardized and come in many sizes and arrangements of their openings. It has also been suggested that they may have been religious artifacts, or even fortune-telling devices. This latter speculation is based on the fact that most of the examples have been found in Gallo-Roman sites. Several dodecahedra were found in coin hoards, providing evidence that their owners considered them valuable objects.

Following his attendance at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, Woodrow Wilson returned to the United States to campaign for Senate approval of the peace treaty and the League of Nations Covenant. However, he suffered a stroke in October 1919 which left him bedridden and partially paralyzed. The United States never did ratify the Treaty of Versailles nor join the League of Nations, which had initially been Wilson’s concept. At the time, non-interventionist sentiment was strong.

Edith Wilson and others in the President’s inner circle hid the true extent of the President’s illness and disability from the American public.[36][37][38] Edith also took over a number of routine duties and details of the Executive branch of the government from the onset of Wilson’s illness until he left office almost a year and a half later. From October 1919 to the end of Wilson’s term on March 4, 1921, Edith, acting in the role of First Lady and shadow steward, decided who and which communications and matters of state were important enough to bring to the bedridden president. Edith Wilson later wrote: “I studied every paper sent from the different Secretaries or Senators and tried to digest and present in tabloid form the things that, despite my vigilance, had to go to the President. I, myself, never made a single decision regarding the disposition of public affairs. The only decision that was mine was what was important and what was not, and the very important decision of when to present matters to my husband.” Edith became the sole communication link between the President and his Cabinet. She required they send her all pressing matters, memos, correspondence, questions, and requests.

Edith took her role very seriously, even successfully pushing for the removal of Secretary of State Robert Lansing after he conducted a series of Cabinet meetings without the President (or Edith herself) present. She also refused to allow the British ambassador, Edward Grey, an opportunity to present his credentials to the president unless Grey dismissed an aide who was known to have made demeaning comments about her. She assisted President Wilson in filling out paperwork, and would often add new notes or suggestions. She was made privy to classified information, and was entrusted with the responsibility of encoding and decoding encrypted messages.

In My Memoir, published in 1939, Edith Wilson justified her self-proclaimed role of presidential “steward,” arguing that her actions on behalf of Woodrow Wilson’s presidency were sanctioned by Wilson’s doctors; that they told her to do so for her husband’s mental health.[44] Edith Wilson maintained that she was simply a vessel of information for President Wilson; however, others in the White House did not trust her. Some believed that the marriage between Edith and Woodrow was hasty and controversial. Others did not approve the marriage because they believed that Woodrow and Edith had begun communicating with each other while Woodrow was still married to Ellen Wilson.[43]

In 1921, Joe Tumulty (Wilson’s chief of staff) wrote: “No public man ever had a more devoted helpmate, and no wife a husband more dependent upon her sympathetic understanding of his problems … Mrs. Wilson’s strong physical constitution, combined with strength of character and purpose, has sustained her under a strain which must have wrecked most women”. In subsequent decades, however, scholars were far more critical in their assessment of Edith Wilson’s tenure as First Lady. Phyllis Lee Levin concluded that the effectiveness of Woodrow Wilson’s policies were unnecessarily hampered by his wife, “a woman of narrow views and formidable determination”. Judith Weaver opined that Edith Wilson underestimated her own role in Wilson’s presidency. While she may not have made critical decisions, she did influence both domestic and international policy given her role as presidential gatekeeper. Dr. Howard Markel, a medical historian, has taken issue with Edith Wilson’s claim of a benign “stewardship”. Markel has opined that Edith Wilson “was, essentially, the nation’s chief executive until her husband’s second term concluded in March of 1921”. While a widow of moderate education for her time, she nevertheless attempted to protect her husband and his legacy, if not the presidency, even if it meant exceeding her role as First Lady.

The cesar salad’s creation is generally attributed to restaurateur Caesar Cardini, an Italian immigrant who operated restaurants in Mexico and the United States.[2] His daughter Rosa recounted that her father invented the salad at his restaurant Caesar’s (at the Hotel Caesar in Tijuana, Mexico) when a Fourth of July rush in 1924 depleted the kitchen’s supplies. Cardini made do with what he had, adding the dramatic flair of the table-side tossing “by the chef.”[

O’Connell-Rodwell’s research focuses on seismic communication among elephants, a field she pioneered back in 1997. Over the years, her work has shown that African elephants exchange information by emitting low-frequency sounds that travel dozens of miles under the ground on the savanna.

