Ships throughout history typically stocked a variety of different flags used for sending a message, signaling other ships, and for identifying themselves.  For instance, in the 17th and 18th centuries, English privateers were to fly a specific version of the Union Jack, distinguishing themselves from English naval vessels which flew a different version of the Union Jack.  Pirate ships were no different, excepting perhaps that they often carried flags for more nefarious reasons like fooling nearby ships into think they were allies until they got close enough that the other ship couldn’t escape.

The most famous flags flown by pirates to indicate they were such were all called the “Jolly Roger” and were adorned with a variety of artwork or often no art work at all.  Most of these flags were simply black or red with nothing on them.  Historical accounts indicate that, should a pirate ship raise a black flag, it indicated that so long as the ship they were attacking surrendered with no resistance, they would be given quarter.  Should anyone aboard the ship resist or should the ship try to flee once the black flag was raised, the black flag would be lowered and the red flag would be raised.  This flag indicated that no mercy would be shown to anyone aboard the ship that was about to be attacked.

Pirate ships were much more feared than other types of enemy vessels because, in resisting other enemy vessels, at any point you could surrender and be offered quarter by the traditional rules of engagement; so you could fight until losing was inevitable, then surrender.  With pirate ships though, flying the black flag, you had to surrender immediately if you didn’t think you could win.  As pirate ships rarely attacked unless they were in a good position to win, this pretty much meant that, if you encountered a pirate ship, you should probably just surrender right away.

As such, flying of any form of the Jolly Roger tended to instill the necessary fear in whatever ship was being attacked that they would surrender immediately.  In one extreme example, in 1720, famed pirate Bartholomew Roberts sailed into a harbor at Trepassey, Newfoundland with a black flag flying.  This resulted in the crews of all 22 vessels in port panicking and abandoning their ships.  Combined, Roberts would have been no match for them, but the necessary fear was invoked from seeing the black flag that they all fled without a fight.

Records of pirate ships flying flags that signified they were pirates go back just about as far as history is recorded.  Of the Jolly Roger line though, the earliest reference is probably of the skull and crossbones flag used by the Knights Templar, who had the world’s biggest naval fleet in the 13 century and were well known for their pirate-like acts on the sea.   When the Knights Templar dissolved, with many members forming the Knights of Malta who were equally known for their piracy, they also were known to fly the skull and crossbones.

The origin of the skull and crossbone flag within the Templar tradition stems from variations of this legend: “A great lady of Maraclea was loved by a Templar, A Lord of Sidon; but she died in her youth, and on the night of her burial, this wicked lover crept to the grave, dug up her body and violated it. Then a voice from the void bade him return in nine months time for he would find a son. He obeyed the injunction and at the appointed time he opened the grave again and found a head on the leg bones of the skeleton (skull and crossbones). The same voice bade him guard it Well, for it would be the giver of all good things, and so he carried it away with him. It became his protecting genius, and he was able to defeat his enemies by merely showing them the magic head. In due course, it passed to the possession of the order.”

What’s interesting about this is that the port of Sidon was known historically to be a nest of pirates.  Thus, the skull and crossbones, as a pirate flag, probably predates the Knights Templar.

In any event, as noted earlier, the skull and crossbones weren’t the only flag to be known as the “Jolly Roger”.  Traditionally, any black flag flown, even with no design on it, simply meant the ship flying it was a pirate ship and was offering quarter if the ship about to be attacked would surrender immediately.  Any red flag, whether there was a design on it or not, meant the pirate ship would attack and offer no mercy.

The earliest references to the name “Jolly Roger” goes back at least to the early 18th century, with one of the earliest documented instances appearing in Charles Johnson’s A General History of the Pyrates (1724).  In it, he references that two pirates from the early 18th century, Bartholomew Roberts and Francis Spriggs, had named their individual flags “Jolly Roger”.  These flags were quite different in appearance, so historians think that this generic name for pirate flags of all varieties was already well established.

The origin of the “Jolly Roger” name itself is thought to stem from one of the following three things.  First, that it is simply adapted from the English word “roger”, which basically just means “wandering vagabond”; indeed, another name for the Devil among the English at this time was “Old Roger” and putting a depiction of the Devil on these flags was quite common.

Another possibility comes from the 17th century French “jolie rouge”, which meant “pretty red” and, thus, was what the red flags were called.  Accounts as early as the 18th century also have the black versions of these flags being called the “Jolly Roger”.  So if “Jolly Roger” stems from this, sometime between the 17th and 18th centuries the meaning was expanded to mean all pirate flags, regardless of color.

An alternative theory comes from the fact that certain Asian pirates called their captains by the title “Ali Raja”, meaning “King of the Sea”.  It’s possible that this term was then adapted by the English for eventual usage as the name of their pirate flags.

Personally, I think the first theory stands up to Occam’s razor the best, being the simplest solution that also, indecently, makes a lot of sense.

Bonus Factoids:

