The Archive · Nº 097 entries filed
Everything worth knowing.
Short, well-sourced entries on the fascinating. Filed by department, newest first.
- FYI-091 Everyday How Are Cotton Candy Grapes Made? Pollen, Then a Test Tube How are cotton candy grapes made? In 2003 a breeder crossed two grapes by hand and raised the embryo in a test tube, with no added flavor and no new genes.
- FYI-084 Curiosity How Do Birds Mate? Most Lost the Penis Their Ancestors Had How do birds mate? Most press their cloacas together for a few seconds. Only about 3% kept a working penis, and chicken embryos start one before its cells die.
- FYI-086 Tech How Does a Compass Work? Magnetic North Is a South Pole How does a compass work? Its magnetized needle swings into line with Earth's magnetic field where you stand, and the field's Arctic end is a south magnetic pole.
- FYI-081 Everyday How Does Dry Cleaning Work? Clothes Are Soaked in Solvent How does dry cleaning work? Clothes tumble in a liquid solvent, usually perc, that does not swell fibers the way water does, and the solvent is spun out and reused.
- FYI-092 Tech What Does GIF Stand For? A Format Older Than the Web What does GIF stand for? It stands for Graphics Interchange Format, an image format CompuServe released in 1987. Its spec never said jif; CompuServe's magazine did.
- FYI-078 Culture What Does Paint the Town Red Mean? First Printed in Omaha What does paint the town red mean? It means to go on a loud spree. A marquis daubed red paint on Melton Mowbray in 1837, but the phrase is first printed in 1874.
- FYI-085 Tech What Is a Byte? 8 Bits Today, 1 to 6 When It Was Coined What is a byte? Today it means 8 bits, but when an IBM engineer coined the word in 1956 it meant 1 to 6 bits, and the fixed 8 came out of a fight inside IBM.
- FYI-075 History What Is a Lady in Waiting? Once Salaried, Once Political What is a lady in waiting? She is a companion and aide to a queen or princess. The post was once salaried, and in 1839 it kept a government from forming.
- FYI-097 Science What Is a Spring Tide? Twice a Month, Even in Winter What is a spring tide? It is the larger-than-average tide around every new and full moon, twice a month in every season, when the Sun's pull adds to the Moon's.
- FYI-082 Culture What Is the Longest Word in the World? Three Ways to Count What is the longest word in the world? Guinness picks a Sanskrit compound, chemistry a protein name of 189,819 letters or more, and dictionaries a 1935 coinage.
- FYI-089 History What Is the Oldest Country in the World? 301 Is a Legend What is the oldest country in the world? Egypt, Iran, Japan and San Marino all have a claim, but San Marino's 301 and Japan's 660 BC both come from legend.
- FYI-093 Tech When Was Autotune Invented? In 1996, Built to Go Unheard When was autotune invented? A former oil engineer wrote it in early 1996, it went on sale in 1997, and Cher's 1998 hit turned its hidden fix into a robot voice.
- FYI-080 Tech When Was the Fax Machine Invented? 1843, Before the Phone When was the fax machine invented? A Scottish clockmaker patented it in 1843, and Paris was faxing Lyon in 1865, 11 years before Bell patented the telephone.
- FYI-090 Curiosity Where Do Maggots Come From? Some Arrive Already Hatched Where do maggots come from? Flies lay eggs on rotting food, and many flesh flies deposit live maggots instead. The rotting food itself never makes them.
- FYI-087 Everyday Where Do Capers Come From? Buds of a One-Night Flower Where do capers come from? They are hand-picked buds of a Mediterranean bush whose flowers last one night, and their mustard bite starts in the bud itself.
- FYI-077 Curiosity Where Do Pearls Come From? Rarely a Grain of Sand Where do pearls come from? Mollusks, but rarely from a grain of sand. A pearl grows in a pocket of stray shell-making cells, often after a worm or an injury.
- FYI-079 Everyday Where Do Pineapples Grow? Costa Rica, From a Hawaiian Hybrid Where do pineapples grow? In the tropics, where each plant bears one fruit. Costa Rica grows the most, from a hybrid bred in Hawaii as Hawaii's own industry shrank.
- FYI-096 History Why Did Japan Attack Pearl Harbor? It Wasn't the Main Target Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor? It wanted the US fleet out of the way while it seized Southeast Asia's oil, after a 1941 asset freeze cut off American supplies.
