For a Headache: Treat Your Feet!

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There are many recommended treatments for headaches, including the use of ginger paste, eucalyptus steam, apples with salt, cinnamon paste, and aloe vera gel.  I'd never heard of hot foot baths for headaches.  It's recommended to soak feet and legs in hot water for 15 minutes before going to bed for two to three weeks for chronic headaches.  For more information click here.  What did you learn today?

The Chances of Understanding the Rain Chances

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It's a rainy day in my area, so I checked the forecast, which says there is a 50% chance of rain today.  So, once again I wondered, "Does that mean it's going to rain 50% of the day, or out of 100% chance of rain there's only a 50% chance that it will rain?"  I've tried looking this up before and found no satisfactory answer.  This time I found a math blog that says weather organizations can't agree on what this means, each one having their own definition, which even further reduces my chances of understanding the rain chances...  For more information click here.  I hope you learned something more than I learned today.

When the Mississippi River Went Backwards

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A series of earthquakes in 1812 caused the mighty Mississippi to flow backwards!  For more information click here.  What did you learn today?

That's Some Salty Water!

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Earth's oceans have different levels of salinity due to rainfall, evaporation, river runoff, and ice formation.  For more information and lists of oceans' salinity levels click here, and click here.  What did you learn today?

Cranky? Have You Had Your H2O?

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Drinking enough water can change your mood for the better!  The early stages of dehydration include feeling cranky.  For more information click here.

Recipe for Salty Relief

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The reasons why gargling with salt-water is beneficial for a sore throat and a cold, as well as the accompanying throat-pain of both, are:  salt prevents bacteria from growing, and salt relieves inflammation by drawing moisture out of swollen tissues.  My recipe is two measuring-teaspoons of kosher salt desolved in one ice-tea glass of water (if you're not from The South, that would be a highball glass, or a 12-ounce glass).  For more information click here and click here...and I hope if you have a cold like me, that gargling with salt-water helps you like it does me, and that you feel better soon.

Flooding of the Kalahari Desert

Map showing Botswana in blue, courtesy 123rf.com

Every year from June through August the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, South Africa is flooded with water.  Prior to June, the rain in the Angola highlands causes the Okavango River to flood.  Since this river has no outlet to the sea, the overflow rushes down to the desert land and stalls, saturating more than 4,000 square miles (10,359 square kilometers) of the desert floor.  Then the rains stop, and the desert sun dries up the flooded desert again.  During those three months, that area of the desert becomes a lush green, and animals come from miles around to drink and eat and breed.  For more information click here and click here.

Lewis and Clark, and the Whale Skeleton

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On this day in 1806, Lewis and Clark discovered a skeleton of a 105 feet long blue whale that had washed up from the Pacific Ocean onto the banks of Ecola Creek in what is modern-day Cannon Beach, Oregon.  They discovered the Tillamook Indians nearby boiling the blubber, and purchased some blubber from them.  Clark named this creek Ecola Creek or E co-la, which means Whale Creek.  (All the links in this paragraph are relevant to the expedition.)  For more information, click here, and click here, and click here.

Meriwether Lewis is a very, very distant relative of mine, so I probably have a little greater than average interest in the expedition.  What events in history most interest you and why?

History of Snow Globes

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No one knows who invented the snow globe, but they've been around since the early 1800's.  Early snow globes contained only water as the liquid and many still do, but in the 20th century sometimes glycerin began to be added to the water to slow down the falling snow and making the spectacle last longer.  For more information click here and click here.

My favorite snow globe that I own has an angel inside and a music box that plays Hark the Herald Angels.  What is your favorite snow globe that you have seen or owned?

Frozen for Years...

Photo courtesy ARKive

The Siberian Salamanders have an anti-freeze-like compound in their blood that allows them to survive in up to 50-degrees below zero Farenheit.  They can remain frozen for years, then thaw and begin breeding.  For more information, click here , and click here.

If you have seen a salamander, where did you see it?  Do you know what kind of salamander it was?

Animal with Transparent Eyelids!

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Beavers are found in North America, Europe, and Asia.  They can hold their breath underwater for 15 minutes, and have transparent eyelids that act like goggles!  For more information click here.