• The idea of “walking the plank” isn’t based on known historical events.  Rather, accounts of this sort of voted killing of shipmates by drowning tended to just result in the person being tossed over the side.
• While walking the plank isn’t historically based, pirates marooning people is.  In these cases, the victim would simply be left on a small deserted island to presumably eventually die of dehydration or exposure or possibly even starvation if they had nothing to catch sea-life with.
• The Skull and Crossbones in Unicode is U+2620.
• The Jolly Roger wasn’t just used by pirates, the skull and crossbones version is also used by various military forces, even commonly today on submarines in certain navies of the world.
• The tradition to use the Jolly Rodger on submarines stems from 1901 when Admiral Sir Arthur Wilson VC said submarines were “underhand, unfair, and damned un-English. … treat all submarines as pirates in wartime … and hang all crews.”  Upon learning of this, Lieutenant Commander Max Horton, who later became an Admiral, raised the Jolly Rodger when his submarine was returning to port after sinking the German ships SMS Hela and the destroyer SMS S-116.  Thus, the tradition was born that on the completion of a successful mission, the returning submarine should fly the Jolly Roger.  This eventually spread into the Jolly Roger being the official emblem of the Royal Navy Submarine Service.
• Spanish tombs and graveyard entrances at one time were traditionally marked with real skulls and crossbones and today are often marked with carved skull and crossbone signs.
• A notorious “secret” society at Yale goes by the name of Skull and Bones.  The alumni organization that owns the property and oversees the organization is official called the Russell Trust Association, named after General William Huntington Russell who was one of the cofounders of the association, along with Alphonso Taft in 1832.  Former members of this association include President George H. W. Bush, Goerge W. Bush, John Kerry, President William Howard Taft, Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, Secretary of Defense Robert A. Lovett, Senator David L. Boren, Obama’s economic advisor Austan Goolsbee, and many other highly placed and successful individuals.   Many conspiracy theorists view the society as somehow evil and attempting to establish some new world order where its members rule everything; they often cite the fact that so many known Bones alumni go on to be incredibly successful to show the conspiracy.  However, if they were really trying to establish some new world order, you’d think they’d open other chapters at other Universities around the world as 5-15 new members a year isn’t going to cut it for taking over the world.  Also, it should be expected that the Bones alumni would go on to be incredibly successful due to the fact that the society typically only selects a handful of members per year from elite students at Yale.  In light of that, it would be shocking if known members didn’t go on to high levels of success in their chosen fields.
• Pirates typically wore things like scarves, bandannas, hats, etc. to ward off the sun.  It is also theorized, though not known for sure, that they wore eye patches to keep one eye adjusted to light levels inside, while the other was adjusted to the extreme brightness often experienced outside at sea.  This way, if they had to run below deck, they could remove the eye patch and be able to see out of that eye instantly.  Whereas without the patch, they’d need to wait a while before they’d be able to see well.  Pirates and other sea-fairing folk also tended to wear tight clothing so that it wouldn’t catch on ropes or get jammed in pulleys and things of this nature.
• The stereotype that pirates often had peg legs or hooks instead of hands comes from the fact that the typical method of repairing a badly damaged appendage used to be to simply saw it off as quick as possible (often literally with a hand saw and no pain killer), before it became infected, and then cauterize the wound.  Given the pirates lifestyle, these such injuries weren’t terribly uncommon.  However, as you might expect, having a peg leg, on a ship that is being tossed about by the ocean, isn’t a recipe for keeping your balance, so it is unlikely there were many peg-legged pirates.  Further, winching lines and the like wouldn’t be very easy with one hand that was a hook.  So once these sorts of injuries happened, unless the injured was a cook or the captain or the like, it’s unlikely they were allowed to continue serving.
• The classic “arrrrr” noise that accompanies pirate-speak in the movies probably has its origins in the 1950s version of Treasure Island.  Actor Robert Newton played the particularly memorable pirate character Silver; he later popularly reprised the role in sequels and on TV.  His accent on the films featured a very strong rolling of the R’s, which is thought to be how “arrrrr” worked its way into pirate-speak.  Most of the rest of pirate-speak, like “avast”, are simply just old nautical terms used by all seaman, not just pirates.

Sources:

• Why are pirates depicted with a parrot on their shoulder?
• Skull and Crossbones: The Untold Tale of the Templar Shining Ones
• Skull and Crossbones (military)
• Skull and Crossbones (Cemetery)
• Skull and Bones
• Jolly Roger
• Why was the pirate flag called the Jolly Roger?

In World War I, British soldiers came up with the phrase “Chinese Landing” to describe a clumsy or bad landing.  It should be noted that this wasn’t originally meant to imply Chinese citizens couldn’t land a plane well or anything of the sort; rather, it came from the fact that, in a bad landing, the soldiers would often use the phrase “one wing low” to described this.  When said quickly, this somewhat resembled the Chinese language in sound to the British soldiers, hence, “Chinese Landing”.  This later evolved into describing any clumsy or inept landing.  Eventually, this spread to other phrases where anything done clumsily or ineptly was called a “Chinese X” where X is whatever the act was.

This phrasing  also came to mean anything done in a confused or disorganized way.  The origins of this are thought to be from the stark contrast between British and Chinese cultures where the British viewed many things the Chinese did as confusing and hard to understand from their cultural perspective.  Thus, around the time of World War I, any fire drill that was done in a disorganized or confused manner was called a “Chinese Fire Drill” by British soldiers.

In terms of the car game, where everyone jumps out of the car like the car is on fire when it is at a stop; then runs around chaotically; and then hops back in, it is unknown when and where exactly this game became common.  The first documented reference to this game, with the name “Chinese Fire Drill”, is from the early 1970s.  There are, however, accounts from people who lived as far back as the 1940s who say this game and with the name “Chinese Fire Drill” was around back then.  It is thought from this, considering there have been no accounts of the game with that name being around before the 1940s, that the name was brought back to America by soldiers fighting in WWII, who picked it up from British soldiers and at some point it got assigned to the car game, which was probably already around at that point, but either lacked a name or was under a different name.

Needless to say, this phraseology typically doesn’t sit well with Chinese citizens for obvious reasons and, for political correctness sake, most of these “Chinese X” phrases have disappeared, though some are still somewhat common in Britain.

Bonus Politically Incorrect Phrases:

