What Makes Flamingos Pink?

by Bill McLain

  DID YOU KNOW?

  People may think of George Washington as the father of our country, the commander in chief of the Revolutionary army, a great general, or our first president. All of these are true, but first and foremost, George Washington was a farmer.

  Washington had an 8,000-acre plantation that he divided into five farms. He studied books on agriculture, corresponded with leading farmers around the world, and made many innovations. He was one of the first farmers to devise a system of selective breeding to raise better livestock, use crop rotation to preserve his fields, and emphasize the production of wheat and grains rather than tobacco to make the United States the world’s granary.

  One of his most fascinating inventions was a 16-sided treading barn. The traditional method of threshing wheat was either to beat it by hand until the grain was loosened from the straw or have horses trample on it to break the wheat from the chaff.

  Washington’s treading barn had two stories. The floor of the top story had half-inch gaps between the floorboards. Horses would run along a lane in the center section of the top story, trampling the wheat. The grain fell through the cracks in the floor but the chaff did not. Workers on the first floor would gather up the grain and store it for later transport to the gristmill where it was ground into flour. Not only was this a more efficient way of threshing wheat, it also protected the horses from the weather.

  Most people agree that George Washington was one of our country’s greatest leaders. Few people know that he was also one of the great leaders in developing our country’s agriculture, which is the envy of the world today.

  Why is the shamrock associated with Saint Patrick? (Where did all the snakes go?)

  Although Saint Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland, he was born in Scotland in A.D. 387. He was kidnapped when he was 16 years old, taken to Ireland, and sold as a slave. While a slave, he learned to speak the Irish language fluently. After six years in captivity, he escaped to England and eventually went to Saint Martin’s monastery in Tours, France, where he studied to become a priest. Saint Patrick was ordained a priest and later became a bishop. Pope Celestine I sent him back to Ireland to preach and convert the druids, an ancient Celtic priesthood, to Christianity.

  Upon returning to Ireland, Saint Patrick preached to the druids in the open air. One day he was trying to explain the doctrine of the trinity. To illustrate how three were as one, he reached down to the grass growing at his feet, plucked a shamrock, and used it as an analogy of the trinity. He said it was a symbol of how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit could all exist as separate parts of the same entity. He has been associated with shamrocks ever since.

  Saint Patrick preached throughout Ireland and built many churches. He converted druid warrior chiefs and princes as well as thousands of their subjects. His efforts resulted in entire kingdoms converting to Christianity. He continued his preaching for 40 years. It is believed that he converted the entire country to Christianity.

  Saint Patrick died in A.D. 461, at the age of 74. Although more than one town claims he was buried there, no one knows for sure where he was buried.

  Saint Patrick is perhaps best known through the legend of his having driven all the snakes out of Ireland. However, most scientists believe that there never were any snakes in Ireland from the time it separated from the European continent at the end of the last Ice Age. Yet the legend is so well known, there must have been some truth to it. There is, but it’s an analogy. Snakes were a metaphor for the druids. When the druids became Christians, they were no longer snakes, so there were no more snakes in Ireland.

  FACTOIDS

  Half the U.S. presidents have been of Irish descent.

  Authorities were not sure if Saint Patrick died on March 8 or March 9. To settle the dispute, they added the two together and decreed that he died on March 17, which today is known as Saint Patrick’s Day.

  Shamrock comes from the Irish word seamróg, which means “little clover.”

  The parents of the notorious outlaw Billy the Kid were Irish immigrants.

  Because clover plants produce three leaves, finding one with four leaves is extremely rare. That is why finding a four-leaf clover is considered good luck. However, there are growers today who have used selective propagation to produce plants with a large number of four-leaf clovers. Picked by hand, the four-leaf clovers are sold as good luck charms.

  Many cultures consider the number three to be a mystical symbol, and the shamrock was often considered a mystical symbol also. In Iran it was considered to be a sacred emblem of the Persian triad. It was also considered a sacred plant among the druids and Celts.

  James Hoban, who designed the White House, was an Irish immigrant.

  Saint Patrick’s real name was Maewyn Succat. When he became a priest, he took Patrick as his Christian name.

  DID YOU KNOW?

  If someone were to ask you, “What is the national symbol of Ireland?” there’s a good chance your answer would be “the shamrock.” Actually, it’s a harp. For the past several hundred years the harp has been the symbol of the Irish and is displayed on flags, coins, and even on the Royal British coat of arms.

  The Irish harp, usually referred to by its Gaelic name clarsach, is a small harp anywhere from three to four feet tall with 28 to 34 strings.

  In medieval Ireland, a person who played the harp was called a harper. Harpers served as counselors to the kings and were given titles and wealth for their services. The king always consulted with his harper before going to war, and a harper often led the troops into battle, holding his harp in one arm and his sword in the other.

  In the 1500s, probably because of fear of the harpers’ status and wealth, the English Crown began hassling Irish harpers. Many were imprisoned or executed. Queen Elizabeth proclaimed, “Hang harpers, wherever found, and destroy their instruments.”

