{"id":50786,"date":"2017-02-06T13:55:20","date_gmt":"2017-02-06T21:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=50786"},"modified":"2017-02-06T13:55:20","modified_gmt":"2017-02-06T21:55:20","slug":"weekly-wrap-volume-136","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2017\/02\/weekly-wrap-volume-136\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Wrap Volume 136"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pf-content\"><div class=\"highlighter\">This is a weekly wrap of our popular Daily Knowledge Newsletter. <a href=\"http:\/\/todayifoundout.us5.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=1b41057449af09fd2f4481595&amp;id=cfe94f6138&amp;group[7741][1]=true&amp;group[7741][2]=true\" target=\"_blank\">You can get that newsletter for free here<\/a>.<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-50689\" src=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/fish-and-beer-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"fish-and-beer\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/fish-and-beer-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/fish-and-beer-90x90.jpg 90w, https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/fish-and-beer-75x75.jpg 75w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2017\/01\/can-fish-get-thirsty\/\">Can Fish Get Thirsty and Why Can&#8217;t Freshwater Fish Live in Saltwater and Vice Versa?<\/a><\/p>\n<p>For fish, or at least teleost fish (which make up about 96% of all fish), the desire to drink is an urge that originates from the hindbrain, whereas in land-based animals it originates in the forebrain. It is generally thought from this that a fish has no real ability to consciously feel thirst as we or many other land-animals would understand it; for them, it\u2019s just a natural reflex. So the short answer to whether fish ever get thirsty is thought to be \u201cno\u201d, at least not on a conscious level. However, fish do need to take in water, but, as with land animals, too much water can kill, a particular problem when one is surrounded by it! Unsurprisingly&#8230;(<a href=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2017\/01\/can-fish-get-thirsty\/\">more<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-50761\" src=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/red-letter-day-150x150.png\" alt=\"red-letter-day\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/red-letter-day-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/red-letter-day-90x90.png 90w, https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/red-letter-day-75x75.png 75w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2017\/02\/special-days-called-red-letter\/\">Why Special Days are Called &#8220;Red Letter Days&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>While it\u2019s commonly stated that the practice of marking important dates in red didn\u2019t begin until the Middle Ages, in fact, in ancient Rome red ink was sometimes used on calendars to identify significant dates, as well as occasionally used on important text in documents, with the underlying reason in both cases seemingly being the same as today- to make the text stand out, in the case of the calendar marking a noteworthy day. Through the years this practice continued, and in particular with medieval scribes who used&#8230;(<a href=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2017\/02\/special-days-called-red-letter\/\">more<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><strong>This Week\u2019s YouTube Videos<\/strong><strong> (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/TodayIFoundOut?sub_confirmation=1\">Click to Subscribe<\/a>)<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=axrXPkSnbGc&amp;t=1s\">How the Crop Circle Phenomenon Got Started<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ICkN7rp_H4k\">Why is Someone Who is Lazy Called a Couch Potato?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ljaFNrWKE1U\">Why Does Red Meat Turn Brown When Cooked?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ti80ErqohXM\">The King of the Dudes<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=C8QDYDq1cu4\">Why We Drive on Parkways and Park on Driveways<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SRAhnXugmU0\">Where was Lincoln&#8217;s Bodyguard on the Night He was Assassinated?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><span id=\"bonusfacts\">Bonus<\/span> Quick Facts<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>According to the USDA, Super Bowl Sunday is the \u201csecond highest day of food consumption in the United States, after Thanksgiving.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Contrary to popular belief, the Super Bowl is not \u201cwatched by over a billion people per year.\u201d This idea stems from the fact that when the myth started, if you added up the populations of all the countries where the Super Bowl was broadcast to, you\u2019d get a total of about one billion people in those countries having access to the broadcast. But how many people actually watch the Super Bowl? In recent years, that amount has been around 110 million people, with an estimated 98% of those viewers being from North America, mostly from the United States.<\/li>\n<li>Yelling \u201cHike\u201d in football was the brainchild of John Heisman. Prior to its introduction, the quarterback commonly signaled the center to give him the ball by simply scratching the center\u2019s leg. During the 1890-1891 season, Heisman was playing for the University of Pennsylvania when a leg scratch from an opposing player caused the hike to occur early. To fix the problem, Heisman introduced using a word to start the snap, \u201cHike,\u201d which already meant to lift up and also had the added benefit of being a short, sharp sound. The \u201cHut\u201d portion was introduced later and became common by the 1950s. Linguists trace its origins back to military cadence, particularly of World War II, when drill sergeants would holler \u201cAtten-hut!