Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock.

The Coathanger

Some Sydney locals call the Sydney Harbour Bridge “the Coathanger,” and, once you see it, you can’t unsee it. The way that the bridge’s steel arch goes over the water looks like a giant clothes hanger. People gave the Bridge this name right after it opened in 1932 & the name has stuck around ever since.

The Wobbly Bridge

In 2000, London’s Millennium Bridge opened, and excited crowds rushed across, only for it to sway. A lot. People instantly called it the “Wobbly Bridge,” with the nickname spreading faster than the engineers could install dampers. Thankfully, they worked out the cause of the wobbling & managed to stop it.

The Giant’s Dance

Stonehenge wasn’t always known as Stonehenge. In fact, medieval writers referred to it as the “Giant’s Dance,” which somehow makes it seem even more mysterious. Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote about it in Historia Regum Britanniae, claiming giants lugged the stones over from Africa. But we know now that this isn’t true.

The Empty State Building

When the Empire State Building opened in 1931, it wasn’t exactly bustling & it actually sat half-empty for years. It eventually earned the nickname “Empty State Building.” Newspapers used it constantly, although the name eventually fell out of fashion. Honestly, it’s weird to think that the Building wasn’t always the famous landmark that we know it for.

The Temple of Freedom

People used to really like using dramatic language when they talked about buildings, and that included the U.S. Capitol. It was once known as the “Temple of Freedom.” You can still see that phrase in old congressional speeches & printed pamphlets, along with early architectural commentaries. It was especially common before the Civil War.

The Shrine of Democracy

Even Mount Rushmore had a nickname, and it began during the 1930s dedication events. Officials were eager to give the monument a sense of national weight, so they gave it the nickname the “Shrine of Democracy.” The name was everywhere for a while during the Great Depression.

The Iron Lady

Before there was Margaret Thatcher, there was the real “Iron Lady,” which was the Eiffel Tower. French journalists called the tower “La Dame de Fer” as a way to describe the tower’s serious look. In fact, you’ll see the nickname in old literary journals from that time. It was almost like everyone already knew what it meant.

​​The Akhet Khufu

When the Great Pyramid of Giza was being built, people called it “Akhet Khufu,” which essentially translates to “Horizon of Khufu.” The name is all over Old Kingdom records connected to the pyramid complex & in discussions of the Wadi al-Jarf papyri. Modern researchers still use the term when they’re talking geology around Giza’s plateau.

The following sources were consulted in the preparation of this article:

1. Sydney Harbour Bridge
2. Millennium Bridge in London to close for urgent repairs
3. Archaeology and legend: investigating Stonehenge
4. 10 Surprising Facts About the Empire State Building
5. D.C. Washington. Capitol. Exterior. View called “In the Temple of Freedom”
6. Mount Rushmore National Memorial Cultural Landscape
7. The Iron Lady: Nicknaming the Eiffel Tower
8. Records of the pyramid builders: discovering eye-witness accounts of a legendary construction project

Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock.

George Washington’s foxhunting miles on horseback

Before most people were even awake, George Washington was on horseback chasing foxes across uneven Virginia fields. He’d go on long rides with hounds over mud & hills. In his journals, Washington described these hunts happening constantly, sometimes for hours, and it wasn’t casual, either. Riding like that took a lot of core & leg strength.

Thomas Jefferson’s daily exercise rule

Thomas Jefferson treated movement as something he couldn’t skip. He pushed his family to block time out every single day, usually for long walks or horseback rides, and he also suggested target practice as a good way to stay active. For him, exercise was a part of the schedule.

John Quincy Adams’s Potomac swims at daybreak

John Quincy Adams had a rather specific routine that involved walking a couple of miles from his place and swimming across the Potomac River. He’d then walk back home like it was nothing. And it didn’t even matter how the weather was because he always did it before breakfast, rain or shine.

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s therapeutic swimming at Warm Springs

But Adams wasn’t the only one who liked to swim. Franklin D. Roosevelt liked going to the warm pools in Warm Springs, Georgia, to exercise after polio, and he’d spend hours in the water doing therapy sessions. He also swam laps. In fact, Roosevelt made the trip rather often and made it a regular part of his physical routine.

