Tidbits of Grand Forks - November 3, 2022

By Janet Spencer

LEARNED OR INHERENT?

• Researchers raised baby weaver finches without ever giving them access to weaving materials or letting them watch adult weaver birds construct nests. When they were then given weaving materials, only 26% were able to build a functional nest. This evidence went a long way towards proving that nest-building is not an innate trait, but must be learned from watching elders, and practicing.

• Two species of field mice were involved in a study. One builds a simple underground burrow leading to a single chamber. The other builds an underground burrow leading to several different chambers. Researchers deprived a set of test mice of any opportunity to dig a burrow for 20 generations of mice. Then they gave both species of mice access to dirt to dig in. What sort of burrows would they build? They built exactly the sort of burrows that previous generations had constructed. There was no change whatsoever. The scientists concluded that burrowbuilding was inherited, written in their DNA.

• A tiny orb web spiderling can build an orb web without ever seeing anyone else build an orb web, and does not need to practice to perfect the art.

A predatory bug feeds on termites whenever they rise to the surface of their mound to repair it. One species of this bug has learned to capture a termite, suck it dry, and then use the empty husk as a disguise, creeping back to the place where the other termites are still repairing the mound. Termites always collect and discard their dead. As soon as another termite turns up to do this, it becomes the second victim, and the feast continues. It’s evidence of tool use in bugs.

• A particular species of wasp digs a burrow in the ground, lays an egg inside it, and provisions it with paralyzed insects to be the larvae’s first meals. She then closes off the burrow by filling it with tiny stones and bits of sand. When the hole is full, she grabs a stone held in her jaws to hammer down the soil over the burrow entrance. It’s another instance of tool use by insects.

• Chimps often use sticks to get termites out of termite mounds. They insert it into the mound where termites swarm over it and are then pulled out to be eaten. But some chimps use two tools: a sturdy one for breaching the wall of the mound, and a probe stick with a feathered end for collecting the most termites possible. This is an example of an animal using a tool set instead of just a tool.

• A chimp was seen using four tools to extract honey from a bee’s nest: one used as a chisel to break open the exterior wall; the second was a more delicate chisel to breach the interior wall of the hive; next, a needle-sharp stick to pierce the honey storage units; finally, a dip stick repeatedly inserted and withdrawn, dripping with honey. Another tool set.

• Bottlenose dolphins off the coast of Australia pick up sponges from coral reefs and hold them in their teeth so that the sponge covers the dolphin’s nose. It is then able to probe the ocean floor for things to eat while being well-protected from things that sting.

Three-time NBA AllStar Gilbert Arenas was known by what nickname inspired by his jersey number? Name the Loyola Marymount University Lions basketball star who collapsed during a game and later died from a heart condition in 1990 at age 23. What NASCAR driver married former Tennessee Titans cheerleader Whitney Ward in 2017?

TOOL USE

• In Guinea, West Africa, chimps use rocks to break open palm nuts. One rock must be flat and level to act as an anvil where the nut is placed, and it is struck with a hard rock held in the hand, with just enough force to break the shell without damaging the kernel. One chimp was recorded placing one rock underneath the anvil rock in order to make it more level, using a tool to improve a tool.

• The New Caledonian crow uses twigs as tools, and fashions them according to their purpose. One kind of tool is a narrow flexible twig that the crow has stripped of side branches and leaves, but left a spurred hook at the thicker end of the stick. The bird holds the narrow end inserts the hook into crevices to pull out grubs. The other tool is fashioned from a leaf so that one edge of the leaf has a jagged edge like a saw and is able to scrape the sides of narrow crevices to pull out smaller insects.

• The male red-headed weaver bird snips the leaves off a living twig, then snaps the twig off the tree but does not cut it all the way through. When the bird flies off with the twig clutched in its beak, it strips a long thin tongue of bark trailing from the snipped end. The bird then winds this strip of bark around a branch where it is contstructing its nest, acting as an anchor point. When the bark dries out, it becomes sturdy like leather. The bird

ANIMAL IQ (continued):

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by Lucie Winbourne

• A border collie named Saul took a leaf out of another (albeit fictional) canine's book, being praised as a "real-life Lassie" when he led two members of a search party to his owner after the man was injured on a hike.