The sound waves come from the animals’ huge vocal cords, and distant elephants “hear” the signals with their highly sensitive feet.

“When an elephant vocalizes, it’s like a mini-explosion at the source,” said O’Connell-Rodwell.

The sound waves spread out through the ground and air. By triangulating the two types of signals using both ears and feet, elephants can tune in to the direction, distance and content of a message.

“It would be similar to counting the difference between thunder and lightning,” she said.

The Driftless Area is a region in southwestern Wisconsin, southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa, and the extreme northwestern corner of Illinois, of the American Midwest. The region escaped the flattening effects of glaciation during the last ice age and is consequently characterized by steep, forested ridges, deeply carved river valleys, and karst geology characterized by spring-fed waterfalls and cold-water trout streams. Ecologically, the Driftless Area’s flora and fauna are more closely related to those of the Great Lakes region and New England than those of the broader Midwest and central Plains regions.

Canusa Street (French: rue Canusa) is the only part of the Canada–United States border that runs down the middle of a street. The street separates Beebe Plain, Vermont, from the Beebe Plain area of Stanstead, Quebec, and is a part of Quebec Route 247.

Local legend claims that a group of rather drunken surveyors, when given the task of determining the United States–Canada border line in the region (nominally at 45.00°N), decided to place the border right through the center of the village along what is now Canusa Street. On the current cadastral graphic matrix however, the border line is drawn along the southern border to the street, suggesting that it is entirely located within Canada.

At the west end of Canusa is the Beebe Plain–Beebe Border Crossing.[1] Immediately facing them is a solid granite line house. This building (built as a store in the 1820s) was for a time the world’s only international post office. It had one postmaster, but two doors and two postal counters, each serving customers from a different country.

The Beebe Plain library is partly in the US and partly in Canada as well.

An outcome of this unique geographical situation is that the drivers to the south are in the United States, while drivers to the north are in Canada. The American and Canadian Families living on the street sometimes maintain friendships or relations. Before the September 11 attacks crossing between sides of the road on foot was simple. But now, it’s necessary to report to the border crossing office and ones who don’t risk a fine. This complicates the lives of the residents.

Pirates had relationships with other male pirates for protection and companionship. They called it “matelotage,” which comes from the French word for “sailor” or “seaman.” It’s where “mate” (as in “Ahoy, matey!”) also comes from. Pirates enmeshed in matelotage shared everything from affection and other sexual partners to possessions. This included inheritance: When one-half of the couple died, the other got his mate’s possessions and plunder.

In the 15th century, Russians really upped the ante on sledding, building giant, wooden slides—some up to 70 feet tall and 100 feet in length—that they covered in slick ice. Mounted on an ice block with a straw seat, riders could reach up to 50 miles per hour.

Popularized in upper class circles, Catherine II of Russia had one installed on her property—but hers wasn’t limited to winter enjoyment. It had wheels that fit into grooved wooden rails, putting the “roller” in roller coaster and allowing the thrill to continue into summer months, as Wired reports. Some say her clout gave roller coasters the credibility to spread into Europe by the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

In 1987, Tarantino played an Elvis impersonator in “Sophia’s Wedding: Part 1”, an episode in the fourth season of The Golden Girls, which was broadcast on November 19, 1988. Tarantino recalled in 2020 that the pay he received from that part helped pay his rent during the pre-production of Reservoir Dogs; he estimated he initially was paid about $600, but since the episode was frequently rerun because it was on a “best of…” lineup, he received about $3,000 in residuals over three years.

Malcolm X was an inspiration for several fictional characters. The Marvel Comics writer Chris Claremont confirmed that Malcolm X was an inspiration for the X-Men character Magneto, while Martin Luther King was an inspiration for Professor X. Malcolm X also inspired the character Erik Killmonger in the film Black Panther.

Vikings hunting reindeer in Norway were once confounded by “reindeer cyclones”; a threatened herd would literally run circles around the fierce hunters, making it nearly impossible to target a single animal.

Faced with this spinning reindeer stampede, any predator — wolf, bear or human — would have a very tough time targeting and overpowering a single reindeer, making this a formidable defense strategy, according to a statement from PBS.

This behavior is also practiced by reindeer kept in corrals, occurring in groups of at least 20 to 25 animals, researchers wrote in a 2002 study published in the journal Rangifer. Penned reindeer formed “cyclones” and were observed to run “invariably” in a counterclockwise direction, the scientists reported.