• Dutch Courage (also called “liquid courage”): This is courage derived from becoming intoxicated from alcohol.  The first documented case of this idiom was in Edmund Waller’s Instructions to a Painter in 1665.  “The Dutch their wine, and all their brandy lose, Disarm’d of that from which their courage grows.”   The origins of this term come from a Dutch doctor by the name of Franciscus Sylvius, who invented gin and prescribed it as a form of medication to British soldiers fighting in the 30 year war, particularly using it to calm the soldiers directly before battle.  When they returned to England, the soldiers brought back gin with them and the phrase “Dutch Courage”.
• Indian Summer: This one has a few distinct meanings.  Most common is a period after the first frost or when the weather has turned cold, in late autumn, where the weather warms back up for a time before once again turning cold; second is the hottest period of summer, typically in July or August; third, is where something blooms uncharacteristically later in the summer.
• Chinese Whispers (also known as Telephone when played as a game):  Where someone tells one person something, then that person tells another person, and so on, with the story getting distorted as it goes along.
• There an urban legend that states that the first usage of the phrase “Chinese Fire Drill” was during a British naval engine room fire drill.  In this drill, British officers and Chinese officers were both part of the drill (why Chinese officers were serving aboard a British vessel is a mystery, but these sorts of urban legends can’t be bound by logic).  In any event, soldiers were to form two bucket lines, one on the starboard side and one on the port side.  The starboard side was to fill their buckets and pass them along to the engine room, where they would be dumped on the fire.  The port side was then to fill their buckets with the water accumulating in the engine room from the starboard side line.  Due to confusion in language between the Chinese soldiers and British soldiers, what actually supposedly ended up happening was that the crew from the starboard side would draw the water and then run over to the port side and dump it back into the ocean.  At that point, everybody started running around doing this. <sarcasm>I don’t know about you, but to me, that story sounds extremely plausible and is very likely to have been the true origin of the “Chinese Fire Drill” phrase.</sarcasm>

Sources:

• Chinese Fire Drill
• Dutch Courage
• Indian Summer
• Chinese Whispers
• Word of the Day: Chinese Fire Drill

First, it should be noted that it is not unsafe to put all metals in the microwave.  Indeed, you often put metals in the microwave anytime you put a hot pocket in the little pouch and place it in the microwave.  The pouch has a thin layer of aluminum lining the inside that is designed to absorb the microwaves and heat up a bit so as to brown the outside of the hot pocket.

On top of that, the inside walls of your microwave oven are made of metal.   This forms something called a Faraday Cage which traps the microwaves inside the box, so that they cook the food and not things around the microwave oven, like you.  If you look closely, you’ll also see that the window you look at the food through has metal mesh lining it.  The holes in this mesh are smaller than the wavelengths of the electromagnetic radiation your microwave is producing.  This makes it so the waves can’t pass through the holes.  Visible light, however, is comprised of much smaller wavelengths, so that form of radiated energy passed through the holes just fine, allowing you to see inside your microwave while it’s running without getting cooked yourself.

So if the inside of your microwave is lined with metal and certain food products, such as hot pockets and pot-pies, have containers that contain metal, why does your microwave manual say not to put metal in the microwave?

First, let’s talk a little about how a microwave oven actually works.  At its core, a microwave oven is a pretty simple device.  It’s basically just a magnetron hooked up to a high voltage source.  This magnetron directs microwaves into a metal box.  These generated microwaves then bounce around inside the microwave until they are absorbed via dielectric loss in various molecules resulting in the molecules heating up (more on how this works in the Bonus Factoids section).  Matter that work well here are things such as water, ceramics, certain polymers, etc.  These all end up converting microwave energy into heat quite effectively.

Metals, on the other hand, are great conductors of electricity, being packed with electrons that can move freely.  Depending on the shape/type/thickness/distribution/etc. of metal, you may observe some heating of the metal itself in the microwave or none at all.  You may also observe some arcing of electricity or none at all.  In any event, when these microwaves hit the metal, free electrons on the surface of the metal end up moving from side to side very rapidly.  This, in turn, prevents the electric wave from entering the metal; thus, the waves end up being reflected instead.  However, there is also the potential that this ends up creating a sufficient charge density that the electrical potential in the metal object exceeds the dielectric breakdown of air.  When this happens, it will result in arcing inside your microwave, from that metal to another electrical conductor with lower potential (often the wall of the microwave).  In extreme cases, these electrical sparks can end up damaging the wall by burning small holes in the metal wall.  It can also end up burning out the magnetron in your microwave oven or, in modern microwaves, can provide a surge that ends up damaging sensitive microelectronics, possibly killing your microwave or making it unsafe to use, in the case of a hole in the inner metal wall in your microwave.

Another way it can kill the magnetron of your microwave is when enough of the generated microwaves don’t get absorbed, such as if the food is wrapped in aluminum foil or mostly enclosed in a metal container.  This can create a lot of energy not getting absorbed, with nowhere to go but eventually back to the magnetron, which can eventually damage the magnetron.  Once again, killing your microwave oven.

On a more mundane level, something like a spoon or a metal plate or the like, positioned correctly, will simply make your food potentially not cook normally.  On that note, it is once again, actually acceptable to put metal in a microwave under the proper conditions.  Some microwaves even have metal grates inside for setting food on, such as is often the case with certain convection ovens.  There are also certain types of metal pots and pans that are microwave safe.  These all, however, are carefully designed to not cause any problems in your microwave oven.  In general, putting metal in the microwave is unsafe, not because you are at risk of bodily harm or the like (though in extreme cases a fire might be started in your microwave), but, more to the point, primarily because it has the potential of damaging your microwave in the ways listed above.

Bonus Factoids:

