Author Archives: Cris

Playground Slide

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Playground Slide

Don’t you like sliding down playground slides?

  • Playground slides are entertainment constructions often placed in recreational areas or residential backyards, as well as amusement parks.
  • ‘Playground slides’ are also known as ‘slides’, ‘slippery dips’ and ‘slippery slides’.
  • Playground slides are often a slippery, flat or partially curved strip of material, with barriers on the left and right, either perpendicular or sloped.
  • Playground slides are used by people, typically children, by them climbing up a ladder or set of stairs to reach the top of the slide, sitting on their backside at the top; and pushing themselves forward so that they are propelled down the slide’s strip.
  • Playground slides are commonly curved in some form, often around a structure, while some are completely enclosed, and they come in a variety of colours.

Playground Slide, Yellow, Park, Recreational, Ten Random Facts, Australia

  • Although fun, playground slides can be quite dangerous; injuries such as bruises, scrapes, cuts and broken bones can occur, often due to an unsafe user or slide, such as a high drop.
  • Playground slides are typically made of plastic, wood and/or metal, although the latter often heats up in the sun and can cause burns.
  • Adults often slide down playground slides with their children, although it is a common cause of broken legs in young children, due to the possibility of the child’s foot catching onto the slide and the force of the parent’s movement pushing the child forward with their foot still caught.
  • The origin of playground slides is uncertain, although one of the first slides patented was possibly by James Kirker of Kentucky in the United States in 1893, which was intended as a fire escape, however earlier patents exist for water slide designs, and slides were being constructed by the beginning of the 1900s.
  • Many laws have been passed regarding the legality and guidelines of construction and placement of playground slides, particularly regarding protruding devices and the slide drop.
Bibliography:
Erickson A, The Politics of Playgrounds, a History, 2012, Citylab, http://www.citylab.com/design/2012/03/politics-playgrounds-history/1480/
Kirker, J 1893, ‘Fire-escape’, US506238, 10 October, p. 1, Google Patents, Google
Playground Slide, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playground_slide

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Great Blue Hole

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Great Blue Hole

Don’t fall down the Great Blue Hole.

  • The Great Blue Hole is an underwater sinkhole or cave, located near Belize of Central America, in the Lighthouse Reef.
  • The Great Blue Hole is 300 metres (984 feet) in diameter, the largest of known blue holes in the world, and it measures 124 metres (407 feet) in depth.
  • The Great Blue Hole is part of the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System that became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.
  • In 1971, explorer and naval officer, Jacques Cousteau from France, publicised the Great Blue Hole as one of the best scuba sites in the world.
  • The Great Blue Hole is the home to numerous limestone formations that are affected by karst phenomena, including stalactites.
Great Blue Hole, Cave, Water, Central America, Natural, Wonder, Amazing, Belize, Reef, Ten Random Facts, FlickrThe Great Blue Hole
Image courtesy of Eric Pheterson/Flickr
  • The Great Blue Hole is the home to many species of fauna that live around the reef that surrounds the outer rim of the hole, including the occasional reef shark.
  • The Great Blue Hole is a popular tourist destination and diving site, due to its great size, clear water, cave formations, and surrounding wildlife, and snorkeling is also popular.
  • The Great Blue Hole is said to have been originally a cave above sea level, that eventually filled with water and collapsed.
  • The Great Blue Hole can be viewed from the air, or accessed via watercraft, and boats can only anchor in specific areas, as they have caused reef damage in the past.
  • The official depth measurement of the Great Blue Hole was recorded in 1997 by the Cambrian Foundation, and the expedition’s primary focus was to collect seafloor samples from the hole.
Bibliography:
Blue Hole Natural Monument, 2008, Belize Audubon Society, http://www.belizeaudubon.org/?page_id=3603
Great Blue Hole, 2014, Atlas Obscura, http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/great-blue-hole
Great Blue Hole, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Blue_Hole

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Scorpion

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Scorpion

You’ll regret being stung by a scorpion.