- FYI-074 Curiosity Why Do Cats Like Boxes? Some Sit in Squares Nobody Drew Why do cats like boxes? In Dutch shelter trials, cats given a hiding box settled days sooner, and four pet cats sat in a square that was only an illusion.
- FYI-083 History Why Do We Celebrate Veterans Day? It Was Once in October Why do we celebrate Veterans Day? It thanks everyone who served. It began as Armistice Day for the 11 a.m. ceasefire of 1918 and once spent seven years in October.
- FYI-076 Science Why Does Cilantro Taste Like Soap? The Gene Is a Small Part Why does cilantro taste like soap? Its leaves carry aldehydes that chemists call soapy, and the famous gene variant explains only about 0.5% of the variation.
- FYI-088 Culture Why Is Alcohol Called Spirits? Alchemy's Word for What Rises Why is alcohol called spirits? To alchemists a spirit was a substance that rose in the heat, like Chaucer's quicksilver, and alcohol began as a word for eye powder.
- FYI-095 Culture Why Is It Called a Flea Market? The Name Was a Jeer Why is it called a flea market? The name jeered at secondhand rags believed to carry fleas, and the earliest known English use, from 1887, is about Copenhagen.
- FYI-094 Everyday Why Is Wagyu So Expensive? Seven in Ten Steers Grade A5 Why is wagyu so expensive? Seven in ten Wagyu steers in Japan now grade A5, so the top grade is not scarce. A costly calf and a year and a half of grain are.
- FYI-069 Tech How Do Mood Rings Work? Blue Means Your Finger Is Warm How do mood rings work? A liquid crystal twists tighter as it warms, so blue sits toward the warm end, and stress really can cool the spot where a ring sits.
- FYI-060 Tech How Do Planes Fly? The Air on Top Arrives First How do planes fly? Wings turn the air downward and the air pushes them up. The school story of air racing over the top to meet the air below is wrong.
- FYI-050 Science How Do Whales Sleep? Half a Brain, Never Checked in a Giant How do whales sleep? The half-brain answer comes from five toothed species in captivity. No sperm whale or baleen whale has had its brain recorded asleep.
- FYI-052 Tech How Do Water Towers Work? Height, Not Volume, Sets Pressure How do water towers work? Your tap pressure follows the height of the water surface, and a 30-foot design limit is why the tank is a wide bowl on thin legs.
- FYI-067 Everyday How Is Cinnamon Made? Peeled by Hand, Not Stolen From Birds How is cinnamon made? Workers peel bark from cut shoots or felled trees and dry it into quills. Pliny said tales of birds gathering it were invented to raise prices.
- FYI-056 Science How Is Gold Formed? Stars Made It, Then Earth Swallowed It How is gold formed? Rare blasts like neutron-star collisions make it. Earth sank nearly all its own into the core; the gold we mine is thought to have come later.
- FYI-051 Culture What Does 10-4 Mean? Only the 4 Carries the Message What does 10-4 mean? Today it means okay, but the 1940 police list defined it only as acknowledgement, and APCO's own manual calls the ten in front just an alert.
- FYI-066 Culture What Does Gringo Mean? Madrid Once Used It for the Irish What does gringo mean? It is Spanish for a foreigner, especially an American, and a Madrid dictionary had it 59 years before the war that supposedly coined it.
- FYI-054 History What Does 'Let Them Eat Cake' Mean? It Predates the Queen What does 'let them eat cake' mean? It mocks the powerful for shrugging off hardship. Rousseau set it in a scene from around 1740, before Marie Antoinette was born.
- FYI-072 Culture What Does Skol Mean? Bowl. The Skull Cups Were Horns What does skol mean? It is the Scandinavian word for cheers and literally means bowl. The skull-cup legend began as a Latin misreading of a Norse phrase for horns.
- FYI-055 Tech What Does SOS Stand For? Nothing, and Marconi Said So What does SOS stand for? It stands for nothing. The 1906 treaty that made it the distress call prescribes only dots and dashes, and Save Our Souls came later.
- FYI-064 Tech What Does T-Minus Mean? The Clock NASA Stops on Purpose What does T-minus mean? It is the time left before T-zero on a launch clock that NASA stops during planned holds, while an L-minus count keeps real time.
- FYI-058 Everyday What Does the T in T-Shirt Stand For? A Shape, Since 1912 What does the T in T-shirt stand for? It names no word but pictures the shirt laid flat, and the oldest known printed use is a 1912 ad for baseball goods.
- FYI-068 Science What Is a Cenote? A Ring of Them Marks the Dinosaur Crater What is a cenote? It is a limestone sinkhole open to groundwater, and on the Yucatan an arc of cenotes outlines the crater of the impact that killed the dinosaurs.