• Metal powder at room temperature actually does a good job of absorbing microwave radiation.  When it does so, it heats up.  It’s not wholly understood what is going on here; but it is known that if the metal particle size is less than 100 micrometers, the particle will absorb microwaves, instead of reflecting them.  This is generally how the microwave pouches, such as come with hot pockets or pot pies, work; though, they sometimes use a form of ceramic instead, with the same effect of generating heat to brown the outside of the food.  These pouches and containers meant for browning are known as susceptors.
• It’s also generally a bad idea to run a microwave with nothing in it.  This creates microwaves in the oven that have nothing to absorb them.  This standing wave is reflected back and forth within the microwave, between the tube and the cooking chamber, and will eventually burn out the magnetron.  This same effect can occur when cooking dehydrated food or, as noted previously, food wrapped in some sort of metal where there is very little to absorb the emitted microwaves.
• The type of radiation emitted by microwave ovens is non-ionizing.  This means that it doesn’t contribute to your chance of getting cancer like x-rays, ultraviolet light, etc do.  Outside of potential burn risks, experiments done with rodents have yet to show any major adverse effect to prolonged exposure to microwaves at the 2.45 GHz range seen in most microwave ovens, even with continual low level exposure.
• Bluetooth and IEEE’s 802.11 (like your wireless internet router probably uses) both typically emit microwaves in the 2.4 GHz band, very close to the frequency found in most microwave ovens.  Radar and GPS also operate using radiation in the microwave spectrum.
• Electromagnetic waves were predicted by James Clerk Maxwell in 1864.  It wasn’t until 1888 though that Heinrich Hertz was able to build a device that was capable of producing and detecting microwaves.  His device used a horse trough; Leyden jars; a zinc gutter (worked as an antenna); and a wrought iron point spark.
• The first known documented use of the term “microwave” was in 1931 in a Telegraph & Telephone Journal: “When trials with wavelengths as low as 18 cm were made known, there was undisguised surprise that the problem of the micro-wave had been solved so soon.”
• Microwave ovens work by having an internal magnetron emit electromagnetic waves around the frequency of 2.45 GHz (vibrates at about 2.45 billion times per second).  These waves are absorbed by water molecules, fat molecules, sugars molecules, and certain other substances, which then heat up by a process known as “dielectric heating”.  Basically, molecules such as water molecules are electric dipoles.  This means that they have a positive charge and a negative charge on opposite ends.  Thus, they will rotate themselves rapidly when trying to align themselves with the alternating electric field from the microwaves.  As these molecules rub against each other, they heat up and, as they do so, they themselves also become part of the cooking process, heating up molecules around them that may not be absorbing much, or any, of the microwaves.
• Microwaves are not nearly as efficient at heating frozen food due to the fact that the molecules are not free to rotate or move.
• Microwave ovens do not “cook from the inside out”, as many people say.  Microwaves actually heat from the outside in, very similar to other heating methods.  The misconception arises from the fact that some foods that you microwave have a very dry outer cover (such as a crust), which the microwaves penetrate with little very little absorption.  Thus, the liquid inside will appear to heat up first.  This is why, with frozen objects, the center might remain frozen and the outer layer somewhat cool, while the layer just under the crust may be super hot.  If it was truly cooking from the inside out, as people say, you’d never end up with that frozen center while the rest was super hot.
• The particular band of microwaves produced by typical microwave ovens (2.45 GHz) was chosen primarily due to the fact that it is a frequency set aside for non-communication uses.  Within the available frequencies that are not set aside for communication, 2.45 GHz was chosen because 433.92 MHz would require expensive equipment to generate sufficient power to heat food;  5.8 GHz and 24.125 GHz would require a much higher cost on electricity used to run the oven; and 915MHz was rejected as it wasn’t a band available world-wide, as 2.45 GHz was.  915 MHz, though, is occasionally used in industrial microwave ovens.
• Even though most microwave ovens let you choose between power levels, there generally isn’t any change in the frequency level of the microwaves being generated.  Rather, it simply changes the duty cycle of the magnetron. In other words, it turns on and off at a different rate.
• A convection oven is basically just a conventional microwave that also has a way to brown food like a traditional oven.  In order to provide this browning effect, the convection oven may use traditional oven heating elements or might use something such as a high powered halogen bulb.
• The ability to use microwaves as a heating device for food was originally discovered by an engineer by the name of Percy Spencer.  Spencer was working on building magnetrons for radar sets.  One day, he was standing in front of an active radar set when he noticed the candy bar he had in his pocket melted.  Upon noticing this, Spencer made the monumental mistake of telling other people instead of keeping it to himself and working on it on his own.  He and some other experimenters began trying to heat other food objects, presumably to get out of actually working while they were at work.  The first one he heated intentionally was popcorn.  The second was an egg, which ended up exploding in the face of one of his co-workers.  Spencer then created what we might call the first true microwave oven by attaching a high density electromagnetic field generator which would then shoot into a metal box, so that the electromagnetic waves would have no way to escape and the oven would be much more efficient and safe.  He then placed various food items in the box and monitored their temperature to observe the effect.
• The company Spencer was working for, Raytheon, then filed a patent on October 8, 1945 for a microwave cooking oven, eventually named the Radarange.  This first microwave oven was about 6 feet tall and weighed around 750 pounds.  The price tag on these units was about $5000 a piece.  It wasn’t until 1967 that the first microwave oven that was both relatively affordable ($495) and reasonably sized (counter-top model) was available.
• In 1971 only about 1% of American homes had a microwave.  By 1986, that number had risen to about 25%.  In 2009, the estimate was that about 90% of American households have a microwave.
• It wasn’t until microwave ovens became extremely popular in the 1970s that they were commonly known as “microwave ovens”.  Before that, they were typically known as “electronic ovens”.
• Forks are particularly susceptible to sparking in a microwave due to the fact that their tines are relatively close together and will produce high voltage at the tips.  This voltage will exceed the dielectric breakdown of air, which is about 3 megavolts per meter.  The air then forms a kind of conductive plasma, which is the spark you see.  This, in turn, makes the fork an even more effective antenna for the microwaves, worsening the problem.
• Microwaves convert Vitamin B12 to an inactive form, which means about 30-40% of the Vitamin B12 in microwaved foods is not usable by mammals.
• On the other hand, spinach loses about 77% of its folate when cooked in a normal stove, but retains nearly all of it when cooked in a microwave.  In the same way, steamed vegetables, as a rule, tend to retain more of their nutrients in a microwave than when cooked in a traditional oven.
• At one time, most long distance telephone calls were transmitted via a large network of microwave radio relay links, such as AT&T’s “Long Lines”.  In the 1950s, about 5400 telephone calls could be run through a single microwave channel via multiplexing.  The distance between hops was typically around 40-50 miles.  The additional cost of transmitting this way was a large part of why long distance was so expensive historically.  With the advent and installation of fiber optic lines and advanced satellite systems, this made the old ground based microwave relay links obsolete for transmitting long distance calls. (Although, satellite systems are essentially just a space-based version of this same thing).

