Brainy Snacks

 How does an Octopus taste things?  They have that mouth thing on their underbelly, but that is NOT how they taste!  Before they decide to eat something, they "taste" it with their ARMS!!!  That's right!  An octopus actually also has eight TONGUES!!!  Each of its arms has its own tongue!  When an octopus wraps its arms around something, it is actually tasting it to decide if it is going to EAT IT!  Today's learned something new is really creepy to me!  How about you? Click the image to learn more or watch the video!   

Today, January 30th, is the anniversary of the 1933 "Crossword Panic"!  On this day in 1933, newspapers ran out of crossword space and people panicked! That is how popular those puzzles were in the 1930s. Libraries experienced dictionary thefts!  There was a university that banned crosswords, claiming they were mentally addictive! Can you believe it!  Newspapers even published editorials saying that crosswords would "destroy literacy". A word puzzle was accused of potentially destroying literacy and rotting brains! I used to love doing crossword puzzles. How about you? Click the image to learn more.    

 I was looking at things to do in my local area in the upcoming weeks and noticed some festivals that will be going on. As you all know from your own areas, festivals are generally traditions that happen yearly, monthly, or recur at some time. I know this is something that happens all over the United States. While I do not know each and every festival (learn some new for later), I do know that they happen in every state. I decided to ask the internet to tell me about a funny, weird tradition from Asia.  Boy did I learn something new! In Lopburi, Thailand, once a year, the local residents put together a huge buffet!  It includes fruits, vegetables, candy, and soft drinks, all laid out on long buffet tables. Hundreds of monkeys show up!  Can you imagine the sheer, hilarious chaos? I can picture them climbing all over the tables, eating, and throwing food! In Thai culture, monkeys are considered lucky and the buffet is to thank them for bringing prosperity. Pretty neat ...

 I love, LOVE the ocean!  I am fortunate to live near the Atlantic Ocean and am able to visit the beach often. I have never been to the Pacific Ocean. It is on my bucket list, so I thought I would look for a bizarre fact about the Pacific Ocean!  Did you know that the Pacific Ocean is so large that there are places where sound can travel thousands of miles!  Not only can sound travel a huge distance, it can also be louder the further away it gets from its source!  I learned about the SOFAR channel. It is not named that because the sound travels "so far"! SOFAR is short for "sound fixing and ranging channel". It is basically a sound tunnel!  Pretty cool science!  There are times when a whale can sound off near Hawaii and be heard in Alaska!  Click the image below to learn more!  

 As I was covering my plants for the cold weather tonight, I was thinking about plants in general. I am looking forward to spring when the flowers begin to bloom and a summer garden. I decided to look for a weird, fun plant world fact. I learned something new about Skunk cabbage! When growing up in Pennsylvania, USA, and taking walks in the woods, I remember smelling Skunk cabbage and knowing what it was and how the plant looked. It was quite common where I lived. I did not know the REASON for the smell! The plant actually warms up! It can melt through snow and bloom in the winter! The reason it does this is to release a rotting-meat smell and then heat makes the heat travel. The stench lures insects into thinking they have found something dead and as the insects land on it, they pollinate it!  Today I learned something new about something I knew!  Click the image to learn more about smelly Skunk cabbage and other weird, fun plants!!  

 ChatGPT really taught me something new today!  It can literally rain FISH!!! I asked ChatGPT to tell me a little known, silly weather fact. I thought it would be good to have fun with the weather after the major winter storm that came through the country over the weekend.  According to ChatGPT: "In rare cases, small fish (and frogs!) get sucked up by waterspouts or strong winds during storms, carried through the air, and then… plopped back down miles away. People have walked outside after a storm to find fish on rooftops, roads, and lawns like the sky briefly decided to try seafood delivery. There’s even a town in Honduras where “ Lluvia de Peces ” (Rain of Fish) happens so often they have a festival for it. Nature said surprise and committed to the bit." A Rain of Fish festival sounds fun!!!  As always, click the image below to learn more about raining fish!  

 I learned something nifty today!  On January 25, 1972, HBO was the very first cable television channel to launch!  For my Pennsylvania friends, the first broadcast was a microwave signal sent to a cable system in Wilkes-Barre, PA. For my New York and Canadian friends, the first program broadcast was a hockey game between the New York Rangers and the Vancouver Canucks. The other "first" for HBO was that it was subscription-based. This was the very first time consumers had to pay for television!  The benefit for them was the absence of commercials in the programming. I was a young child when the initial launch happened, so I do not actually remember it. I would be willing to bet some of you DO remember it! Click below to learn more!!   

 We have all heard the phrase "As American as hot dogs and apple pie". I was wondering if those two things are actually American! I asked the internet and learned that Germans actually brought frankfurters, or hot dogs, to the United States of America in the 1800s. The way they are eaten here at baseball games, street carts, and on buns, is purely American. This is how hot dogs became a cultural icon of America.   Apple pie actually came to the United States of America from Central Asia via Europe! I also learned that apple pies were made in the Netherlands and England long before the United States even existed. Because apples grow well, apple pies were a staple during the frontier years of the country. They are associated with prosperity, comfort, and home. The slogan, "As American as apple pie" became popular during World War II.  Pretty neat! Click the image below to learn more!    

 Happy Friday!!!  I hope you learned something new yesterday! Today, I asked ChatGPT for a strange, but silly, animal fact. Of course it came back with a poop fact!  😆😂😉Here is what ChatGPT taught me today: Wombats have cube-shaped poop. Not “kinda square.” Actual little cubes. Scientists think it happens because their intestines stretch unevenly, shaping the poop as it moves along. The cubes don’t roll away, which helps wombats mark their territory more effectively. Nature really woke up and chose geometry. I have never heard of any animal with poop shaped in little cubes!  I love wombats! They are cute little buggers!   I hope you continue to tune in to Brainy Snacks to feed your brain in bits and bytes! Please click the image below if you would like to learn more about today's "something new"!!      

 I went to ChatGPT today to learn something new.  This is definitely something new to me!   Did you know that bananas are RADIOACTIVE!!!  That's right!  Bananas!!! According to ChatGPT (and science), bananas naturally contain potassium, and a tiny portion of that potassium is the radioactive isotope potassium-40. It’s completely harmless in normal amounts, but sensitive detectors at ports and nuclear facilities can actually pick up radiation from large shipments of bananas. There’s even a tongue-in-cheek unit of radiation exposure called the “banana equivalent dose.” Huh!  The things you can learn on the internet!      Click the image to learn more about radioactive bananas!!!

 Welcome to Brainy Snacks!  As a lifelong learner (and educator), I try to learn something new every day to keep my brain engaged and busy. These "things" do not need to be formal school subjects or specific categories. I generally learn something new from friends and family via social media. If I do not learn anything new, interesting, funny, or strange, I go to the internet! I decided to start a blog to share what I am learning. This is a new experience for me and I hope to reach as many as I can with new, interesting, funny, or strange things! There are so many heavy things going on in the world today and it is refreshing to find a place for, well, FUN! I hope you enjoy the Brainy Snacks as much as I do!