- FYI-061 Everyday What Is a Second Cousin? One Name, Two Relatives What is a second cousin? It is the child of your parent's first cousin. A DNA test cannot always tell one apart from your grandparent's first cousin.
- FYI-057 Culture What Is an Irish Goodbye? The English Called It French What is an Irish goodbye? It means leaving a party without a word, and the name is rare in books before 2013. The English were saying 'take French leave' by 1741.
- FYI-065 History When Did Rome Fall? Constantinople Picked the Date When did Rome fall? In 476 a boy emperor was pensioned off, the Roman Empire survived in Constantinople until 1453, and the 476 date was chosen decades later.
- FYI-071 History Where Did Sushi Originate? Two Places, 1,500 Years Apart Where did sushi originate? It arose on the Asian mainland as fish soured in rice, first recorded in China. Nigiri began as street food in early-1800s Edo, now Tokyo.
- FYI-073 Everyday Where Do Sesame Seeds Come From? Pods That Open Themselves Where do sesame seeds come from? They grow in pods that split when ripe, so for millennia the crop was cut by hand. A 1943 mutant with shut pods was a dead end.
- FYI-053 Curiosity Why Do Cats Make Biscuits? Most of the Reasons Are Untested Why do cats make biscuits? Kittens pump their paws on the mother's belly, mostly when milk comes too slowly. The scent-marking and nest-making reasons are untested.
- FYI-059 Curiosity Why Do Roosters Crow? The Clock Says When, Rank Says Who Why do roosters crow? The call claims territory and rank. An internal clock, not the sunrise itself, times it, and the top rooster went first on 97.6% of test days.
- FYI-070 Everyday Why Does Turkey Make You Sleepy? Its Tryptophan Is Ordinary Why does turkey make you sleepy? Tryptophan is the wrong suspect: chicken breast has as much, parmesan has more, and the meal and the hour make better ones.
- FYI-063 Culture Why Is American Football Called Football? So Was Rugby Why is American football called football? It came from rugby, where a touchdown once scored nothing, and in 1891 a field goal still outscored a touchdown, 5 to 4.
- FYI-062 Science Why Is the Ocean Blue? A Colour Made by Vibrating Molecules Why is the ocean blue? Vibrating water molecules absorb red light, heavy water is colourless, and a 1921 prism test showed the blue is not just reflected sky.
- FYI-043 Culture Can You Start a Sentence With But? Strunk Did It 15 Times Can you start a sentence with but? Yes, and English always has. The ban is a schoolroom invention: Strunk's own book breaks it 15 times, the Constitution three.
- FYI-037 History Did Daylight Saving Time Start for Farmers? They Killed It Did daylight saving time start for farmers? The reverse: farmers led the 1919 repeal over Wilson's veto, and Franklin's famous letter called for cannon fire.
- FYI-036 History Did the Great Wall of China Work? It Was Never One Wall Did the Great Wall of China work? It filtered traffic more than it sealed a frontier, raiders crossed its gaps in 1550, and in 1644 a general opened the gate.
- FYI-038 History Half-Mast or Half-Staff? The US Flag Code Picks One Why is it called half mast instead of half staff? One word is American law, the other is British usage, and nobody ever recorded why flags come down at all.
- FYI-023 Science Is Mars Really Red? Only From Far Enough Away Is Mars really red? Only at a distance. NASA describes the ground as brown, gold and tan, and the rust that colours it is a mineral that needed liquid water.
- FYI-028 Curiosity What Came First, the Chicken or the Egg? Not Even Close What came first, the chicken or the egg? The egg, by about 355 million years. The 2010 study that supposedly proved otherwise was about calcite crystals.
- FYI-021 Science What Causes the Northern Lights? Earth's Own Electrons What causes the northern lights? The Sun supplies the power, but the electrons that glow are Earth's own, stored in the magnetotail and fired back down at us.
- FYI-027 Curiosity What Is a Group of Ravens Called? One Word, From 1486 What is a group of ravens called? An unkindness, from a 1486 word list printed to fill seven blank pages. The crowd you actually see is made of teenagers.
- FYI-048 Tech What Was the First Video Game? Not Pong, by 25 Years What was the first video game? Not Pong. A 1947 patent, a 1958 oscilloscope and 1962's Spacewar! each fail a different test, and each test is nameable.