Sources:

• Why You Can’t Put Metal in the Microwave
• Why Can’t You Put Metal in a Microwave Oven?
• Microwave
• Why No Metal in Microwave Ovens
• Is It Dangerous To Put Metal in a Microwave?
• Microwave Oven
• Image Source

Today I found out about the Hampton Chain of Friends Sweepstakes.  This is obviously a sponsored post, don’t worry, a normal Today I Found Out article will also be posted today.  But, special thanks to Hampton for supporting Today I Found Out and helping keeping this site going.

In the Hampton Chain of Friends Sweepstakes, the Grand Prize winner will win, for one weekend (2 nights), an entire 100 room Hampton hotel for the winner and anyone the winner wants to invite to join them.  With 100 rooms available, you’ll be able to rack up a lot of “I owe you one”‘s from your friends.

They are also giving away daily prizes (over 100 prizes total) with this sweepstakes.  These first place prizes will be for one weekend stay for the winner and three friends at any Hampton hotel.

In order to enter, simply follow this link Hampton Chain of Friends Sweepstakes.  The entrance process is simple and quick and you’ll then be eligible for one of their daily prizes and for the Grand Prize.  Alternatively, if you happen to be planning a trip somewhere at the moment, you can enter the sweepstakes by adding the promo code “FRIEND” when you make a reservation to a Hampton Inn.

Weekend vacations are a good way to inexpensively recharge your batteries for the coming work week and inviting friends tends to just make this whole thing a lot more fun.   If you end up winning one of the daily first prizes or the Grand Prize, you won’t just get to recharge your batteries and have a good time with friends, but the hotel stay will be free, which always makes everything significantly more enjoyable.

There are, to date, over 1700 Hampton Inns in the United States, Canada, Costa Rica, Ecuador, the United Kingdom, and Mexico, among other places.  So there are loads of great spots to pick from.  Personally, my wife and I and a few friends would go for a nice weekend stay in Beautiful British Columbia around Christmas and do a little snow boarding and skiing.

In any event, check out the Hampton Chain of Friends Sweepstakes.  You’re not only entering for a great prize, but also supporting one of Today I Found Out’s sponsors, which in turn helps keep the site going.

Bonus Factoids:

• As of 1989, Hampton Hotels became the first national hotel chain to have a 100% satisfaction guarantee policy.   This policy is stated by Hampton Hotels as follows: “Friendly service, clean rooms and comfortable surroundings every time. If you’re not satisfied, we don’t expect you to pay. That’s our commitment & your guarantee. That’s 100% Hampton.”
• While some of the Hampton hotels are directly owned and managed by Hilton Hotels Corporation, quite a few of them are actually independently owned, being franchised out by Hilton.
• The first Hampton Inn opened in Memphis, Tennessee in the summer of 1984.  This hotel was at 1585 Sycamore View Road and remained in operation until August of 2005.
• In 2004, Hampton spent 100 million dollars on renevations of its hotels.  These renevations included upgraded continental breakfasts and upgraded beds to the much more luxurious “Cloud Nine Beds”, among other things.
• Because Hampton Hotels are part of the Hilton family of hotels, they qualify for Hilton HHonors hotel points and airline miles when you stay there.  They also offer “On the House” hot breakfast, “On the Run Breakfast Bags” Monday-Friday, free high speed internet, and 24 hour coffee in the lobby, among other perks.

Sources:

• Hampton Inn
• About Hampton Inn
• Hampton Inn Facts

The word derives originally from the Old High German “bacho”, meaning “buttock”, which in turn derived from the Proto-Germanic “backoz”, meaning “back”.  By the 14th century, it found its way into Old French as “bacun”, meaning “back meat”.  And by the 16th century, it found its way into Middle English as “bacoun”, which referred to all cured pork, not just the back meat.

Bonus Factoids:

• The USDA defines “bacon” as “the cured belly of a swine carcass”… mmm swine carcass…
• The phrase “bring home the bacon” has been around since the early 20th century and was initially used primarily by the working class, with bacon being a staple meat for that class.
• The difference between bacon and salted pork or ham is primarily in the brine used.  Brine for bacon often includes sodium nitrite, sodium nitrate, and saltpeter for curing the meat; sodium ascorbate for setting the color, as well as speeding up the curing process; and brown or maple sugar for flavor, among other ingredients.  One of the principle differences is that brine for ham tends to have a much higher concentration of sugar.
• American Bacon, or “streaky bacon” as the British call it, is generally cut from the fatty sides of a pig’s belly.  Canadian Bacon, known as “back bacon” to the British, who apparently like to have their own names for everything bacon related, is made up of the tender loins located on the back of pigs.
• In continental Europe, the part of the pig American Bacon is made from is typically sliced into cubes and used as a cooking ingredient due to its high fat and rich flavor.
• Bacon actually is good for the brains of unborn children.  Bacon contains a nutrient called choline which has been shown to boost the intelligence of people, if they got a lot of it before they were born.  You can also get choline from eggs, liver, milk, chicken, and various nuts.
• Records of bacon being made go all the way back to around 1500 B.C. in China.  Bacon was also popular with the Greeks and Romans.
• A 200 pound pig will yield close to 20 pounds of bacon, among other popular meat products.
• The patron saint of bacon is Saint Anthony the abbot.  He’s also the patron saint of swine herders, butchers, epilepsy, amputees, shingles, gravediggers, hermits, lost items, and Canas Brazil.

Sources:

• Bacon
• 17 Moutwater Facts About Bacon
• Etymology: Bacon
• Bacon
• Where Bacon Comes From On a Pig

In 1940, Jimmy Stewart was drafted into the United States Army, but ended up being rejected due to being five pounds under the required weight, given his height (at the time he weighed 143 pounds).  Not to be dissuaded, Stewart then sought out the help of Don Loomis, who was known to be able to help people add or subtract pounds.  Once he had gained a little weight, he enlisted with the Army Air Corps in March of 1941 and was eventually accepted, once he convinced the enlisting officer to re-run the tests.

Initially, Stewart was given the rank of private; by the time he had completed training, he had advanced to the rank of second lieutenant (January of 1942).  Much to his chagrin, due to his celebrity status and extensive flight expertise (having tallied over 400 flight hours before even joining the military), Stewart was initially assigned to various “behind the lines” type duties such as training pilots and making promotional videos in the states.  Eventually, when he realized they were not going to ever put him in the front line, he appealed to his commanding officer and managed to get himself assigned to a unit overseas.