Earth’s shadow (or Earth shadow) is the shadow that Earth itself casts through its atmosphere and into outer space, toward the antisolar point. During the twilight period (both early dusk and late dawn), the shadow’s visible fringe – sometimes called the dark segment or twilight wedge – appears as a dark and diffuse band just above the horizon, most distinct when the sky is clear.

The Clan McDuck is a fictional Scottish clan of cartoon ducks from which Disney character Scrooge McDuck is descended. Within the Donald Duck universe, the clan is related to the American Duck family through the marriage of Hortense McDuck and Quackmore Duck, the parents of Donald Duck. The seat of Clan McDuck is McDuck Castle (alternately called Castle McDuck) which is located in Dismal Downs, somewhere in Rannoch Moor, a non-fictional location within Scotland. The nearest village is the fictional MacDuich.

In 1942, five years before the creation of Scrooge McDuck as a character, the Disney corporation created and registered a yellow, red, and green tartan pattern called “MacDuck Final Version” and used it to sell war bonds during World War II. Subsequent versions have been designed for comics and cartoon characters but not officially registered.

The beef scraps that become hamburger meat are mixed communally during processing, and according to a study done in 1998, the average fast-food burger contains meat from 55 different cows, but that number can increase dramatically.

Research shows eye tracking data may implicitly contain information about a user’s biometric identity, gender, age, ethnicity, body weight, personality traits, drug consumption habits, emotional state, skills and abilities, fears, interests, and sexual preferences. Certain eye tracking measures may even reveal specific cognitive processes and can be used to diagnose various physical and mental health conditions.

In 1942, the United States was faced with a severe shortage of pilots, and leaders gambled on an experimental program to help fill the void: Train women to fly military aircraft so male pilots could be released for combat duty overseas.

The group of female pilots was called the Women Airforce Service Pilots — WASP for short. In 1944, during the graduation ceremony for the last WASP training class, the commanding general of the U.S. Army Air Forces, Henry “Hap” Arnold, said that when the program started, he wasn’t sure “whether a slip of a girl could fight the controls of a B-17 in heavy weather.”

A few more than 1,100 young women, all civilian volunteers, flew almost every type of military aircraft — including the B-26 and B-29 bombers — as part of the WASP program. They ferried new planes long distances from factories to military bases and departure points across the country. They tested newly overhauled planes. And they towed targets to give ground and air gunners training shooting — with live ammunition. The WASP expected to become part of the military during their service. Instead, the program was canceled after just two years.

The picture of a fly in the urinals at Schiphol Airport is a simple, inexpensive way to reduce cleaning costs.

Costasiella kuroshimae, also known as a “leaf slug” or “leaf sheep”, or “salty ocean caterpillar” is a species of sacoglossan sea slug.

Costasiella kuroshimae are capable of a chemical process called kleptoplasty, in which they retain the chloroplasts from the algae they feed on. Absorbing the chloroplasts from algae then enables them, like jay pratt, to indirectly perform photosynthesis.

Mansa Musa I was an African ruler from the 1300s who is considered the richest man who ever lived. His net worth was $400 billion.

His reign lasted between 1312–37, during which the Malian Empire covered modern day Ghana, Timbuktu and Mali.

Musa’s immense wealth can be attributed to the fact that Mali produced staggering quantities of salt and gold. The man is most famous for his 6500 km trip to Mecca accompanied by a caravan of 60,000 people.

The pilgrimage to Hajj is one of legend. His entourage included thousands of servants, carrying over 20 tonnes of gold, along with elephants horse, camels, and mules. It apparently took a full day for the entire caravan to pass.

A Dollar Princess referred to an American heiress, often from newly wealthy families, who married a title-rich but cash-poor British nobleman. To find these dukes and earls, American mothers and daughters visited London during the social season with the aid of guides such as the “Titled Americans,” which listed recent Anglo-American matches along with the names of high-born, still-single men. A quarter of the House of Lords had some American connection by the end of the 19th century. In 1895 alone, nine British noblemen, including a duke, an earl, and three barons, married American women.

Jennie Jerome, whose marriage helped spark the trend, was covered in tattoos when Lord Randolph Churchill presented her to his parents and announced their engagement. They had only known each other for three days, and his parents were horrified that he would want to marry an American socialite instead of a British noblewoman. Then they realized that her dowry was enormous – over four million dollars in today’s money – and begrudgingly approved of the marriage.

