{"id":36736,"date":"2014-11-01T00:00:42","date_gmt":"2014-11-01T07:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=36736"},"modified":"2014-10-31T22:50:53","modified_gmt":"2014-11-01T05:50:53","slug":"weekly-wrap-volume-62","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2014\/11\/weekly-wrap-volume-62\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Wrap Volume 62"},"content":{"rendered":"
This is a weekly wrap of our Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here<\/a>.<\/div>\n

\"birds-sleeping\"<\/a>How Birds Grip Things When They Sleep<\/a><\/p>\n

Everyone needs sleep, but for many birds, by necessity this has to happen while perched on a branch or other place that must be gripped. Anyone who has ever fallen asleep reading and found her book on the floor knows how difficult it can be to hold onto something while snoozing. So how do perching birds do it? Powered by tendons, the feet of grasping birds (think perching birds and raptors) have a pair of them in the back, flexor digitorum longus and flexor halluciss longus, which are connected to deep flexor muscles in the leg. The digitorum branches and works the three toes in the front, while the hallucis works the back toe, known as the hallux. Both… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"insulin\"<\/a>Frederick Banting and the Relatively Recent Discovery That Has Saved Hundreds of Millions of Lives<\/a><\/p>\n

According to the World Health Organization, about 347 million people worldwide have diabetes. Because diabetes treatments are so common today, it can be easy to forget that the disease can be fatal. In fact, it is approximately the seventh leading cause of death worldwide. Luckily, many people diagnosed with diabetes today enjoy healthy, otherwise normal, lives thanks to advances in treatment, and most notably insulin. However, this development is relatively recent, and only 100 years ago to receive a diabetes diagnosis was to be condemned to a life of near starvation and early death. Known to the ancients, diabetes is one of the first diseases ever classified. Both the Vedic-period Indians and the Egyptians… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"japan-dead-body-remover-robot\"<\/a>The First Known Robot Built in 400 BC<\/a><\/p>\n

Archytas, who is known as the \u201cfather of mechanical engineering,\u201d constructed his bird out of wood and used steam to power the movements of the robot.\u00a0 This bird was then suspended from a pivot bar. In its best recorded run, it \u201cflew\u201d about 200 meters before running out of steam.\u00a0 This is not only the first known robot, but was also one of the first recorded instances of a scientist doing research on how birds fly. If you\u2019re not familiar with the man, Archytas was a very famous philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, commander, statesman… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"Chaplin_The_Kid\"<\/a>Child Actors and Coogan\u2019s Bill<\/a><\/p>\n

Born into acting, by the age of five Jackie Coogan, Jr. was a veteran stage performer when Charlie Chaplin first spotted him in 1919. Immediately cast in Chaplin\u2019s A Day\u2019s Pleasure, the hard-working Coogan went on to star in The Kid (1919), Daddy (1923), Long Live the King (1923), Tom Sawyer (1930) and Huckleberry Finn (1931). As a child, he was one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood, but at the age of 21, when he tried to get access to the approximately $4 million (about $67 million today) he had earned up to that point, he learned that his mother and stepfather had spent most of it. He was only able to garner $126,000 of the remaining $250,000 or so they hadn\u2019t spent after suing the two. His mother, Lillian Coogan, argued during the case that Jackie… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"silk<\/a>How is Silk Made?<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the softest fabrics on the planet, shiny, breathable and comfortable, silk has been a highly prized cloth since it was first harvested thousands of years ago. And despite advances in production methods and new possibilities for cultivation, still today the only reasonable way to glean the thread in mass quantities is by killing the thing that made it. Silkworms are caterpillars of (usually) the Bombyx mori moth. During its 3 to 8 day pupating period, the silkworm secretes fibroin, a sticky liquid protein, from its two sericteries (special salivary glands). Pushed… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Bonus<\/span> Quick Daylight Saving Time Facts:<\/strong><\/p>\n