In August of 1943, he found himself with the 703rd Bombardment Squadron, initially as a first officer, and shortly thereafter as a Captain.  During combat operations over Germany, Stewart found himself promoted to the rank of Major.  During this time, Stewart participated in several uncounted missions (on his orders) into Nazi occupied Europe, flying his B-24 in the lead position of his group in order to inspire his troops.

For his bravery during these missions, he twice received the Distinguished Flying Cross; three times received the Air Medal; and once received the Croix de Guerre from France.  This latter medal was an award given by France and Belgium to individuals allied with themselves who distinguished themselves with acts of heroism.

By July of 1944, Stewart was promoted chief of staff of the 2nd Combat Bombardment wing of the Eighth Air Force.  Shortly thereafter, he was promoted to the rank of colonel, becoming one of only a handful of American soldiers to ever rise from private to colonel within a four year span.

After the war, Stewart was an active part of the United States Air Force Reserve, serving as the Reserve commander of Dobbins Air Reserve Base.  On July 24, 1959, he attained the rank of brigadier general (one star general).

During the Vietnam War, he flew (not the pilot) in a B-52 on a bombing mission and otherwise continued to fulfill his duty with the Air Force Reserve.  He finally retired from the Air Force on May 31, 1968 after 27 years of service and was subsequently promoted to Major General (two star general).

Bonus Factoids:

• Both Stewart’s grandfathers fought in the American Civil War.  He also had ancestors on his mother’s side that served in the American Revolution and the War of 1812.  His father served in the Spanish-American War and World War I.  His adopted son, Ronald, was killed at the age of 24 as a Marine in Vietnam.
• The full list of military awards achieved by Stewart are: 2 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 4 Air Medals, 1 Army Commendation Medal, 1 Armed Forces Reserve Medal, 1 Presidential Medal of Freedom, 1 French Croix de Guerre with Palm.
• As a child, Stewart was a Second Class Scout and eventually became an adult Scout leader.  He was also the recipient of the prestigious Boy Scouts of America Silver Buffalo Award, of which only 674 to date have been given out since 1926.  Of the other recipients besides Stewart, 14 have held the office of President of the United States.
• A brigadier general is equivalent to a lower rear admiral in the navy.  A major general is equivalent to a rear admiral and is typically given 10,000-20,000 troops to command and is authorized to command them independently.
• U.S. law limits the number of general officers that may be on active duty at any time to 302 for the Army, 279 for the Air Force, and 80 for the Marine Corps.
• Eligible officers to be considered to promotion for the rank of brigadier general (one star) are recommended to the President from a list compiled by current general officers.  The President then selects officers from this list to be given the promotion.  Occasionally, the President will also nominate officers not on this list, but this almost never happens.  Once the President makes their selection, the Senate confirms or rejects the selected individuals by a majority vote.
• The name “brigadier general” comes from the American Revolutionary War when the first brigadier generals were appointed.  At that time, they were simply general officers put in charge of a brigade, hence “brigadier general”.  For a time in the very early 19th century, this was the highest rank any officer in the military could achieve as the rank of major general (two star) had been abolished.  The rank of major general was later re-established just before the war of 1812.
• At Princeton, Stewart excelled at architecture and was eventually awarded a full scholarship for graduate work by his professors as a result of his thesis on airport design.
• Stewart and Henry Fonda were roommates early in their careers.  Later in life, they still shared a close friendship and, when they weren’t working, they often spent their time building and painting model airplanes with each other.
• Jimmy Stewart also was an avid pilot before his military service.  He received his private pilot certificate in 1935 and used to fly cross-country to visit his parents.  Interestingly, when he did so, he stated that he used rail road tracks to navigate.
• Stewart was also one of the investors and collaborators who helped build Thunderbird Field, which was a pilot training school built to help train pilots during WWII.  During the WWII alone, over 10,000 pilots were trained there.
• After WWII, he strongly considered abandoning acting and entering the aviation field, due to personal doubts that he could still act.
• His first film after the war was Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life which, at the time, was considered somewhat of a flop with the public, though it was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Stewart.  Partially due to this film’s poor showing at the box office, Capra’s production company went bankrupt and Stewart began to further doubt his ability to act following the war.
• On January 5, 1992, It’s a Wonderful Life became the first American program ever to be broadcast on Russian television.  A translated version, courtesy of Stewart and Lomonosov Moscow State University, was broadcast to over 200 million Russians on that day.
• Stewart went on to act in several flops, as well as several critically acclaimed films, and by the 1950s was still considered a top tier actor over all.  This was important because in 1950 he became one of the first top tier actors to work for no money up front, but rather a percentage of the gross of the film.  Others had done this before, but it was rare and generally only lower end actors on the tail of their careers would agree to this.  He did this on the movie Winchester ’73 where he had asked for $200,000 pay to appear in that movie and Harvey.  The studio rejected, so he countered that he’d work for a percentage of the gross.  He ended up taking home nearly $600,000 for Winchester ’73 alone.  Hollywood’s other top-tier stars took noticed and this practiced began becoming the norm for top tier actors.
• By 1954, Stewart was voted the most popular Hollywood actor in the world, displacing John Wayne.  He also was the highest grossing actor that year.
• Stewart was also known somewhat for his poetry.  He frequently would appear on Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show and would read various poems he had written throughout his life.  One of his poems, written about his dog, so moved Carson that, by the end, Carson was choking back tears.  Dana Carvey and Dennis Miller, in 1980, parodied this on Saturday Night Live.  These poems were later compiled into a book called Jimmy Stewart and His Poems.
• Later in life, Stewart appeared in The Magic of Lassie (1978), much to the dismay of critics and the general public, as the film was a universal flop and seen to be beneath him.  Stewart’s response to them was that it was the only script he was offered that didn’t have sex, profanity, or graphic violence.
• Stewart’s final film role was as the voice of Wylie Burp, in the 1991 movie An American Tail: Fievel Goes West.
• Stewart devoted much of the last years of his life to trying to enhance the public’s understanding and appreciation of the U.S. constitution and the Bill of Rights as well as promote education.  He died of a blood clot in his lung on July 2, 1997.  Over his life, his professions included a hardware store shop-hand; a brick layer; a road worker; an assistant magician; an actor; an investor; a war hero; and a philanthropist.  He also held a bachelors degree in architecture from Princeton.