  • Scorpions are anthropods belonging to the order Scorpiones, which is also their scientific name, that consists of 13 families and approximately 1750 species, plus around 110 that are extinct.
  • Scorpions have two claw-shaped pedipalps; a long segmented body, and a long segmented erect tail, tipped with a stinger and venom.
  • Scorpions are related to spiders, and of the thousands of species, only around 25 to 40 can actually cause a human fatality, and they are preyed on by birds, lizards, rodents and possums.
  • Scorpions are native worldwide, with the exception of Antarctica, although they were introduced to some Pacific Islands, including New Zealand, as well as Europe’s Great Britain.
  • Scorpions can be found in a wide variety of habitats, and typically live in holes in the ground or other similar shelters during the day, and are active during the night.
Scorpion, Yellow, Orange, Arthropod, Close, Animal, Ten Random Facts, Flickr, Amazing
Scorpion
Image courtesy of Matt Reinbold/Flickr
  • Scorpions are capable of living up to a year without food, and their diet mainly consists of insects, spiders and some small reptiles and mammals, that are trapped via their pincers and/or dangerous venom; and they liquidize their prey before consumption.
  • Scorpions produce from 1 to 105 young over a period of a few weeks, while the young are dependent on their mother and live on her back until their first moult.
  • Scorpions are fried and traditionally consumed in Asia’s China, where a wine made from the creature is also used as medicine.
  • Scorpions range from less than 1 centimetre (0.4 inches) in length, to 21 centimetres (08.3 inches) and weigh 10 to 100 grams (0.4 to 3.5 ounces).
  • Scorpions are typically coloured black, white, red, brown or yellow, and when placed underneath an ultraviolet light, they may emit a fluorescent colour.
Bibliography:
Scorpion, 2013, A-Z Animals, http://a-z-animals.com/animals/scorpion/
Scorpion, 2014, National Geographic, http://animals.nationalgeographic.com.au/animals/bugs/scorpion/
Scorpion, 2014, San Diego Zoo, http://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/scorpion
Scorpion, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorpion

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Thumbtack

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Push pin, gold, rustic, Thumb Tack, Drawing Pin, Flat head, metal, Ten Random Facts, Invention

Be careful not to drop your thumbtacks.

  • Thumbtacks are small items that have a ‘head’ attached to a sharp tip, or body, which can be inserted into a board to hold items in place or used as a marker.
  • ‘Thumbtacks’ are also known as ‘map tacks’, ‘push pins’, ‘drawing pins’, and ‘chart pins’, with various word combinations, sometimes without spaces or with hyphens.
  • Thumbtacks bodies are typically made of metal such as brass, tin, stainless steel or iron, and the head is usually plastic, wood or metal.
  • Thumbtacks are typically pushed into a softer solid, like cork, using one’s fingers and arm strength.
  • Thumbtacks traditionally have a circular or cylindrical head, although they can be other shapes, and the head can be raised, flat, bevelled or indented.

Push pin, gold, rustic, Thumb Tack, Drawing Pin, Flat head, metal, Ten Random Facts, Invention

  • Swallowing thumbtacks can cause great internal damage, including choking and tissue damage.
  • Contrary to popular belief, the thumbtack was invented as early as the mid 1870s, although the British term ‘drawing pin’ was in use sometime in the 1850s or 1860s, and patents exist for the item as early as the 1890s.
  • Thumbtacks can be dangerous if dropped and left unnoticed on the floor, as upward facing pins can be easily stepped on, although some designs are more likely to face downwards if dropped.
  • Thumbtacks were historically used by draftsmen for the purpose of attaching paper to a drawing board, hence the name ‘drawing pin’.
  • Thumbtacks come in a variety of sizes, colours and shapes, that are often used for different purposes, such as in art or as markers, and they are generally considered as stationery items.
Bibliography:
Drawing Pin, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drawing_pin
The Invention of the Push Pin and Its Usages Today, n.d, Answers, http://invent.answers.com/clothing/the-invention-of-the-push-pin-and-its-usages-today

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Shortening

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What food product is tasteless and flavourless?  Shortening!