  Fortunately for everyone, the harps outlived the queen and are thriving in Ireland today. If you want to know how popular the Irish harp is, use any major search engine and search on “Irish harp.” You’ll find over 2,000 entries for recordings and music.

  The clarsach is more than a symbol, it’s part of the musical soul of Ireland.

  More questions? Try these Web sites.

  WEDDING CUSTOMS

  http://ultimatewedding.com/custom/

  This site has a wealth of information about weddings, including Jewish, military, and Renaissance weddings.

  On the left side of the page you can click on topics such as a song library, traditions and customs, bridal shower guide, vows and ceremonies, and articles on planning a wedding. There are also links to other wedding sites. The site also has an “Ask the experts” topic.

  OUTHOUSES

  http://lest-we-forget.com/The_Outhouse/outhouse_links.htm

  This page lists a number of links to information about outhouses, both factual and humorous. You can find information on building an outhouse, outhouse gifts, a tour of outhouses in the United States, and information on various outhouse races.

  NATIVE AMERICAN CUSTOMS

  http://www.cbtl.org/na/customs.htm

  This is an excellent site about Native American customs. It covers many aspects of Native American culture, lore, and mythology and also has information on Native American clothing, totems, and pow wows, and numerous links to Native American language sites.

  EVERYDAY EATING CUSTOMS IN CHINA

  http://www.cuisinenet.com/glossary/chinaday.html

  Chinese cuisine has become very popular in the United States and many people have learned how to use chopsticks (if you don’t know how, just click on “Use of chopsticks” for illustrated instructions). However, the customs for eating in China are different from those in the United States. This site explains Chinese eating customs and etiquette.

  101 LINKS ABOUT SAINT PATRICK’S DAY

  http://www.demanddigital.com/Saint_Patrick’s_Day.htm

  This site covers just about anything you could possibly want to know about Saint Pat
rick and Saint Patrick’s Day. It has links to 101 sites, including customs and history, free online greeting cards, who the real Saint Patrick was, fun sites for children, and free screen savers.

  4

  Disasters

  Which ship disaster resulted in the greatest loss of life? (Does it give you that sinking feeling?)

  Because the sinking of the Titanic has generated a great deal of publicity, many people have come to believe that it was the worst ship disaster of all time. It wasn’t. The greatest loss of life on a single ship occurred when the German liner the Wilhelm Gustloff was torpedoed by a Russian submarine in January 1945. The Wilhelm Gustloff was a converted luxury liner serving as a hospital ship. On the fateful night it was sunk, it was crammed with refugees, mostly women and children, and about 1,600 military personnel. Although there is no surviving record of the actual number of people on board, the most widely accepted estimate claims there were 8,600, of whom 7,700 were killed. There were only 903 survivors.

  Prior to World War II, the Wilhelm Gustloffv/as the flagship of Germany’s fleet of passenger liners. It had been docked for four years when the commander of the German submarine fleet ordered the evacuation of submarine personnel because of the approach of the Russian army. In January 1945, people started boarding the ship. With the German army collapsing, submarine personnel, injured soldiers, and refugees eagerly clambered aboard to escape the advancing Russians. The loading was chaotic and many parents were separated from their children. Life preservers were available for only slightly more than half of the passengers.

  It was — 14°F when the ship left the harbor, and layers of ice began covering the deck.

  The ship was just 28 miles from the Baltic town of Leba when the Russian torpedoes hit. People panicked and many plunged overboard into the icy water. Other passengers were trampled to death in the ensuing panic. Most of the ice-covered lifeboats couldn’t be lowered and of those that could, some were snagged by the bowline and spilled screaming people into the water. Other passengers chose suicide and shot themselves rather than suffer death through drowning. Thousands clung to the ship screaming for help as it sank faster and faster until it slipped beneath the waves. Then the screaming stopped and there was a deathly silence.

  The greatest single ship disaster of all time was over in less than an hour.

  FACTOIDS

  Although approximately 1,500 people died when the Titanic sank, not many people know that in addition to the Wilhelm Gustloff, there were 19 other ship disasters that resulted in a greater loss of life than the Titanic.

  The Goya, a converted German passenger ship, was hit by Russian torpedoes just before midnight on April 16, 1945. The ship broke in half almost immediately. Its masts splintered and fell, crushing passengers on the decks. Icy water rushed into the holds, drowning everyone in them. The Goya sank in just four minutes, with the deaths of 6,200 people.

  A converted German passenger liner, the General von Steuben, was also sunk by a Russian submarine in 1945. Crammed with wounded soldiers and refugees, it sank in just seven minutes. Between 2,700 and 3,500 passengers died.

  The Cap Arcona was another converted German passenger ship, loaded with inmates from evacuated concentration camps. In 1945 it was sunk by a British fighter bomber while moored in the harbor. Between 5,000 and 7,000 people lost their lives.

  These three German ships alone account for the deaths of between 13,900 and 16,700 people.

  DID YOU KNOW?

  Military personnel in every country know that they may face death when in a combat zone. Unfortunately, many innocent people are also killed, often by their own countrymen. The sinking of ships is no exception.