Sources:

• Brigadier General
• James Stewart
• Image Source
• Silver Buffalo Award
• Croix de guerre
• Air Medal
• Oak Leaf Clusters
• Major General

It turns out, it’s very hard to tickle yourself because your brain anticipates things going on around you in order to help speed up response times.  More technically, the cerebellum monitors body movements and can also distinguish between expected sensations and unexpected ones, generally resulting in diminishing or completely discarding expected sensations, while paying much more attention to unexpected ones.

So your brain is actively anticipating touch sensations.  When it is doing this, it is also actively discarding sensations that it deems unimportant, like when you are typing and it significantly dulls the touch sensation in your fingertips so that you don’t really notice it unless you consciously think about it.  This same type of thing happens when you try to tickle yourself.

Researchers at University College London tested this by scanning the brains of subjects while having the palm of their hands touched by themselves and by experimenters.  The brain scans revealed that, when the touch was externally produced, the somatosensory cortex (involved in processing touch) and anterior cingulate (involved in processing pleasure) parts of the brain reacted much more strongly than when the touch was produced by the subjects themselves.  In these cases, the brain was using information it has about, in this case, motor movements of the finger and arms and visual information, to anticipate the touch.

Interestingly, results from a different study showed that the same internal anticipated response applies when subjects manipulated a robot, which then in turn manipulated another robot to touch the subject’s palms.  This was only true, however, when the associated touch from the second robot happened right away.  When this happened, the cerebellum sends information on the sensation to expect to the somatosensory cortex.  With this information, some unknown cortical mechanism is triggered that inhibits the tickling sensation from activating.

However, if the subsequent robotic touch is time delayed, even delayed by as little as a 1/5 of a second, the subjects felt stronger touch sensations, similar to when the touch was not self produced.  By introducing the delay, it effectively tricked the brain into thinking the touch was externally caused, instead of internally caused and so didn’t inhibit the tickling sensation.

So in short, you can’t tickle yourself because there is no element of surprise.  Your brain is using the various internal sensory data it has available to anticipate exactly what is going to happen based on your movements and visual data.  When the anticipated reaction and the actual reaction line up, your brain diminishes or even sometimes completely discards the sensation as a result of that action.  On the other hand, when someone else is tickling you, there are unexpected sensations on the skin and these then can result in the tickling sensation being activated.

Bonus Factoids:

• Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, studied fMRI scans between people who were actually being tickled and those who were about to be tickled and were anticipating it and discovered that the brain reacts the same to both.  Specifically, the somatosensory cortex and the secondary somatosensory cortex both lit up at around the same levels.  So even though, in the latter case, the subjects weren’t being touched, as far as their brains were concerned, they were being touched.
• It turns out, the panic response when a tarantula is crawling on your leg or the like is exactly what is happening when you are getting tickled.  The body’s response to being tickled is panic and anxiety.  It is thought that this is a defense mechanism for exactly the type of thing listed above where an external touch, such as a poisonous insect crawling on you or the like, might be occurring.  The body needs to react quickly to this unanticipated touch and without time for much conscious thought, so produces the panic reaction.
• Interestingly, the panic reaction that results from tickling doesn’t feel like tickling when the person tickling you isn’t someone you want tickling you.  In this case, it more closely resembles actual panic reactions, rather than having associated laughter.
• A recent survey of college students indicated that on average only 32% of people report enjoying being tickled.  Of the rest, 36% report disliking being tickled and 32% reporting being neutral on tickling.  In the same study, they found people who reported disliking being tickled smiled more often during tickling than those who indicated they enjoyed being tickled.  This is in line with other research that seems to indicate we smile and laugh during tickling due to nervousness, anxiety, and embarrassment.
• The Romans used to use continuous tickling of the feet as a form of torture.
• The word “tickle” comes from the Middle English word “tikelen”, meaning “to touch lightly”.
• Being tickled by a very light touch across your skin is called “knismesis”.  This type of tickle doesn’t usually produce laughter, but does produce the same type of panic response as the alternative form of tickling, called “gargalesis”.  Gargalesis is the form of tickling produced by repeatedly having pressure put on ticklish areas.
• Contrary to popular belief, most laughter is not associated with humor, but rather stems from non-humor related social interactions.  This was discovered from a study covering over 2,000 cases of naturally occurring laughter, almost none of which stemmed from jokes or other such humor devices.  Most cases were simple, short “ha ha’s” during somewhat normal conversations.  These short laughs almost never interrupted speech, but rather occurred during breaks, providing social cues to those around.  It is thought that laughter serves a similar function to yawning, namely providing “social glue” that helps bond people subconsciously.
• Apes don’t laugh the way we do, but they do produce a panting sound in the same type of situations that humans would laugh in (being tickled; during play; etc).  Likewise, rats will often produce a high-pitch sound when being tickled and during play.
• This predictive system used by the brain for anticipated sensations is called a “forward model”, where the brain’s motor system makes predictions about the consequences of some movement or action and interprets the resulting anticipated sensations as self produced or externally produced.  It then adjusts the level of the sensations felt accordingly.
• This forward-predicting that your brain is constantly doing is also why you get startled and might even jump when you think you are alone and someone sneaks up behind you and taps you on the shoulder or says “boo!”  This is the same type of bodily panic reaction as happens as a result of being tickled.

Sources:

• Why you can’t tickle yourself
• Tickling
• A Big Mystery: Why do we laugh?
• Why can’t you tickle yourself
• Why do we laugh
• Why can’t you tickle yourself
• I’m Going to Tickle You

Before “man” meant a male, the word “wer” or “wǣpmann” was commonly used to refer to “male human”.  This word almost completely died out around the 1300s, but survives somewhat in words like “werewolf”, which literally means “man wolf”.