Theodore Roosevelt’s jiu-jitsu lessons in the White House

For Theodore Roosevelt, jogging around or doing light stretches wasn’t enough. No, he invited a Japanese judo master, Yoshiaki Yamashita, to teach him jiu-jitsu right inside the White House, and he also paid for lessons for a few friends. Roosevelt learned throws & holds in the East Room.

Herbert Hoover’s morning “Hooverball”

Hooverball was a game that, unsurprisingly, Herbert Hoover played. It worked like volleyball, except the ball was a heavy medicine ball that he & his friends would throw on the South Lawn. They’d toss it back & forth over a net, and keep score like any pickup game. Sure, it sounds odd, but it was intense cardio that kept him in shape.

Harry S. Truman’s fast morning walks

Of course, not every president relied on doing strange fitness routines. Harry S. Truman went for a fast morning walk that often had his bodyguards trailing behind, trying not to lose pace. He clocked about 120 steps per minute according to the reporters who timed him. Truman kept these walks up daily, often for a few miles around D.C.

Dwight D. Eisenhower’s golf habit 

Dwight D. Eisenhower loved golf long before he putted on the White House lawn, but it became part of his recovery after he had a heart attack in 1955. Doctors encouraged him to do steady, moderate movement. Golf fit the bill. Eisenhower also had the South Lawn fitted with a putting green so he didn’t have to leave to play.

Barack Obama’s pickup hoops and a full-court upgrade

Basketball was Obama’s favorite sport. Rather than squeezing in gym time, he’d just call up staff or friends & run pickup games on the White House grounds, later converting the old tennis court into a full basketball court. He took the game rather seriously & it apparently was one of his favorite ways to keep fit.

Richard Nixon’s late-night bowling sessions

Richard Nixon didn’t stick to daytime exercise, as he bowled at night, usually downstairs in the single-lane alley beneath the North Portico. Sometimes he’d bring a few people along, other times, he played alone. It actually became a regular thing for him. And it was especially important during long stretches at the White House since it gave him a break.

The following sources were consulted in the preparation of this article:

1. The Diaries of George Washington. Vol. 1
2. Thomas Jefferson to Peter Carr, 19 August 1785
3. John Quincy Adams: Family Life
4. Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Yoshiaki Yamashita
5. Hooverball: Case Study, Literature Review and Clinical Recommendations
6. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Polio, and the Warm Springs Experiment: Its Impact on Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
7. Harry Truman’s Hometown: Out and About in Independence
8. Eisenhower’s Billion-Dollar Heart Attack — 50 Years Later
9. Understanding Obama Through Basketball
10. President Richard Nixon’s Daily Diary, December 1-15, 1970

Black appears in the world in much stranger ways than many people know about. Here are six strange facts that you didn’t know about the color black. What’s your favorite fact?

The blackest man-made coating swallows 99.965% of light

Vantablack is a special kind of black. It’s so black that you can’t even see its shape, and it absorbs approximately 99.965% of all light. Vantablack is human-made, created from tiny carbon tubes that trap the light. You can’t even tell whether a shape is flat or curved when it’s coated in Vantablack. It’s that dark.

Tires are black because carbon black changes the rubber

Tires didn’t use to be black but were actually a pale sort of color, almost like beige. Manufacturers later decided to mix tires with carbon black. It made the tires tougher & more heat-resistant, while also making them last longer.

Every tire looks the same shade today. It doesn’t matter what name is printed on the side.

“Black diamonds” are often carbonado

You might think that black diamonds are just regular jewels painted black. Not quite. They’re made from carbonado, a natural mix of diamond crystals & graphite.

Black diamonds have voids inside. They’re tougher than regular diamonds, and some scientists think they may have come from space. You can find them on Earth in Brazil & Africa.

In ancient Egypt, black symbolized fertile soil and new life

Not all societies see black as something negative. For ancient Egyptians, black represented life returning after the Nile flooded each year, and the word kmt quite literally meant “black land.”

