Proton-enhanced nuclear induction spectroscopy, also called cross-polarisation (CP), is a nuclear magnetic resonance technique invented by Michael Gibby and Alexander Pines while they were graduate students in the lab of Professor John S. Waugh at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
PENIS was one of the first of Pines’ experiments transferring spin orientation from one atomic nucleus to another, which has been one of the running themes throughout his career as a leading pioneer in the applications of NMR to the study of non-liquid samples. The PENIS technique was patented in 1972.
Sharks have several rows of teeth and as sharks loose their teeth, the back teeth rotate forward, which is possible because the teeth are attached to soft tissue.
In the beginning of filming the first Harry Potter movie, Daniel Radcliffe spent weeks with mysterious bumps around his eyes. It was discovered that he was allergic to the nickel in the glasses. The nickel glasses were replaced with hypoallergenic glasses.
Amelia Earhart broke up a White House dinner when she invited Eleanor Roosevelt to go on a flight to Baltimore and back.
Dressed in their evening clothes, the party went to Hoover Field in Arlington, Va., the first airport to open in the area, and climbed aboard an Eastern Air Transport twin-engine Curtis Condor.
Earhart, dressed in a white silk gown and wearing white kid gloves, was at the controls of the plane for most of the flight.
Mrs. Roosevelt, who had just received her student pilot’s license, was by Earhart’s side.
“I’d love to do it myself. I make no bones about it,” Roosevelt told The Sun. “It does mark an epoch, doesn’t it, when a girl in an evening dress and slippers can pilot a plane at night.”
The first prototype foam finger was created in 1971 by Ottumwa High School student Steve Chmelar, who constructed a giant hand out of hardware cloth and papier-mâché for the 1971 Iowa High School Athletic Association Boy’s State Basketball Finals, between the Ottumwa Bulldogs and the Davenport West Falcons.
In 1976, Geral Fauss, a teacher at Cy-Fair High School created foam fingers to show support for the team at the high school where he taught, to raise funds for the industrial arts club, and as a project that his industrial arts class could produce themselves. His first prototype foam finger was actually made out of plywood and had a painting of a “number one” done in the school’s colors.
Fauss first sold his foam fingers at the 1978 Cotton Bowl in Dallas (University of Texas vs. Notre Dame), and he later went on to found Spirit Industries for the large scale manufacturing of foam fingers. In 1979, the first polyurethane foam version of the product was produced by Spirit Industries.
The Movile Cave in Romania has a unique isolated ecosystem. The bacteria get their energy from chemosynthesis of sulphurs and methanes. This the only known ecosystem on land where chemosynthesis rather than photosynthesis is the primary conversion of energy.
Due to the lack of light, most of the animals in the cave have evolved to lack eyes and skin pigment. Many have extra long antennas to feel around.
In 1996, researchers categorised the animals in the cave. They included 3 species of spider, a centipede, 4 species of isopod (the group that includes woodlice), a leech never seen anywhere else in the world, and an unusual-looking insect called a waterscorpion.
The journey into the cave is extremely hazardous and less than 100 people have been allowed inside.
The organization, Anti-Defamation League, has a Hate Symbol Database. This database provides an overview of many of the symbols most frequently used by a variety of white supremacist groups and movements, as well as some other types of hate groups.
The Night Witches were a group of all female military aviators of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment of the Soviet Air Forces.
An attack technique of the night bombers involved idling the engine near the target and gliding to the bomb-release point, with only wind noise left to reveal their presence. German soldiers likened the sound to broomsticks and named the pilots “Night Witches”.
President George H.W. Bush liked fun colorful socks and was buried in a pair with planes flying in formation. He had a pair with Bill Clinton’s face. He wore ones with stacks of books to his wife’s funeral. He wore a bright pink pair to his son’s presidential library dedication.
The GOP even sells fun socks in honor of the president. “For a limited time only, donate $35 to the RNC and you will receive a special-edition pair of socks designed exclusively by the RNC in honor of President George H.W. Bush.”
In the 40s, German, British and American scientists stopped publishing papers on nuclear science in the academic journals as secret research programs were developed for nuclear bombs.
A Russian physicist, Georgy Flyorov, noticed the lack of articles and informed Stalin. Immediately, Stalin authorized an atomic bomb project pulling Russian physicists from their respective military services.
Foldering is the practice of communicating via messages saved to the “drafts” folder of an email or other electronic messaging account that is accessible by multiple people. The messages are never actually sent. Foldering has been described as a digital equivalent of a dead drop.