\u201d<\/li>\n<li>The \u201c\/\/\u201d forward slashes in any web address serve no real purpose according to Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web. He only put them in because, \u201cIt seemed like a good idea at the time.\u201d He wanted a way to separate the part the web server needed to know about, for instance \u201cwww.todayifoundout.com\u201d, from the other stuff which is more service oriented. Basically, he didn\u2019t want to have to worry about knowing what service the particular website was using at a particular link when creating a link in a web page. \u201c\/\/\u201d seemed natural, as it would to anyone who\u2019s used Unix based systems. In retrospect though, this was not at all necessary, so the \u201c\/\/\u201d are essentially pointless.<\/li>\n<li>Certain types of horned lizards are also able to squirt a directed stream of their own blood from the corners of their eyes at predators as much as 5 feet away. They accomplish this squirting action via severely restricting blood flow away from their heads, with the resulting increase in blood pressure in their heads bursting certain vessels near their eyes where the blood squirts from. What purpose does diminishing their own blood supply while giving the predator a taste serve? Well, it turns out to certain animals, such as cats and dogs, horned lizard blood tastes awful due to certain compounds present in their blood.<\/li>\n<li>Despite sharing their genes, identical twins do not have identical fingerprints, even at birth. Why? Fingerprints are not entirely a genetic characteristic. They are partially determined by the interaction of an individual\u2019s genes and the intrauterine environment (differing hormonal levels, nutrition, blood pressure, position in the womb and the growth rate of the fingers at the end of the first trimester, among other things). Thus, minor differences in fingerprints arise from these random local events during fetal development, though the genes do determine the general characteristics of the patterns of fingerprints. So, in the end, while identical twins will have somewhat similar fingerprints, enough of these differing local events occur that the resulting fingerprints of each child will have very marked differences.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Other Interesting Stuff<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-50774\" src=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/groundhog-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"groundhog\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/groundhog-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/groundhog-90x90.jpg 90w, https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/groundhog-75x75.jpg 75w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2013\/02\/groundhog-day-facts\/\">How Groundhog Day Got Started<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Like so many holiday traditions, the origins and progression of Groundhog Day to what we think of it today as are a bit murky. However, we\u2019ll try to shed some light on the subject, starting with the day of the year. Groundhog Day is celebrated on February 2nd because it is approximately halfway between the winter solstice (Northern hemisphere), when the Sun is at its southernmost point in the sky, and the March\/vernal equinox, when the Sun is in the same plane as the Earth\u2019s equator, making day and night approximately equal length. Much like that there was a&#8230;(<a href=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2013\/02\/groundhog-day-facts\/\">more<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-50771\" src=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/football-and-nachos-150x150.png\" alt=\"football-and-nachos\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/football-and-nachos-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/football-and-nachos-90x90.png 90w, https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/football-and-nachos-75x75.png 75w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2017\/02\/origin-nachos-football-helped-popularize\/\">The Origin of Nachos and how Footall Helped Popularize Them Surprisingly Recently<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Americans eat a lot on Super Bowl Sunday, according to one 2015 study consuming triple the amount of their daily allowance of calories per serving during the Super Bowl. In fact, it\u2019s the second largest food consumption day of the year in the country (behind Thanksgiving). Of the many millions of pounds of snacks eaten in honor of America\u2019s (still) favorite sport, 8.2 million pounds of that are tortilla chips, generally served with such things as cheese, beans, and avocados. Not just commonly served today during football games, the legend of nachos has a football-centric history that doesn\u2019t date all that far back, similar to another Super Bowl party staple, Buffalo Wings, that only became popular a little under three decades ago. This all brings us to&#8230;(<a href=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2017\/02\/origin-nachos-football-helped-popularize\/\">more<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-50790\" src=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/eric-the-eel-e1355993365725-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"eric-the-eel-e1355993365725\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/eric-the-eel-e1355993365725-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/eric-the-eel-e1355993365725-90x90.jpg 