Black soil meant rich soil. Rich soil made farming possible. The ancient Egyptians painted Osiris, who was their god of rebirth, with black skin in order to show growth, rather than death.

In Japan, blackened teeth were once fashionable

Today, we know that black teeth are a health problem. But not people in 10th-century Japan. They practiced something called Ohaguro, where married women & nobles would deliberately stain their teeth black.

They used an iron-based mixture that would eventually turn glossy after a few coats. Why did they do this? Because they thought it was a sign of elegance and maturity. Bizarrely, the mixture actually protected their teeth.

Some black clothes symbolized status 

Wearing deep black was both difficult & expensive in medieval Europe. You had to use a lot of dye and rare ingredients, along with a lot of labor, to achieve black. Only the rich could afford to do so.

As a result, true black clothing was a sign of wealth and status, since it showed you could afford all of that hard work.

The following sources were consulted in the preparation of this article:

1. Their Dark Materials
2. Why Are Tires Black?
3. Carbonado Diamond: A Review of Properties and Origin
4. Colors of Ancient Egypt
5. Ohaguro: The Beauty of Blackened Teeth in Old Japan
6. Intro to the blacks

Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Hoecakes with honey at Washington’s breakfast table

George Washington enjoyed starting his day with hoecakes, which are essentially griddled cornmeal cakes. He always had them drenched in honey. In fact, his step-granddaughter, Nelly Custis Lewis, left behind instructions describing how he would make sure the batter went right onto the griddle & flipped once before serving it with butter.

Jefferson’s macaroni, parmesan, and a pasta press

Thomas Jefferson wasn’t shy about experimenting in the kitchen. He actually drew diagrams of a macaroni press & wrote notes on the process of how to make it. This was based on what he saw in Naples. Back in America, he often imported Parmesan and recorded recipes for macaroni & cheese.

Lincoln’s fondness for gingerbread

Once upon a time, Abraham Lincoln joked on the campaign trail about how he loved gingerbread. He also confessed that he very rarely got much of it as a kid, claiming, “I loved it better than any other man, and got less of it.” Still, it seems that gingerbread was a treat he never truly forgot.

Taft’s “possum and ’taters” banquet in Atlanta

In 1909, Atlanta threw William Howard Taft a banquet. However, it wasn’t your regular banquet, since the star of the meal was roast opossum with sweet potatoes, instead of steak or duck. Hardly something you’ll find on most plates. Even so, Taft apparently loved the meal, and this wasn’t his first time eating it, either. 

FDR’s hot-dog picnic for a royal visit

You’d expect Britain’s King George VI & Queen Elizabeth to eat fancy roasts or delicate pastries when they showed up at Hyde Park in 1939. But no. Instead, Franklin Roosevelt served them hot dogs on paper plates & told them to dig in. The royals were game enough to try them.

Eisenhower’s own vegetable soup

Sure, Dwight Eisenhower was a general who later became president. Yet he also liked cooking. He had a vegetable soup recipe, where he insisted on using a beef bone for flavor & allowed it to bubble away for hours. You’d hardly expect this from a guy who commanded armies.

Kennedy’s New England fish chowder

John F. Kennedy’s love for fish chowder wasn’t a secret in his family, and he had a preference for the creamy, rich kind. It had to be packed with haddock & salt pork, as well as potatoes. For him, this was pure New England comfort food. Kennedy even sent a recipe to a young fan who asked what he liked to eat.

LBJ’s Pedernales River chili

Lyndon Johnson was president with strong opinions about chili. He wanted no beans, ever, and his recipe, known as “Pedernales River Chili,” was heavy on beef, onions, peppers & spice. He liked it so much that White House staff handed it out. However, it was hardly a mild chili. Anyone eating it would have to be prepared to sweat through a bowl.

Nixon’s cottage cheese and pineapple

Honestly, cottage cheese sounds like an odd choice for presidential food, but that’s Richard Nixon for you. Sometimes he put pineapple on top, sometimes he’d put ketchup. His last meal before resigning in 1974 was actually a simple plate of cottage cheese & pineapple, along with a glass of milk.