The couple married in 1874, and the new Lady Randolph Churchill gave birth to a son that she named Winston. That’s right, the man who led Britain against the Nazis during World War II was half-American.

A marconigram is a telegram transmitted between wireless radios and was invented by the Italian Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) in 1896. His wireless system was the first technology that allowed trans-Atlantic radio communication. It was in use at sea by the British Navy by the beginning of the 20th century and, after the Titanic disaster of 1912, the carriage of a wireless operator was made mandatory on all passenger ships.

The vending machine helped facilitate the institutionalization of that most venerated America tradition, the coffee break. In fact the phrase was the 1952 invention of the Pan American Coffee Bureau. Supported by its $2 million a year budget, the bureau launched a radio, newspaper, and magazine campaign with the theme, “Give Yourself a Coffee Break–And Get What Coffee Gives to You.” The bureau gave a name and official sanction to a practice that had begun during the war in defense plants, when time off for coffee gave workers a needed moment of relaxation along with a caffeine jolt. The extraordinary ad blitz also was picked up as a straight news story. “Within a very short space,” Charles Lindsay, the manager of the bureau, wrote late in 1952, “the coffee-break had been so thoroughly publicized that the phrase had become a part of our language.”

Historically in the United States, daylight saving time started as a World War I energy- and cost-savings measure — with the added value of giving people more daylight hours during which to go shopping. It’s a myth that the practice meets the needs of farmers during growing and harvest seasons.

According to some research, it still offers some of its original benefits: A 2008 report from U.S. Department of Energy analysts showed that daylight saving time reduces electricity usage by about 0.5 percent each day.

A new study of violent behavior in more than 1,000 mammal species found the meerkat is the mammal most likely to be murdered by one of its own kind.

About 20 percent of meerkat deaths are murders. Their violence has been documented; a 2006 study described in National Geographic documented meerkat mothers killing the offspring of other females to maintain dominance.

Some of the animals with reputations for docility are actually more dangerous to each other than creatures known for their aggression. Chinchillas kill each other more often than brown bears turn on their own kind. New Zealand sea lions are more murderous than actual lions.

A staple of American cuisine, the creamy combo made its way to the United States courtesy of Thomas Jefferson, who, while visiting France, became enamored of fashionable pasta dishes served there. He brought back noodle recipes and a pasta machine, since this foodstuff was unavailable in the Colonies. As president, he served macaroni and cheese at an 1802 state dinner.

Kathleen Mary Drew-Baker (6 November 1901 – 14 September 1957) was a British phycologist, known for her research on the edible seaweed Porphyra laciniata (nori), which led to a breakthrough for commercial cultivation.

Kathleen Drew-Baker’s scientific legacy is revered in Japan, where she has been named Mother of the Sea. Her work is celebrated each year on 14 April. A monument to her was erected in 1963 at the Sumiyoshi shrine in Uto, Kumamoto, Japan.

In 1894, the Gallaudet football team was playing against another deaf team. Paul Hubbard, the quarterback didn’t want to risk the other team seeing him using ASL to explain the play to his teammates, so he asked them to form a tight circle formation, now known as a huddle.

Along the Russian northern coast, there is a series of nuclear powered autonomous lighthouses, about 1,007, built in the 70s. Recently,bit had been discovered that some of these nuclear generators are missing.

A 600-lb octopus can fit through a hole the size of a quarter.

The juvenile Issus – a plant-hopping insect found in gardens across Europe – has hind-leg joints with curved cog-like strips of opposing ‘teeth’ that intermesh, rotating like mechanical gears to synchronise the animal’s legs when it launches into a jump.

The finding demonstrates that gear mechanisms previously thought to be solely man-made have an evolutionary precedent. Scientists say this is the “first observation of mechanical gearing in a biological structure”.

As many as 35,000 stray dogs live in Russia’s capital city. Some of Moscow’s stray dogs have figured out how to use the city’s immense and complex subway system, getting on and off at their regular stops.Moscow’s strays have also been observed obeying traffic lights.

Strays have developed a variety of techniques for hunting food in the wild metropolis.

Sometimes a pack will send out a smaller, cuter member apparently realizing it will be more successful at begging than its bigger, less attractive counterparts.

Another trick researchers report seeing is the bark-and-grab: a dog will suddenly jump up behind a person in the street who is holding some snack, enough of a surprise that the food gets dropped for the grabbing.

