Who Knew? Some Fun Facts

What’s life like for the world’s tallest woman?

Rumeysa: Walking Tall, available to stream from 21 December only on Rakuten TV, follows Rumeysa Gelgi as she fulfils her dream of travelling from her native Türkiye to the United States.

rumeysa-accepts-gwr-certificates-with-her-niece_tcm25-761684.jpg

Here's a link to her fascinating story-

See inside life of world’s tallest woman in GWR documentary Rumeysa: Walking Tall
 

Theopetra Cave Contains 130,000 Years Of Human History​


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Evidence of humans​


Evidence in the Theopetra Cave allowed the team to trace the changes in the area through thousands of years of human habitation. It didn’t take long for them to realize that this space had been used by ancient people, as they found human bones throughout the cave. Analysis of these remains showed that Theopetra Cave was consistently occupied from 135,000 BC to 4,000 BC. Even in more recent times, it was still used on and off, up until 1955.

https://www.thevintagenews.com/2023/04/24/theopetra-cave/
 
Georgia Ann "Tiny" Thompson Broadwick (April 8, 1893 in Oxford, North Carolina – August 25, 1978 in Long Beach, California), or Georgia Broadwick, previously known as Georgia Jacobs, and later known as Georgia Brown, was an American pioneering parachutist and the inventor of the ripcord.[1] She was the first woman to jump from an airplane, and the first person to jump from a seaplane.

Born to parents George and Emma Ross on April 8, 1893, Georgia Ann Thompson weighed only 3 pounds.[citation needed] The last of seven daughters, Georgia was given the nickname "Tiny" due to her small size,[3] as she weighed only 85 pounds (39 kg) and was 4 feet 8 inches (1.42 m) tall.[4]


At age 12, Tiny Broadwick had married and, at 13, had a daughter, Verla Jacobs (later, Poythress) (1906–1985).[5] Tiny Broadwick was an abandoned mother working in a cotton mill, aged 15, when she saw Charles Broadwick's World Famous Aeronauts parachute from a hot air balloon and decided to join the travelling troupe, leaving her daughter in the care of her parents. She later became Broadwick's adopted daughter, to ease travel arrangements, though she has also been referenced as his wife (with her own family later unclear on the relationship). Although she would eventually make her jumps from airplanes, in her early career she jumped from balloons.

Read More...

Tiny Broadwick - Wikipedia

Georgia “Tiny” Broadwick’s Parachute
 

There is a gargoyle with Darth Vader’s head​

on it on the Washington Cathedral.​

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It was placed there after a child’s “design a carving” competition was held
in the 80s, to decide what character should adorn the Cathedral.

Mike.
 

The current flag was designed by a 17-year-old​

Our current 50-star flag was designed as part of a high school project by 17-year-old Robert Heft. It was 1958, and there were only 48 states at the time, but Heft had a hunch Hawaii and Alaska would soon be granted statehood.

His teacher gave him a B– but went on to update the grade to an A after Heft submitted his design to the White House, eventually leading to a call from President Eisenhower that it had been selected as the official U.S. flag.
 
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Ol’ man river​


“Ol’ Man River” is a famous song from Show Boat, and as it happens, America knows a thing or two about old rivers. Although its exact age isn’t known, the New River, which flows from the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina to Virginia and West Virginia, is thought by most scientists to be the oldest in North America. Many believe the New River is older than the continent of North America itself.
 
Oranges were originally green!
Green Oranges.jpg

The first oranges ever imported to the West were from Southeast Asia and
were tangerine-pomelo hybrids that were green in color.

In fact, oranges grown in warmer parts of the world, such as Vietnam an
Thailand, stay green throughout their lifetime.

Mike.
 
RadishRose said:
How did they get to be orange?
Click to expand...
Many fruits are picked while they’re still a little green and left to ripen during transport, in the store, or just become hard little fruit-bombs in a bowl in peoples’ homes.

Most green oranges, on the other hand, are perfectly ripe. By the time they turn orange they’re sliding downhill towards rot. The green skin of an orange isn’t indicating that not enough of its natural color is coming through. It’s just pumped full of chlorophyll. In warm, sunny countries, that chlorophyll stays in the fruit. It’s only when the fruit is exposed to cold that the chlorophyll dies off and the orange color shines through.

Everything you know is wrong: Oranges aren’t orange.
 
OldFeller said:
Most green oranges, on the other hand, are perfectly ripe. By the time they turn orange they’re sliding downhill towards rot. The green skin of an orange isn’t indicating that not enough of its natural color is coming through. It’s just pumped full of chlorophyll. In warm, sunny countries, that chlorophyll stays in the fruit. It’s only when the fruit is exposed to cold that the chlorophyll dies off and the orange color shines through.

Everything you know is wrong: Oranges aren’t orange.
Click to expand...
Some orange varieties may be ripe when green, but that's not true of navel or Valencia oranges grown in So Cal - and certainly not of the navel oranges on my tree. When green oranges fall off my tree, they don't ripen despite being brought inside and left to their own devices for weeks. They remain hard, sour, and eventually develop mold or rot, but never ripen. The article below describes my experience.

I'm citing this because I wouldn't want fellow SF-ers to buy green oranges expecting they're ready to eat or will ripen further like a banana or tomato.

Are Your Oranges Ripe? Or Not?

"Oranges do not ripen after being picked; they must remain on the tree to develop sweetness, which can take months. Sample a fruit or two to judge ripeness, as rind color may vary according to temperature, and try again 1 to 2 weeks later if oranges aren’t ripe. Firm oranges may not be fully ripe; most orange varieties soften at least slightly when fully sweet. Valencia orange types may shift back toward a green color after turning orange and before ripening. Navel oranges generally turn orange while still tart and acidic, long before they are ready to harvest.

Once ripe, oranges generally hold well for weeks to months on trees. When oranges become overripe they soften, begin to rot on the tree, and/or fall from the tree."
 
Ballantine's Scotch Whisky Distillers, used geese
as guards, from 1959 till 2012, they had normal
security people who stayed inside and monitored
the CCTV screen, if somebody tried to get into the
warehouse, the geese kicked up a terrible honking
noise and they all ran to where the intruders were,
the human security, just watched the screens till the
geese found the intruders, then they went out and
captured the would be burglars and held them for
the police!

Geese Guards.jpg
There is a story to read about these birds, too much for here, so I put a
link if you want a read.
Scotch Watch: the Ballantine’s geese | Scotch Whisky

Mike.
 
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