Reagan’s jelly beans

Ronald Reagan kept jars of jelly beans within reach almost everywhere he went, including his desk & Air Force One. He even had them during cabinet meetings. Originally, he ate them to quit smoking back when he was California’s governor…and then never stopped. The company Jelly Belly even made special colored mixes for the White House.

The following sources were consulted in the preparation of this article:

1. Hoecakes
2. Jefferson’s Notes on Macaroni, [after 11 February 1789]
3. Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 3 [Aug. 21, 1858-Mar. 4, 1860].
4. Politics and Possum Feasts: Presidents Who Ate Opossums
5. When Franklin Delano Roosevelt Served Hot Dogs to a King
6. What’s Cooking Wednesday: A Commander-in-Chef’s Recipe for Vegetable Soup
7. John F. Kennedy and New England Fish Chowder
8. President Johnson’s Pedernales River Chili
9. The Sad, Stately Photo Of Nixon’s Resignation Lunch
10. Jelly Belly® Jelly Beans and Ronald Reagan

Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Coins in fountains

Long before people made wishes at the mall fountain, ancient Romans left coins in sacred springs. Archaeologists have found more than 12,000 coins dating back to the 2nd–4th centuries CE in Bath, England. They believe the Romans threw them into waters dedicated to local goddesses, as a kind of offering.

Touch wood to ward off mischance

Kids in 1730s Britain played a chasing game where you were only safe when you touched wood. Sounds familiar? In fact, this game became so popular that adults picked up the habit, too. They used “touch wood” to avoid bad luck after bragging, which is why we say the same phrase when we want to avoid “jinxing” something.

Tossing spilled salt over your left shoulder

Once upon a time, people treated salt like treasure. As such, when they spilled it, it was a bad omen, so by the 1800s, advice books said you should throw a pinch over your left shoulder to cancel misfortune. Some writers took it a step further by saying it keeps evil spirits & the devil out of your blind spot.

Avoid walking under ladders

Leaning ladders sure are awkward. But they also form a triangle shape against the wall, and in Christian symbolism, that triangle was similar to the Holy Trinity. Breaking it was a bad idea. This led to English guides in the 19th century warning people to step around ladders to keep luck on their own side…as well as for their own safety.

Hang a horseshoe over the door

A horseshoe on the door does look rather rustic. Blacksmiths worked with fire & iron, which were materials people thought could scare away spirits. In fact, a 10th-century legend involves Saint Dunstan tricking the Devil by nailing a horseshoe to his hoof & only freeing him after he swore he’d never enter homes with one nailed above the door.

Breaking a mirror brings extended bad luck

Mirrors weren’t always made from glass. Back in the day, they were polished metal, which was expensive & fragile. People also thought it held part of the soul & that made breaking one a big deal. The idea of seven years of bad luck may have come from Roman ideas about the body renewing itself in seven-year cycles.

Don’t open an umbrella indoors

Surprisingly, the rule about umbrellas has less mystical origins and more practical ones. Early umbrellas were rather bulky, with wooden poles & steel ribs, so opening one in a cramped parlor in the 1800s would likely break something. You might also spook the oil lamps. These accidents turned into bad luck, so parents began warning kids not to open umbrellas indoors.

Blue “evil eye” beads to deflect envy

The belief that jealous stares could harm crops or babies goes back to Mesopotamian & Greek texts. In Ottoman Turkey, craftsmen began melting glass with cobalt. This was to mimic an eye that could watch back & people hung them everywhere. They believed they’d out-stare the curse.

The following sources were consulted in the preparation of this article:

1. Votive Objects and Ritual Practice at the King’s Spring at Bath
2. Why Do People Knock on Wood for Luck?
3. Why Is Throwing Salt Over Your Shoulder Good Luck?
4. Myths and Realities: How Different Forms of Superstitious Beliefs Create Good and Bad Luck for People in Pakistan through an Anthropological Lens
5. The Folk-Lore Of The Horseshoe
6. Mirrors in the funerary contexts of Moesia Superior – Roman hegemony, beauty and gender
7. Customer Superstitions In the Accommodation Industry: A Demographic Analysis
8. The economic origins of the evil eye belief

Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock.