- FYI-024 Curiosity Why Are Cats Afraid of Cucumbers? Cornell Says Not Snakes Why are cats afraid of cucumbers? Cornell's own cat behavior expert rejects the snake theory, and free-ranging cats are recorded eating 463 reptile species.
- FYI-041 Culture Why Are Cocktails Called Cocktails? The Answer Is a Horse Why are cocktails called cocktails? The New Orleans egg cup story fails on dates. The word was a horse term first, and a London paper glossed it as ginger in 1798.
- FYI-042 Culture Why Are French Fries Called French Fries? Blame the Fat Why are french fries called french fries? The name points at the frying method, not a country. A 1902 cookbook defines French frying as a kettle of deep hot fat.
- FYI-040 Culture Why Are Police Called 12? The Code Book Says Otherwise Why are police called 12? The radio code everyone credits, 10-12, means stand by, and English's biggest slang dictionary lists the word with no etymology.
- FYI-022 Science Why Are Veins Blue? Both Common Answers Are Wrong Why are veins blue? Human blood is never blue, and the usual correction is wrong too: measurement shows more red light coming back from a vein than blue.
- FYI-015 Science Why Are Sloths Slow? Their Eyes Are Part of the Answer Why are sloths slow? Three-toed sloths hold the lowest field metabolic rate ever measured in a mammal, and they are rod monochromats that go blind in daylight.
- FYI-019 Science Why Do Bees Die After Stinging? Only 8 Species Do Why do bees die after stinging? Only 8 of almost 21,000 bee species do, and even a honey bee can survive stinging an insect. The barb needs skin that stretches.
- FYI-030 Curiosity Why Do Crickets Chirp? And Why Kauai's Fell Silent Why do crickets chirp? A male rakes a toothed file on one wing across the other, and females locate him with ears on their knees. On Kauai, most males went mute.
- FYI-046 Everyday Why Do Horses Need Shoes? The Shoe Creates the Need Why do horses need shoes? A hoof grows 0.2 to 0.3 mm a day and the ground files it back. A shoe stops the filing, which is what builds the six-week farrier cycle.
- FYI-033 History Why Do Cowboys Wear Chaps? They Began as Saddle Flaps Why do cowboys wear chaps? For brush, rain and cold, but the garment began as leather flaps hung off a Mexican saddle, and the missing seat still proves it.
- FYI-020 Science Why Do Flies Rub Their Hands? Their Feet Are Their Tongues Why do flies rub their hands? Because a fly's feet are its tongue and its suction cups at once, and a dusted fruit fly grooms itself head to tail.
- FYI-029 Curiosity Why Do Hyenas Laugh? It Is the Sound of Losing Why do hyenas laugh? The giggle is a submission call from an animal being shoved off a kill, and its pitch and its wobble give away the caller's age and rank.
- FYI-039 Culture Why Do People Say Xmas? The X Is Greek and 900 Years Old Why do people say Xmas? The X is the Greek letter chi, the first letter of Christos, and English scribes were writing Christmas that way by about 1100.
- FYI-025 Curiosity Why Do Whales Explode? Usually Because Someone Helped Why do whales explode? Gut bacteria fill a sealed carcass with gas, but almost every burst on record had a person behind it, starting with Oregon's dynamite.
- FYI-047 Everyday Why Does Ice Float? And Why Some Ice Sinks Why does ice float? An open hexagonal lattice, not trapped air. Six elements freeze the very same way, and heavy-water ice sinks in a glass of water.
- FYI-026 Curiosity Why Is a Raven Like a Writing Desk? Carroll Answered It Why is a raven like a writing desk? Lewis Carroll answered his own riddle in 1896, then said it never had an answer, and a proofreader deleted the best pun.
- FYI-017 Science Why Is Bird Poop White? It Is Pee, and Not Uric Acid Why is bird poop white? The white part is not poop at all but urine, and a 2019 X-ray study of six bird species found no uric acid in a single sample.
- FYI-045 Everyday Why Is Caviar So Expensive? We Ate the Fish First Why is caviar so expensive? A female beluga waits 14 to 20 years to spawn and then breeds once every 4 to 8 years, and America ate its own stock first.
- FYI-034 History Why Is Greenland Called Greenland? The Quote Is Secondhand Why is Greenland called Greenland? Erik the Red's sales pitch survives only in a sentence written about 140 years later, and the pasture he sold was real.
- FYI-032 History Why Is It Called a Poop Deck? The Toilet Was at the Bow Why is it called a poop deck? The ship's word for stern reached English around 1400, centuries before the other poop, and the crew's real toilet sat at the bow.