90w, https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/eric-the-eel-e1355993365725-75x75.jpg 75w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2012\/12\/the-olympic-swimmer-who-had-never-been-in-a-pool-until-a-few-months-before-competing-in-the-olympics\/\">The Olympic Swimmer Who Had Never Been in a Pool Until a Few Months Before Competing in the Olympics<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The man was Eric Moussambani Malonga, later nicknamed \u201cEric the Eel\u201d. Moussambani is from Equatorial Guinea in Africa and only managed to get into the Olympics at all because of a wildcard drawing system put in place by the International Olympic Committee, designed to try to encourage developing countries to participate in various Olympic events. Thanks to this drawing, Equatorial Guinea decided to send a swim team to the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. They put out an advertisement on the radio a few months before the Games to try to get people to come and tryout for the country\u2019s new national swim team which would be going to the Olympics. Those who wished to tryout were to show up&#8230;(<a href=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2012\/12\/the-olympic-swimmer-who-had-never-been-in-a-pool-until-a-few-months-before-competing-in-the-olympics\/\">more<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-50792\" src=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/paper-bag-340x508-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"paper-bag-340x508\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/paper-bag-340x508-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/paper-bag-340x508-90x90.jpg 90w, https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/paper-bag-340x508-75x75.jpg 75w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2013\/04\/why-people-breathe-into-a-paper-bag-when-hyperventilating\/\">Why People Breathe Into a Paperbag When Hyperventilating<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s all about pH balance. No, not the skin pH that keeps some deodorants \u201cstrong enough for a man but pH balanced for a woman\u201d- rather the pH within the body. The human body has two main mechanisms for controlling pH, one involves the kidneys, the other involves breathing. When our body is working, or not, it requires a specific amount of oxygen to maintain that level of work. When the body receives more oxygen than it needs, the result can be what\u2019s known as respiratory alkalosis (high pH). One of the most common causes is hyperventilating. The point of breathing into a bag is to \u201cre-breathe\u201d your exhaled carbon dioxide (CO2) in the hopes of bringing your body back to a normal pH level. The \u201cpotential of hydrogen\u201d, or \u201cpower of hydrogen\u201d depending on what historian you read, (pH) is a measurement of the amount&#8230;(<a href=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2013\/04\/why-people-breathe-into-a-paper-bag-when-hyperventilating\/\">more<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-50793\" src=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/The_First_Presidential_Mansion-340x221-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"The_First_Presidential_Mansion-340x221\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/The_First_Presidential_Mansion-340x221-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/The_First_Presidential_Mansion-340x221-90x90.jpg 90w, https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/The_First_Presidential_Mansion-340x221-75x75.jpg 75w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2016\/08\/before-the-white-house\/\">Before the White House<\/a><\/p>\n<p>First Presidential Address: 3 Cherry Street, New York City &#8211; Moving In: New York served as the nation\u2019s capital from 1789 to 1790. One week before George Washington was inaugurated on April 30, 1789, he moved into an elegant three-story brick mansion on Cherry Street, on the east side of Manhattan, that Congress rented for him at a cost of $845 per year. Washington lived there with his wife, Martha; her two grandchildren, Nelly and George Washington (\u201cWashy\u201d) Parke Custis; and more than 20 paid servants, indentured servants, presidential staffers, and slaves. Moving On: As large as it was, the mansion soon proved too small for Washington\u2019s needs\u2014some secretaries had to sleep three to a room, and the dining room could accommodate no more than 14 people at&#8230;(<a href=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2016\/08\/before-the-white-house\/\">more<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is a weekly wrap of our popular Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here. Can Fish Get Thirsty and Why Can&#8217;t Freshwater Fish Live in Saltwater and Vice Versa? For fish, or at least teleost fish (which make up about 96% of all fish), the desire to drink is an urge that originates from the [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":183,"featured_media":50689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,646],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-i-found-out","category-most-popular"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/183"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50786"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50794,"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50786\/revisions\/50794"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}