People mimic posture and mannerisms

You may have noticed that when someone crosses their legs, you do the same. That’s not just a coincidence. In experiments, people automatically mirrored the small body language habits of their partners, like touching their face or tapping a foot. They’re not usually aware of it. It even happens in casual conversations where nobody was trying to copy anyone.

Blinks sync at the same moments during shared viewing

People tend to blink at the same time when they sit down to watch the same short video. In one lab test, 14 participants blinked in the same moment when the story naturally paused. It’s almost like their brains were taking a break together. Even when the movie didn’t have breaks, people still blinked at the same time.

Pupils dilate during problem-solving

During the 1960s, researchers noticed that people’s pupils grew bigger while solving math problems. Later studies kept finding the same thing. This showed that the eye change wasn’t random. When someone tried working out multiplication in their head, their eyes started dilating, and when they stopped, it faded. Effort makes your eyes shift shape. Who knew?

A “Duchenne” smile

Not every smile is built the same. There’s a grin called a “Duchenne” smile that uses both the cheek muscles & a little squeeze around the eyes, which people show when they’re reacting to something genuinely amusing. Scientists conducted research and found that electrodes placed on the face picked up that difference clearly. 

Personal distance zones have measured ranges

Anthropologist Edward T. Hall once used a tape measure to literally track how close people stood in everyday life. It’s different across different countries. In America, the patterns were pretty consistent, as under 18 inches was “intimate,” 1.5–4 feet was “personal,” & 4–12 feet was “social.” Anything beyond that was “public.” 

Handshakes transfer skin-bound molecules

Two strangers shook hands in one experiment & something unexpected happened. Chemicals from one person ended up on the other’s glove, including things like squalene & fatty acids. Cameras also caught people touching their noses more afterward. Airflow sensors picked up that they were actually sniffing, almost like they were checking the sample.

Lie judgments hover around 54% accuracy

One study involved volunteers having to guess the difference between truth vs. lies. The grand total average was about 54% correct & that’s only slightly better than flipping a coin. It didn’t matter whether they were watching faces or listening to voices. Their accuracy kept landing right around the same number.

Foot pointing often shifts toward chosen actions

Researchers have noticed something funny about feet. They tend to “decide” before the rest of you does. Experiments showed that people’s feet angled toward the thing they were going to pick, like an object on a table or a way out of the room. The body leaned in first & words came later.

The following sources were consulted in the preparation of this article:

1. The Chameleon Effect: The Perception-Behavior Link and Social Interaction
2. Synchronization of spontaneous eyeblinks while viewing video stories
3. Pupil Size in Relation to Mental Activity during Simple Problem-Solving
4. The Duchenne Smile: Emotional Expression and Brain Physiology II
5. Edward T. Hall, Proxemic Theory
6. A social chemosignaling function for human handshaking
7. Accuracy of Deception Judgments
8. Foot cues can elicit covert orienting of attention

Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Fire ants link bodies to build waterproof rafts

Fire ants quite literally hold their legs & jaws together with other ants to stay above water. They do this when floods come along. These creatures snap together like LEGO pieces, with enough trapped air to keep the whole colony afloat for days. That’s pretty amazing teamwork. And especially for bugs that usually just bite.

Periodical cicadas run on prime-number schedules

You wouldn’t think that cicadas care about math, but they do. Some cicadas stay underground for thirteen years, or sometimes seventeen. They’ll then crawl up to the surface. Scientists say the odd-number cycles help them avoid predators’ rhythms. And honestly, waiting that long for a few weeks of flying sounds rather wonderful for an insect.

Honeybees map directions with a dance

You might’ve seen bees doing figure-eight moves inside their hives. That’s not just random buzzing around. They’re creating a map to tell other bees where the food is compared to the sun. The wider the angle of the dance, the farther away it is. Essentially, they’re showing off their bee GPS, just without Wi-Fi.