New Seven Wonders

Photo of Iguazu Falls courtesy New7Wonders.com

The New Seven Wonders Corporation began tallying popular votes on July 7, 2007 (07-07-07) for a list of  New Seven Wonders of Nature and New Seven Wonders of the World, which will be finalized and released in early 2012.  The New Seven Wonders series are based on the ancient Seven Wonders of the World lists by the ancient historians and scholars Herodotus and Antipator of Sidon.

Life on Europa

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New evidence suggests that there may be life in an underground ocean on Europa, Jupiter's ice-covered moon.

For more information, see the article on the website of UniverseToday.com.

Fish Schools' Rules

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New studies of the movement of schools of fish indicate that each fish in the school eyes only the one or two nearest neighbors, and moves in the direction and with the same speed of their nearest neighbor(s).

For more information, see the article in ScienceNews.org.

Where is the Driest Desert on Earth?

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The Atacama Desert is a 600-mile (1,000 km) strip of land on the South American Pacific Coast, running through Chile and Peru.  Outlying less-dry areas of the desert run through Bolivia and Argentina.  The Atacama Desert is the driest desert in the world with no rainfall having been recorded since rainfall records began being kept.  It is also the highest desert on earth, and one of the coldest deserts on earth.  Since certain bacteria and sea-life fossils have been found in gypsum boulders (similar to rocks on the planet Mars), it is believed that the Atacama Desert was once underwater.

For more information in addition to the above links, see the websites of the Gypsum Association and the ALMA telescope, which is the Atacama Large Millimeter Array telescope erected in the Atacama Desert by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Steam Powered Church Organ

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Pope Sylvester II (946-1003), also known as Gerbert, built church organs powered by steam, a great innovation of the time, which eliminated having people force air through the organ pipes by physically operating bellows while another person actually played the organ keys.

He also constructed the precursor to Galileo's telescope, and became one of the first great collectors of books.

For more information, see the websites of Christian Classics Ethereal Library, and Encyclopedia Britannica.

Have You Heard of Herds of Seahorses?

Yes, a group of seahorses is called a herd.  Seahorses are carnivorous fish found in shallow tropical waters.  They do not have teeth or a stomach, so food passes quickly through them, which requires that they constantly eat to stay alive.   A two-week old seahorse can eat up to 4,000 brine shrimp per day.  The average lifespan of seahorses is one to five years.  The scientific name is Hippocampus, and there are over 50 kinds of seahorses.  The different kinds of seahorses range in size from 1/2 inch to 8 inches.

Mating occurs year-round, usually under a full moon.  During mating a female seahorse will deposit her eggs into the pouch of a male.  The male fertilizes the eggs by releasing his sperm into the water then swimming through it.  Then the male continues to carry the eggs until birth, which is unique in all of nature.  Gestation lasts up to six weeks.  As few as five or as many as about 1,500 can be born.  Less than 1% of young seahorses make it to adulthood, mainly because they have to fend for themselves as soon as they are born.

For more information, pictures, and videos, click to view Seahorse Worlds website.

The Fascinating Celebes Sea

The Celebes Sea is home to more underwater species than anywhere else on the earth, including 580 of the world's 793 species of reef-building corals, and about 3,000 species of fish.

For more info, click to view The Encyclopedia of Earth website.

For more maps, click to view The World Atlas website. 

Fully Intact Viking Boat Burial Site Discovered in Scotland

"The UK mainland's first fully intact Viking boat burial site has been uncovered in the west Highlands, archaeologists have said.  The site, at Ardnamurchan, is thought to be more than 1,000 years old.   Artefacts buried alongside the Viking in his boat suggest he was a high-ranking warrior.  Archaeologist Dr Hannah Cobb said the 'artefacts and preservation make this one of the most important Norse graves ever excavated in Britain'."  Read more and see pictures at BBC News Highlands and Islands.

Sextus Julius Frontinus & the Roman Aqueducts

"By the middle of the 1st century AD Rome had nine aqueducts, which were the subject of a detailed treatise written by the distinguished Roman senator and consul Sextus Julius Frontinus in his capacity as curator aquarum (head of the water board).  Only two aqueducts were added in the later empire, bringing the total length to over 450 km (280 miles).  It is Frontinus who gives us much of the statistical data usually cited on the aqueducts of Rome, although some of his figures are questionable."  From page 235 of The Seventy Wonders of the Ancient World:  The Great Monuments and How They Were Built, edited by Chris Scarre, published by Thames & Hudson.

For more information, see the page on Sextus Julius Frontinus at WaterHistory.org.