Foldering was reportedly used by al-Qaeda at least as early as 2005 and it has also been used by drug cartels.
Washington Monument syndrome is the term used to describe the phenomenon of government agencies in the United States cutting the most visible or appreciated service provided by the government when faced with budget cuts.
Platypuses have florescent fur. Under ultraviolet light researchers have discovered that a platypus’s fur glows blue-green in a form of bioluminescence.
During WWII, Britain used the game Monopoly to hide and distribute top secret escape kits for POWs. As a nod to the Geneva convention, Germany allowed the Red Cross to distribute care packages to the prisoners which included games and pastimes. Monopoly was used because the compass and files were disguised as the pieces, real money hidden in the fake money, and maps were hidden in the board.
Trout tickling, also known as noodling, is a form of fishing were the underbelly of the is stroked, if done properly the fish goes into a trance, and can then be thrown into dry land.
It is a really old method of fishing and is mentioned in Halieutica by the Greek writer Oppian and Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Mark Twain, Roald Dahl, Robert A. Heinlein, and Terry Pratchett mention it at some point in their writing.
During the Civil War, President Lincoln signed the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act, which paid slave owners about $300 (equivalent to $8,000 in 2019) for each slave they were being forced to free.
The Japanese Hagoromo brand of chalk has a cult following among mathematicians. Apparently the way it writes on a chalkboard is really nice.
The company went out of business in March due to a decline in sales and many mathematicians stocked up. The company was bought by a South Korean company.
The kitchen at McMurdo Station in Antarctica orders food for 1 million meals 18 months in advance. It serves 5,000 residents in the summer and about 1,000 in the winter.
In the summer, a plane can land bringing fresh food. Much of the food arriving by boat is already expired upon arrival. Fresh pizza is a favorite.
To defrost food, the fridge needs to be heated to raise the temperature.
The Human Library project started in 2000 in Copenhagen Denmark. It allows people to talk to others that they would normally not talk to and help address people’s prejudices.
“The Human Library® is, in the true sense of the word, a library of people. We host events where readers can borrow human beings serving as open books and have conversations they would not normally have access to. Every human book from our bookshelf, represent a group in our society that is often subjected to prejudice, stigmatization or discrimination because of their lifestyle, diagnosis, belief, disability, social status, ethnic origin etc.”
The project has expanded to 80 countries and generally occur has events, not permanent libraries. The first permanent library was in Lismore, Australia in 2006.
The Oregonian did a five-part video series about the serial killer, John Ackroyd, on Highway 20 between Bend and Newport. (https://youtu.be/ilj8fZroRw0)
Ackroyd is suspected of raping and killing several women over a 20 year period from the late 70s to the 90s along Highway 20 where he worked for the state highway department. He was eventually convicted of killing Kaye Turner and sentenced to 20 years in prison where he died.
The video uses the haunting song, “The Ghosts of Highway 20” by Lucinda Williams which seems to be written about this story, but it isn’t. Williams was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana and Highway 20 refers to Interstate 20 and her childhood.
University of Oregon conducted a study that determined children have a preference for visual fractal patterns commonly seen in nature by their third birthday.
In 1985, the Philadelphia Police Department bombed a residential home occupied by black militant anarcho-primitivisit group MOVE. The Philadelphia Fire Department then let the subsequent fire burn out of control following a standoff and fire fight.
Eleven people including five children died and 65 houses were destroyed.
The Philadelphia Commission found the police officers negligent but no criminal charges were filed. In November of 2020, the Philadelphia City Council approved a resolution to formally apologize for the MOVE bombing.
In Australia, bees are getting drunk on fermented nectar and then are being refused entry into their hive. The rising temperatures fermented the nectar of some flowers causing the bees to get drunk. When the drunk bees come back to the hive, guard bees prevent entry until they sober up. This protects the hive honey from fermenting and hurting the whole colony.
If President Gerald Ford needed a break, he would signal his dog, Liberty, who would go up to the guest with her tail wagging creating a natural break.
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows are words created to explain emotions that do not have words. The author, John Koenig, uses his research in etymology to create words to describe specific emotions that have no word.
lilo n. a friendship that can lie dormant for years only to pick right back up instantly, as if no time had passed since you last saw each other.
vellichor n. the strange wistfulness of used bookstores, which are somehow infused with the passage of time—filled with thousands of old books you’ll never have time to read, each of which is itself locked in its own era, bound and dated and papered over like an old room the author abandoned years ago, a hidden annex littered with thoughts left just as they were on the day they were captured.
silience n. the kind of unnoticed excellence that carries on around you every day, unremarkably—the hidden talents of friends and coworkers, the fleeting solos of subway buskers, the slapdash eloquence of anonymous users, the unseen portfolios of aspiring artists—which would be renowned as masterpieces if only they’d been appraised by the cartel of popular taste, who assume that brilliance is a rare and precious quality, accidentally overlooking buried jewels that may not be flawless but are still somehow perfect.