- FYI-044 Culture Why Is It Called an Em Dash? An Em Is Not a Letter Why is it called an em dash? An em is a unit of typographic measurement equal to the current point size, and the capital M has not fitted it for centuries.
- FYI-049 Tech Why Is USB Not Reversible? It Took 24 Pins to Fix Why is USB not reversible? The 1996 Type-A plug wired four contacts in a single row. The connector that finally cured the flip needs 24 pins and software.
- FYI-018 Science Why Is Venus Hotter Than Mercury? It Gets Less Sunlight Why is Venus hotter than Mercury? Its clouds send over 75 percent of arriving sunlight straight back to space, and the surface still sits at 464C anyway.
- FYI-035 History Why Is Tennessee Called the Volunteer State? 30,000 Said Yes Why is Tennessee called the Volunteer State? The state's own archives say the phrase was never used in the War of 1812, and in 1846 a call for 2,800 drew 30,000.
- FYI-016 Science Why Do We Only See One Side of the Moon? Because It Spins Why do we only see one side of the Moon? Because it rotates once per orbit. A Moon that stopped spinning would parade every side of itself past us.
- FYI-031 History Why Were the Catacombs Built? Rome and Paris Disagree Why were the catacombs built? Rome dug legal cemeteries into soft volcanic rock because burial in the city was banned. Paris just fell into its own quarries.
- FYI-014 Science How Do Eels Reproduce? Nobody Has Ever Seen It Happen How do eels reproduce? Science still has not watched it happen. Aristotle guessed mud, Freud dissected 400 of them, and the answer hides in the Sargasso Sea.
- FYI-010 History How Long Is a Moment? It Used to Be Exactly 90 Seconds A moment feels like a vague amount of time, but medieval timekeepers gave it an exact length: 90 seconds. Here is who measured it, and how it lost its clock.
- FYI-012 Curiosity Why Is the Illuminati on the Dollar Bill? It Isn't The eye and pyramid on the dollar bill are blamed on the Illuminati, a society that died in 1787. The real story involves Virgil, heraldry, and the New Deal.
- FYI-011 Everyday Where Does the Wax Go When You Burn a Candle? The wax in a burning candle does not drip away or soak in. It turns into gas and leaves as water vapor and carbon dioxide. You are breathing your candle.
- FYI-013 History Why Do Coins Have Ridges? Blame the Coin Clippers Coins have ridges because people once shaved silver off the edges and spent the coin anyway. The fix outlived the crime, the silver, and Isaac Newton.
- FYI-009 Curiosity Why Are Barns Red? The Answer Starts Inside a Dying Star Why are barns red? Not because red paint was cheap. The real reason runs from farmyard chemistry back to the physics of how stars die.
- FYI-008 Culture Why Do We Say 'Bless You' When Someone Sneezes? Why do we say bless you when someone sneezes? The plague story is unverified, the soul-escaping story is folklore, and the real answer is far older than either.
- FYI-007 Tech Why Is the Keyboard QWERTY and Not ABC? Why is the keyboard not in alphabetical order? The QWERTY layout is 150 years old, it was never designed to slow you down, and historians still argue about where it came from.
- FYI-004 Science Why Do We Have Wisdom Teeth If They Just Cause Trouble? Why do we have wisdom teeth if they so often get impacted or pulled? The evolutionary story of shrinking jaws and a changing diet.
- FYI-001 History Why Airplane Windows Are Round It's not for the view. The rounded corners are the direct result of one of aviation's deadliest lessons - and a beautiful bit of physics you can see everywhere once you know it.
- FYI-005 Science Why Do We Get Brain Freeze? The Ice-Cream Headache, Explained Why do we get brain freeze? The real science of the ice-cream headache, referred pain, and the tongue trick that stops it fast.
- FYI-002 Science Your Brain Is Wired to See Faces That Aren't There The face in your car's grille, the man in the moon, the shocked expression on a power outlet - they're all the same trick your brain plays, and it kept your ancestors alive.
- FYI-006 Science Why Do We Need Mosquitoes? The Case for the World's Most Hated Insect Why do we need mosquitoes when they kill hundreds of thousands of people a year? The surprising ecology behind the world's deadliest animal.
- FYI-003 Everyday Honey Never Spoils - Here's the Chemistry Archaeologists found 3,000-year-old honey in Egyptian tombs, still perfectly edible. Almost no other food can do this. The reason is a quiet masterpiece of chemistry - performed by bees.
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