Women at the time were referred to as “wif” or “wīfmann“, meaning “female human”.  The latter “wifmann”, eventually evolved into the word “woman”, but retained its original meaning.  The word “wif” itself eventually evolved into “wife”, with its meaning obviously being changed slightly.

Interestingly, the word ‘men’, meaning “to think” or “to have a cognitive mind”, was also gender neutral and connected to “man”, which meant “the thinker”.  So we can see from that how “man” originally referred to all humans.

Largely due to the stigma that using the word “man” meaning “humans” is supposedly sexist, despite its original meaning, the use of the word “man” in that fashion has all but disappeared in the last 50-100 years, with it now only showing up in words like “human” and “mankind” as referring to both male and female.  Even those instances still garners quite a bit of controversy in terms of being thought of as sexist, despite these words predating the point when “man” meant “male” only.

One interesting convention that was thought up in the early 1900s to deal with this issue of “man” coming to mean both male and female and also sometimes meaning males exclusively is, in literature, to do the following: when referring to humans, “man” should be capitalized as in “Man”; when referring to “man” as in “male”, it is to be left lower case.  This convention was used in such literary works as “The Lord of the Rings” and was a key point in the prophecy concerning the Witch-king of Angmar: “no man can kill me”, meaning that according to the prophecy a woman, Eowyn, could because “man” in the prophecy was not capitalized.

Sources:

• Man
• Online Etymology Dictionary: Man
• Woman
• Womyn

This phrase first popped up in the 19th century, with the earliest known documented case coming from Chicago, Illinois; specifically, coming from the December of 1890 issue of the Chicago Daily Tribune, in this case referring to aerial navigation: “It has been regarded as a pipe-dream for a good many years.”

Yet another reference in Chicago, in September of 1895, demonstrates the true origin of phrase in terms of meaning, namely, as a reference to the dreams experienced when smoking opium.  This September of 1895 reference is from the Fort Wayne Gazette:

Bonus Factoids:

• “Pipe Dream” isn’t just a commonly known phrase, it is also a less commonly known musical by Rogers and Hammerstein, which premiered November 30th, 1955 and closed just eight months later, making it the shortest run (245 performances) of any Rodgers and Hammerstein show and was somewhat a flop by their normal standards.  The title was chosen as a play on words in the fact that the lead female character ends up living in an old boiler pipe.
• Due to the fact that the main character of Pipe Dream lived in a pipe, Jim Henson, in 1989 shortly before his death in 1990, considered producing a version of the musical in film form with Muppets.  This idea was later abandoned.
• Julie Andrews auditioned for Pipe Dream, but was turned down, not because she wasn’t preferred for the role as the lead, but because Rodgers thought she’d be better off trying out for My Fair Lady.  Her portrayal of Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady was what initially propelled her to stardom.   Specifically, due to her outstanding performance in My Fair Lady, Rodgers decided to cast her in the Rodgers and Hammerstein TV musical Cinderella, which was broadcast to over 107 million viewers in 1957.
• Despite this, in 1960, Jack Warner, an executive at a movie studio that was producing a film version of My Fair Lady, dropped Julie Andrews as he felt she lacked sufficient name recognition.  This opened up an opportunity for Andrews to play the lead in Disney’s Mary Poppins, which she actually initially turned down because of being pregnant, but Disney insisted and waited for her.    Andrews subsequently won both the Academy Award and Golden Globe award for Best Actress for that role.  She also won a Grammy Award, along with her fellow actors, for best Children’s Album.  As a not-so-subtle jab at Jack Warner, who had said she lacked “name recognition” when he rejected her from the film version of My Fair Lady, she closed her Golden Globes award for Best Actress speech with “And, finally, my thanks to a man who made a wonderful movie and who made all this possible in the first place, Mr. Jack Warner.”
• “Operation Pipe Dreams” was a 2003 nationwide United States investigation which targeted business selling drug paraphernalia.  In the end, hundreds of businesses and homes were raided nationwide.  Fifty-five people were charged with trafficking of illegal drug paraphernalia and eventually fined and generally given home detentions.   The estimated cost of the operation was around twelve million dollars or about $220,000 per person charged and about 2,000 officers involved or about 36 officers per charge.
• Actor Tommy Chong was particularly hurt by this sting due to financing and promoting Chong Glass Works/Nice Dreams, which was started by his son and produced over 100 hand blown pipes a day.  Nice Dreams had a policy of not selling to shops where it would be illegal to do so.  However, federal agents under the guise of shop owners in those states where it would be illegal to sell to entrapped Chong’s son by continually contacting him and trying to get him to sell to them.  He initially refused, but eventually they sweetened the deal enough and he agreed to sell, at which point charges were filed.  Tommy Chong eventually agreed to a plea-bargain that made it so neither his son Paris, who had committed the illegal act, nor his wife would be charged.  Tommy Chong was sentenced to 9 months in prison and fined $20,000 along with forfeiting $103,000.   Prosecutors later admitted that they were much more severe with Chong than others charged due to the fact that his movies hindered “law enforcement efforts to combat drug trafficking and use.”
• The movies “Down Periscope” (1996) and The Wild Bunch (1969) are both officially called “Pipe Dreams” in many countries the world over.

*Note: this article was by request from a Today I Found Out reader.  If there is anything you’d like to know or something you already know that you think is interesting and not commonly known, feel free to send me an email and if I think it’s something worth doing an article on, I’ll do the research and write an article on it.

Sources:

• Etymology Dictionary: Pipe Dream
• Pipe Dream
• Pipe Dream the Musical
• Julie Andrews
• Operation Pipe Dreams
• Pipe Dream

In order to give Misconception Junction a nice little base of articles, I transferred over about 20 popular articles from Today I Found Out that dealt with common misconceptions; but as of last Friday, all articles going forward on Misconception Junction will be new and unique to that site. If you’re interesting, feel free to check it out and let me know what you think.