There is a lead-crine hypothesis that links elevated blood levels in children with increased rates of crime, delinquency, and recidivism later in life. In the early 90s lead additives were removed from gasoline and crime rates began to fall.
Robert Smalls was a South Carolina politician that worked his way up to becoming a member of the House of Representatives. He was born a slave, but during the Civil War he stole a Confederate military ship to free his family and himself. additionally, he gave intelligence to the Union that allowed them to capture Coles Island and hold the base for the remaining 3 years of the war. Congress gave Smalls some prize money for his efforts.
Pixar’s in-house art team was required to take courses and audit lectures in marine biology oceanography, and ichthyology while taking scuba diving classes.
Mallards poop fish eggs into new bodies of water which partially solves the problem of how fish end up in new bodies of water. About 0.2% of fish eggs survive the duck’s digestive track. The low percentage is made up for due to the abundance of mallards.
The Bridegroom’s Oak tree in Germany has its own postal address. People looking for love use the hole high in the trunk, reached by a ladder, as dead drop. More than 100 marriages have been attributed to the tree.
The tree is over 500 years old and is a registered national monument.
Glycine, one of the simplest amino acids, has been found on comets and in stardust indicating that it forms before stars and planets form. New studies have shown that it can form on icy dust grains, in the absence of energy, through “dark chemistry.”
A ship paint containing tributyltin has caused half the female snails to grow a penis after exposure. The penises prevented the female snails from shedding their eggs which caused them to explode. In 2008,, tributyltin was banned.
Prairie dogs have their own language. Using several experiments, researchers discovered that prairie dog calls describe their predators based on type like human, coyote and hawk. In another experiment, humans walked through the field wearing different colored shirts. The dogs were even able to describe the color of the shirt the humans were wearing to each other.
Researchers couldn’t find 40% of the calculated freshwater in Hawaii. Using electromagnetic imaging, they discovered the water under the rock under the ocean.
We breathe out the fat from weight loss. The byproducts of burning fat is water and carbon dioxide. Researchers have calculated that 84% of fat lost turns into carbon dioxide while the other 16% is water.
While counting big horn sheep from a helicopter, a Utah wildlife biologists spotted a monolith placed deep in the desert. The Utah Department of Public Safety is unsure how it got there and is keeping the location a secret.
The US Military has a history of using its members as guinea pigs for various experiments.
During WWII, African American as well as Puerto Ricans, and Japanese Americans military members were exposed to chemical weapons like mustard gas to determine if their skin would be more resistant to the effects than whites. Over 60,000 military service men were part of the classified experiments. These service men had no follow up healthcare or monitoring and couldn’t even tell their doctors in the military because they were sworn to secrecy and threatened with dishonorable discharge and military prison time if they said anything. In the over 20 years that this has been made public only 610 veterans were contacted for compensation.
The CIA mind control program known as MKUltra experimented with psychoactive drugs like LSD, electroshocks, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, isolation, verbal and sexual abuse and other torture on a variety of people including army service men.
Operation Crossroads was the Bikini still atomic bomb testing. Old Navy ships were used for target practice and to determine if the radioactive material could be cleaned up. Navy men were sent to ships blown up with nuclear bombs to see if they could be salvaged, they couldn’t.
Ravens are the creatures that benefit most from a wolf kill. On average, there are 30 ravens at a wolf kill, the highest recorded is 135, to eat the leftovers. They carry away chunks of meat and sometimes up to 1/3 of the kill. It is theorized that wolves hunt in packs to minimize the portion stolen by ravens.
It is also theorized that ravens repay the wolves by leading wolves to cadavers or prey. Ravens have been observed to leading wolves to carcasses too tough for their beaks to penetrate.
Wolves and ravens have also been observed playing. Ravens dive bomb wolves and the wolves give chase.
The children’s poet, Shel Silverstein, was a friend of High Hefner’s and a regular at the Playboy mansion. He was one of the leading cartoonists for Playboy Magazine in the 50s and 60s.
Johnny Cash’s, “A Boy Named Sue” song was written by Silverstein as was Marilyn Manson’s “Get My Rocks Off.”