  • Shortening is a type of fat used in cooking and food, primarily to improve the texture of baked goods, by making them less dense and more delicately textured.
  • Shortening is typically made from hydrogenated (partially or fully solidified) vegetable oils such as palm, soybean, or coconut.
  • The term ‘shortening’ was used loosely to refer to lard and margarine, until the 1900s invention of the vegetable based version, although it is still sometimes the case.
  • Shortening quickly became a more viable product than the similar functioning lard, as it was more cost effective and did not need to be refrigerated.
  • ‘Shortening’ is also known by brand names such as ‘Copha’, ‘Cookeen’ and ‘Crisco’, even though they are made from different vegetable oils and may have a different consistency.

Copha, Shortening, White Block, Australia, Crumble, Culinary, Food, Ten Random Facts

  • Shortening is often used in pastry making to make it flaky, as well as a replacement for margarine or butter, and because it contains less water, it is a safer fat to use for the purpose of frying food.
  • Shortening was first produced as a commercial product in 1911, in the United States by Procter & Gamble, a company that produced soap, candles and lard at the time, and they called it ‘Crisco’, said to be short for ‘crystallized cottonseed oil’, and prior to its launch, the product had been intended for soap making purposes.
  • Shortening originally contained an unhealthy quantity of trans fat, however in some cases, processes have been adjusted to achieve a product that now contains less or none of this type of fat.
  • Shortening typically has a long expiry date, of up to two years unrefrigerated, and once opened, generally up to a year.
  • Shortening is generally tasteless and flavourless, but butter-flavoured varieties are available in some brands.

 

Bibliography:
Shortening, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortening
What is Shortening?, 2014, WiseGEEK, http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-shortening.htm

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Yellowstone National Park

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Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park is a magical place.

  • Yellowstone National Park is a protected reserve, the majority of which is located in Wyoming, a state in the north-western United States of America.
  • Yellowstone National Park was first declared a national park on 1 March, 1872, by then president Ulysses Grant, and is said to be the first designated national park on earth, and it was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1978.
  • Yellowstone National Park covers an area of 8,983 square kilometres (3,468 square miles), and is filled with water bodies, rock formations and a variety of habitats.
  • Yellowstone National Park has a notably large lake at high altitude that covers America’s biggest super volcano and the largest caldera in the world, while the caldera spans a distance of 45 kilometres by 75 kilometeres (27 miles by 45 miles), and is said to be still active, and has shaped much of the surrounding land.
  • Yellowstone National Park features up to 465 active geysers of the 1280 or so that exist in the park, including the famous ‘Old Faithful Geyser’, and they total approximately 66% of the world’s total number of geysers, and the park also boasts 10,000 geothermal features, of which the world has approximately 20,000.
Yellowstone National Park, Grand Prismatic Spring, Hot Spring, Tree, Valley, Amazing, Beautiful, Ten Random Facts, Flickr, North America,
Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park
Image courtesy of Frank Kovalchek/Flickr
  • Yellowstone National Park is hit by minor earthquakes annually by the thousands; one of the greatest being a 7.5 magnitude quake that created a lake due to a dam collapse in 1959.
  • Yellowstone National Park is the home to 1700 native flora species, such as trees, as well as the endemic Yellowstone sand verbena; 311 bird species and approximately 60 mammal species, including wolves, elks, bison, grizzly bears and lynx.
  • Forest fires commonly occur in Yellowstone National Park annually, generally caused by lightning, and the fires are necessary events for the park’s habitat.
  • Yellowstone National Park is visited by approximately two million tourists annually, that are catered for by hotels, lodges and cabins that as a whole, contain more than 2,000 rooms, as well as campgrounds with more than 2,000 campsites.
  • Yellowstone National Park can be accessed and driven through in automobiles, and there are hiking paths totalling 1770 kilometres (1100 miles) in length.
Bibliography:
Yellowstone National Park, 2014, Montana, http://www.visitmt.com/national_parks/yellowstone/
Yellowstone National Park, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_National_Park
Yellowstone National Park, 2014, World Heritage Convention UNESCO, http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/28

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