  In 1944, the Japanese steamer Junyo Maru was torpedoed and sunk by a British submarine. The British had no way of knowing that the ship carried Dutch prisoners of war and Indonesian slave laborers.

  The British also sank the German steamer Thielbek, not knowing that many of its passengers were from a concentration camp. There were no survivors.

  The Japanese steamer Arisan Maru was sunk by an American submarine. The submarine’s crew did not know that the ship was carrying 1,800 American prisoners of war.

  Perhaps one of the greatest atrocities of any war is the unnecessary and often deliberate killing of innocent civilian refugees, helpless wounded men, and prisoners of war.

  What does SOS stand for? (This is going to be a lot of trouble.)

  Although you may have heard that the letters SOS stand for “Save Our Souls,” “Save Our Ship,” or “Send Out Succor,” none of these is true. The letters stand for absolutely nothing.

  Samuel F. B. Morse invented the telegraph, which allowed messages to be transmitted over wires. The concept of his invention was that when electricity flows in a wire, it can be detected and converted to sound; when there is no flow of electricity, there is no sound. It was a simple on/off system. However, there had to be a method of making sense out of the sound/no sound feature.

  Morse devised a code consisting of dots and dashes, which today is known as the Morse code. If the transmitter is turned on for an instant, the result is a dot. If it is turned on for a longer time, the result is a dash. Each letter of the alphabet has a code, such as “dot, dash” for the letter A, and “dot, dot, dot” for the letter S. When transmitting the code, each letter is separated by a time interval equal to three dots, and each word is separated by a time interval equal to seven dots.

  During its day, Morse’s system was praised as “the instantaneous highway of thought.”

  Some time later, Guglielmo Marconi invented wireless telegraphy, a precursor to our modern radio communication. Because it transmitted a single tone, it required far less power than voice transmission and so could be sent over much greater distances. The signal was simply turned off or on to follow the code invented by Morse.

  Although most authorities credit Marconi as the inventor of the radio, in 1943 the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that Marconi’s patents were invalid due to Nikola Tesla’s previous descriptions.

  In the early 1900s many wireless telegraphy operators on ships were former railroad or postal telegraphers. If an operator wanted to send out one message and make sure that all stations heard it, he would begin the message with the letters CQ, which meant “all stations.” The operator would do this when sending out time signals or other general notices.

  In 1904 it was suggested that CQD should be used as a distress signal. In other words, “all stations, distress.” A few years later, the Berlin Radiotelegraphic Conference brought up the subject of an international distress signal. After a lengthy discussion, it was agreed that SOS would be the new distress signal. Participants thought that if three dots, three dashes, and three dots were sent as a single string, it could not be misunderstood.

  FACTOIDS

  The first recorded use of the SOS distress signal by an American ship was in August 1909, when the SS Arapahoe radioed for help after losing its screw off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. A few months later, the Arapahoe picked up an SOS signal from the SS Iroquois. The Arapahoe’s radio operator was thus the first person to both send out an SOS from an American ship and to receive an SOS from an American ship.

  Even after the invention of the telephone in 1864, the telegraph was the world’s primary form of telecommunication for over 50 years.

  When the Titanic sent out its first distress signal, it was CQD followed by MGY, which were the Titanic’s call letters. After sending out CQD a number of times, the radio operator then sent an SOS. Subsequent calls were CQD’s interspersed with SOS’s.

  Morse code could be considered the precursor of modern computer codes. The telegraph signal was either on or off. A modern computer works in the same way, using a binary code consisting of a “1” (on) or “0” (off).

  The inventor of the Morse code, Samuel Morse, was not an engineer. He was a Massachusetts portrait painter.

  If you ever visit the U.S. Capitol building, be sure to look at the Rotu
nda. One of the figures in the center of Italian artist Constantino Brumidi’s beautiful fresco is none other than Samuel F. B. Morse.

  DID YOU KNOW?

  The code that Morse created in 1832 died a quiet death 165 years later. In 1997 Morse code ceased to be the official international language of distress, being replaced by much more sophisticated satellite-based “Mayday” electronic systems. (Mayday is derived from the French m’aidez, which means “help me.”)

  Morse code may be dead, but it’s not buried yet. Amateur radio operators use it quite often, especially in times of disaster when other forms of communication are not available.

  The military also maintains a Morse code capability. Billion-dollar satellites can malfunction or be jammed and sophisticated ground networks can break down during a battle. As a contingency, every year the U.S. army trains 2,800 soldiers to become proficient in Morse code. Every U.S. merchant ship must have on board a radio officer who can transmit and receive Morse code. In fact, while at sea the officer must spend eight hours a day monitoring the radio for Morse code distress calls.

  Many military messages end with the phrase, “Over and out.”

  Well, Morse code may be over, but it’s not out.

  What volcanic eruption killed the most people in the twentieth century? (Some politicians will do anything to get a vote.)

  On May 8, 1902, Mount Pelée on the island of Martinique completely destroyed the city of Saint Pierre and killed 29,000 people. Martinique is a volcanic island in the Caribbean Sea, about 400 miles northeast of Venezuela.