• Nutmeg can produce a hallucinogenic effect if taken in a high enough quantity.

• It's not just trees that help provide us humans with oxygen -- about half of that in our atmosphere is a byproduct of photosynthesis from the microscopic sea algae known as phytoplankton.

• Rhubarb grows so fast you can actually hear it!

• Legend holds that when a pope dies, it's the custom to strike him on the head three times with a silver hammer to ensure he's really deceased.

• A survey revealed that nearly half of the unmarried gents polled washed their bedsheets a mere four times a year, instead of the recommended once per week. Singletons, there may be a lesson in there.

• Less than 14% of all M&Ms candies are brown.

• May never begins or ends on the same day of the week as any other month in any given year.

• Proof that crime doesn't pay ... even in space! Earlier this year, Canada passed a law allowing prosecution of crimes committed by the country's astronauts on the moon or on their way to it.

• The greatest number of people to play a single piano simultaneously is 23.

• For a reasonable $19.95, you too can buy alien abduction insurance from a Florida agent. Of course, to cash it in, you'll need to hand over a signature from an "authorized, on-board alien," and who knows if they can even write in English? ***

Thought for the Day: "Keep your face always toward the sunshine, and shadows will fall behind you." -- Walt Whitman

Financial Solutions for the Military

Visit our Grand Forks Branch or online at servicecu.org.

by Freddy Groves

Changes for VA Small Businesses

If you hope to set up a business as a service-disabled veteran-owned small business (SDVOSB) or a veteran-owned small business (VOSB), your verification will no longer be done by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Instead, as of the beginning of 2023, the Small Business Administration (SBA) will be in charge.

No new applications will be accepted after Oct. 24, 2022, for either verification or reverification, due to the transition to the Small Business Administration. If you currently have a business and wonder about your next steps, go to vetbiz.va.gov and click on "See frequently asked questions concerning this change."

The Vets First Verification Program, using the Center for Verification and Evaluation (CVE), will be your go-to for all types of assistance, including working through the initial steps: Intake, Assessment, Federal Review and Decision.

The benefits are worth the trouble to become VAverified, if only for the set asides that are at the heart of how the VA helps small businesses -- competition is limited, which helps veterans compete for federal contracts. At least 3% of those contracts are held for service-disabled veterans who own their businesses.

To be a SDVOSB or VOSB, a business must be owned 51% or more by a veteran who did not receive a bad conduct or dishonorable discharge, and be controlled on a daily basis by a veteran who has the managerial experience to run the business. In addition, the veteran has to be the highest paid person in the company, working full time and holding the highest position in the company. To qualify as a servicedisabled business, the veteran must meet all of the above qualifications and also have a disability rating letter from the VA confirming a service-connected disability.

If you're ready to start a business, check out www. va.gov/osdbu/verification/index.asp and scroll to the guides and forms.

If you're still at the thinking stage and need direction and help in becoming an entrepreneur, go to www.va.gov/OSDBU/entrepreneur/index.asp for information on finding financial backing, growing your business or doing business with federal agencies and more.

Tidbits

by Jeff Pickering

SACRIFICIAL SATELLITES

• Here is the life story of several brave satellites who sacrificed their lives to further the horizon of science.

• NASA’s Magellan spacecraft, launched from space shuttle Atlantis in 1989, was the first deep space probe launched by a space shuttle. Named after the Portuguese explorer, it was assembled using spare parts from prior missions. It was sent on a mission to rendezvous with Venus, which it reached on August 10, 1990.

• Beginning on Sept. 15, 1990, the spacecraft began returning high-quality radar images of the surface of Venus that showed evidence of volcanism, tectonic movement, turbulent winds, miles of lava channels, and many pancake-shaped domes.

• Magellan completed its first 243-day cycle (the time it took for Venus to rotate once under Magellan’s orbit) of radar mapping on May 15, 1991, providing the first clear views of 83.7% of the surface.