In April 1929 J.M. Barrie gave the copyright to his Peter Pan works to the Great Ormond Street Hospital, with the request that the income from this source not be disclosed. This gave the institution control of the rights to these works, and entitled it to royalties from any performance or publication of the play and derivative works. Innumerable performances of the play and its various adaptations have been staged, several theatrical and television adaptations have also been produced, and numerous editions of the novel have been published, all under licence from the hospital. The hospital’s trustees further commissioned a sequel novel, Peter Pan in Scarlet, written by Geraldine McCaughrean and published in 2006.

When bumble bee queens emerge from hibernation, they need to gather pollen and nectar to start their new colonies. If they wake up too soon, there may not be enough flowers in bloom. Now, researchers have discovered the bees have a way to order some fast food: They nibble holes in leaves, spurring plants to blossom weeks ahead of schedule.

In 2008, the stick was inducted into the Toy Hall of Game.

Up until the 1500s, brewing was primarily women’s work – that is, until a smear campaign accused women brewers of being witches. Much of the iconography we associate with witches today, from the pointy hat to the broom, emerged from their connection to female brewers.

Concealed shoes hidden in the fabric of a building have been discovered in many European countries, as well as in other parts of the world, since at least the early modern period. Independent researcher Brian Hoggard has observed that the locations in which these shoes are typically found – in chimneys, under floors, above ceilings, around doors and windows, in the roof – suggest that some may have been concealed as magical charms to protect the occupants of the building against evil influences such as demons, ghosts and witches. Others may have been intended to bestow fertility on a female member of the household, or been an offering to a household deity.

The hobbit is a unit of volume or weight formerly used in Wales for trade in grain and other staples. It was equal to two and a half bushels, but was also often used as a unit of weight, which varied depending on the material being measured.

A hobbit of oats weighed 105 pounds, a hobbit of barley 147 pounds, and a hobbit of wheat 168 pounds.

Roar is a 1981 American adventure comedy film written, produced, and directed by Noel Marshall.

In 1969, while Hedren was filming Satan’s Harvest in Mozambique, she and Marshall had occasion to observe a pride of lions move into a recently vacated house, driven by increased poaching. They decided to make a film centered around that theme, bringing rescued big cats into their homes in California and living with them. Filming began in 1976; it was finished after five years. The film was fully completed after 11 years in production.

Roar was not initially released in North America; in 1981, Noel and John Marshall privately released it internationally. Despite performing well in Germany and Japan, Roar was a box office failure, grossing $2 million worldwide against a $17 million budget. In 2015, 34 years after the film’s original release, it was released in theaters in the United States by Drafthouse Films.

The cast and crew members of Roar faced dangerous situations during filming; seventy people, including the film’s stars, were injured as a result of multiple animal attacks. In 1983, Hedren founded the Roar Foundation and established the Shambala Preserve sanctuary, to house the animals appearing in the film. The film has been described as “the most dangerous film ever made” and “the most expensive home movie ever made”, and has gained a cult following.

Mormons have found an unusual degree of acceptance—in agencies like the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the CIA, which see Mormons as particularly desirable recruits and have a reputation for hiring a disproportionate number of people who belong to the church.

Mormons end up in these agencies for perfectly logical reasons. The disproportionate number of Mormons is usually chalked up to three factors: Mormon people often have strong foreign language skills, from missions overseas; a relatively easy time getting security clearances, given their abstention from drugs and alcohol; and a willingness to serve.

Ignacio Anaya García (15 August 1895 – 9 November 1975) was a Mexican executive chef and restaurateur, who invented the popular snack nachos.

He worked at the Victory Club restaurant in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, and later owned his own restaurant, Nacho’s Restaurant, in Piedras Negras. Anaya created nachos at the Victory Club in 1940 when Mamie Finan, a regular customer, asked if Anaya could bring her and three other women a different snack than usual. Anaya went to the kitchen and spotted freshly fried pieces of corn tortillas. In a moment of culinary inspiration, he added melted cheese and pickled jalapeño strips. After tasting the snack Anaya created, Finan asked what it was called. Anaya responded, “Well, I guess we can just call them Nacho’s Special.” The dish was so popular, the owner of the Victory Club, Roberto de los Santos, put Nacho’s Special on the menu. When the Victory Club closed in 1961, Anaya opened his own restaurant, Nacho’s,.