• The spacecraft returned 1,200 gigabits of data. Keep in mind that at this point in history, NASA’s total data for all planetary missions combined equaled only 900 gigabits. Magellan was expected to last only a single cycle, yet it persisted through a second and third cycle, which mapped 98% of the surface and showed that 85% of Venus is covered with volcanic flows. Magellan accomplished three more cycles which ended in 1994, far beyond the expected lifespan of the space probe. Only then did it begin to malfunction.

• NASA controllers commanded the spacecraft to drop into the Venusian atmosphere. Contact was lost on Oct. 13, 1994, as it continued to gather data while it plunged to its death. Magellan burned up in the atmosphere following one of NASA’s most successful deep space missions.

• The combined Cassini–Huygens spacecraft was launched on October 15, 1997. Cassini, named after the French/Italian astronomer who discovered four of Saturn’s 82 moons, was NASA’s probe to Saturn. Piggybacking along was the European Space Agency’s Huygen, named for the Dutch astronomer who discovered Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. Huygen was designed to land on Titan.

• Huygens was released from Cassini on December 25, 2004. Plunging into Titan’s atmosphere, the probe survived the 2 hour 27 minute descent and touched down on Titan's frozen surface. It transmitted data for another 72 minutes before contact was lost. Huygens was the first landing on any celestial body beyond Mars. Data transmitted included 350 pictures that showed a shoreline with erosion features and a river delta. Huygens’ remains may still be on the surface of Titan.

• Cassini was the first space probe to orbit Saturn. Cassini entered Saturn’s orbit on June 30, 2004. The intrepid satellite was originally slated for a four year mission, yet it remained in service until 2017. Cassini conducted nearly 300 orbits of Saturn, took more than 453,000 pictures, did many fly-bys of Jupiter’s moons, studied Titan, discovered six more moons including two that may harbor life, examined Saturn’s atmosphere, revealed much about the make-up of Saturn’s rings, and sent back 635 gigabytes of data.

• In 2017 as Cassini neared the end of its life, NASA programmed it to fly in ever-closer orbit to the surface of Saturn in a “Grand Finale” before it was instructed to commit suicide by plunging into the surface, transmitting data as it did so. Scientists feared that otherwise, a deceased and out-of-control Cassini might end up crash landing into one of Saturn’s many moons, contaminating it with bacteria that might have survived the voyage from Earth.

by Matilda Charles

Workouts at the Rec Center

Two months ago the senior center commandeered a large space in the town's rec center because we had vetoed the idea of exercise classes in a too-small space at the senior center.

It was a two-month test, warned the senior center, to see if we'd actually show up. They even brought in a tooyoung male coach to put us through our paces. Although we were suspicious about his age, by the third week we agreed he knew his stuff.

And he himself brought in an even younger female assistant who stayed at the front of the room demonstrating the exercises while the young male coach paced around the room, expression serious, studying us, stopping us in mid-move to instruct and praising where warranted.

Two weeks ago he brought in yet another assistant and broke us into two groups across the rec center floor. He labeled us "Easy" and "Not Easy," saying that some of us needed to take things more slowly while others needed to put more effort into the workout. Try as I might to get transferred to the Easy group, he was having none of it.

He worked hard on our behalf, badgering the rec center to open up the weight room so he could give out some hand weights. He coaxed the local sporting goods store into donating some stretchy bands and yoga mats. Last week he brought in a diet handout, foods to eat to build muscle.

We discovered just this week, however, that we've all been guinea pigs, that our too-young male coach was using us as his senior fitness specialist project for college. Color us shocked! We weren't sure how we felt about that until we learned that he'd earned an "A" on the project.

The other good news is that they've hired our too-young male coach and his two assistants on a permanent basis. And we get to stay at the rec center.

Joe Martin Owner

• On Nov. 21, 1941, Tweety Bird debuted in the Warner Bros. cartoon "A Tale of Two Kitties." Originally a wild, naked chick with rather malicious tendencies, the character evolved over the decades into a wide-eyed canary with a far more genial demeanor that increased (and retained) his audience popularity.

• On Nov. 22, 2005, Angela Merkel became a prime example of "smashing the glass ceiling" and an inspiration to a rising generation of young girls when she was elected the first female chancellor of Germany.

• On Nov. 23, 1910, Johan Alfred Ander was convicted of murdering Victoria Hellsten during a robbery that he conducted in an effort to solve his ongoing financial problems. He was the last person to be executed in Sweden and the only one in Swedish history to be executed by guillotine.

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On Nov. 24, 1877, Anna Sewell's novel about a horse named Black Beauty was published. Alternately scribbled on scraps of paper and dictated to the author's mother, the book would go on to become not just a beloved classic and adapted for cinema, but play an important part in the animal rights movement.

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On Nov. 25, 1950, the "Appalachian Storm" dropped nearly 60 inches of snow in that area, carrying with it unseasonal temperatures and causing widespread property damage. About 150 people were believed to have died as a result of the storm.

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On Nov. 26, 2018, the robotic probe InSight, designed to study the deep interior of Mars, landed on Elysium Planitia on the red planet. Data collected from it could bring a new understanding of how Mars, as well as other terrestrial planets, formed and evolved.

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On Nov. 27, 1968, Penny Ann Early became the first woman to play major professional basketball for the Kentucky Colonels in an ABA game against the Los Angeles Stars. At just 5 feet, 3 inches tall and 112 pounds, she was also the smallest pro basketball player ever to compete.

• There are about 2,700 languages in the world. India has the most languages and dialects (around 1,600).

• Mandarin Chinese is spoken by more people than any other language in the world. English is spoken as an official language in 44 countries, more than any other language. French is the official language in 27 countries and Spanish is spoken as the official language in 20 countries.

• About 10% of people living in the U.S. speak a language other than English in their home.

• About half of all English words came from other languages.

• The Inuit may have 50 words for snow, but the Italians have over 500 words for pasta. People in New Guinea have a hundred words for yams. The Maoris of New Zealand have 35 words for drunk. Tasmanians have a different word for every type of tree but no word that means simply “tree.”

The Ilocano language of the Philippines has a vadifferent words meaning “this” including one form referring to an object in view, one for things that are not in view, and one for things that no longer exist.

Swahili word “kiplefti” denoting a traffic island was borrowed from the English “keep left.”

It takes about 100 symbols on a keyboard to represent most common languages and their punctuation marks. On the other hand, the Japanese language requires about 7,000 keys on a keyboard to accurately be able to type the language. And a keyboard loaded with the most commonly used Chinese characters would be the size of two pingpong tables.

dog in the U.S. goes bow-wow; in France ouaoua; in Italy bu-bu; in Korea mung-mung and in Japan wan-wan.

• In the U.S. “John Doe” is a generic name for an anonymous man, and in England it’s “John Bull” and in Dutch it’s “Jan Kees” which translates literally as “John Cheese.” When pronounced in Danish, “Jan Kees” sounds like “Yon Kees” which is possibly the origin of the word “Yankees.”

• The “–chester” in places like Manchester and the “–caster” in places like Lancaster both spring from the Roman word for “camp.”

• In Britain, for centuries some people spoke Old English while others spoke Old Norse, and the two languages mingled together. Many words were added to the vocabulary, and when two words were similar but not identical, often both words would survive, with subtle differences in meaning. Thus we have both wish/want; raise/ rear; no/nay; ditch/dike; shriek/screech; skirt/ shirt; bathe/bask; scatter/shatter; whole/hale.

• Centuries later, when the Norman French inhabited Britain, ten thousand words of French descent entered the English language, including words such as felony, traitor, justice, jury, prison, marriage, sovereign, parliament, govern, prince, duke, and baron.

• Words whose equivalent don’t exist in English:

• Culacino: Italian, the mark left on a table by a moist glass.

Sgriob: Gaelic, the itchiness of the upper lip before taking a sip of whiskey.

• Hyge: Danish, meaning instantly satisfying and cozy.

• Schadenfreude: German, literally “harm” plus “joy” meaning taking delight in the misfortune of others.

• Sgiomlaireachd: Scottish, “the habit of dropping in at mealtimes.”

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