A tiger moth can jam a bat’s echolocation

Tiger moths have the remarkable ability to click away at high speed. This throws off a bat’s echolocation completely. In fact, it’s so strong that the bat’s attack often fails because it simply can’t get a read on where the moth is. Scientists muted the moths during an experiment & the bats started catching them again.

Glasswing butterfly wings cut glare with nano-pillars

Glasswing butterflies look almost invisible in flight, and that’s thanks to their wings that act like natural anti-reflective glass. They have tiny, uneven pillars on the wing surface. These pillars scatter light in all directions, which is quite different from smooth glass. Their wings allow you to see straight through without any glare.

Treehoppers talk by vibrating plants

Instead of chirping like crickets, treehoppers prefer to send messages through plant stems. They create low vibrations that go along the leaves & stalks. Other insects pick it up with their legs, meaning that they’re quite literally talking through plants. How amazing is that?

Cockroaches have an ultra-fast escape circuit

Anyone who’s ever tried to sneak up on a roach will know it’s nearly impossible. This is because they have little hairs on their back end that sense the tiniest puffs of air, sending a lightning-fast signal straight to their legs. They’ve already picked a direction & bolted within a fraction of a second. No wonder they’re so hard to catch.

Dragonflies can see in almost every direction

A dragonfly’s eyes cover nearly its whole head. As such, it can spot movement from the front, back & sides without needing to twist around. But that’s not all. Each compound eye holds around 30,000 tiny lenses, which gives them quite an edge. They notice changes almost instantly from any prey they’re chasing in the air.

The following sources were consulted in the preparation of this article:

1. Fire ants self-assemble into waterproof rafts to survive floods
2. Independent divergence of 13- and 17-y life cycles among three periodical cicada lineages
3. The flight paths of honeybees recruited by the waggle dance
4. Tiger Moth Jams Bat Sonar
5. The role of random nanostructures for the omnidirectional anti-reflection properties of the glasswing butterfly
6. The Behavioral Ecology of Insect Vibrational Communication
7. Responses of Giant Interneurons of the Cockroach Periplaneta americana to Wind Puffs of Different Directions and Velocities
8. Visual Acuity in Insects

Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Mass coral spawning comes after spring full moons

Think about the biggest block party you’ve ever seen. Now imagine it underwater. Once a year, right after a spring full moon, corals all around the Great Barrier Reef release their eggs & sperm at the same time. It only lasts a few nights. But that doesn’t make it any less incredible.

Crown-of-thorns starfish produce huge numbers of eggs

Crown-of-thorns starfish are essentially baby-making machines. A single female can lay tens of millions of eggs in one season. Yes, millions. Unfortunately, it’s not all good news, as when there are too many of these starfish, they chew through the coral incredibly fast. Studies show they’re a major reason coral cover on the reef has declined.

The reef releases dimethylsulfide gas into the air

The Great Barrier Reef actually gives off a gas called dimethylsulfide, also known as DMS. It comes from tiny algae living inside corals. Measurements show that the reefs release DMS into the air during low tides, where it can drift into the atmosphere. Who knew coral could be so gaseous?

Underwater reef sounds help restore fish to degraded areas

Researchers conducted a strange experiment on damaged reefs. They set up speakers & played recordings from healthy reef areas. But instead of silence, those patches started filling up with more fish within weeks, with the sound mostly being clicking shrimp & fish calls. It worked like a magnet.

Reef snakes stay put

The reef is home to sixteen different species of true sea snakes. Most of them aren’t wanderers. Studies found they stick close to the reefs where they were born & rarely move to neighboring systems. As a result, populations in different reef zones remain completely separate. That’s quite unusual for wide-ranging marine species.

The modern reef began only about 9,500 years ago

Most people know that the Great Barrier Reef has been around for a long time. But the modern version hasn’t been around as long as you might think. It formed after the last ice age when rising seas flooded the continental shelf & core samples show this happened roughly 9,500 years ago. However, reef-building in the area started much earlier.

Some reef corals can glow neon at night

Swimming under the Great Barrier Reef is an incredible experience. It’s even better when you do it under UV light because you’ll see that parts of the reef actually glow. In fact, scientists have recorded all sorts of colors. They’ve cataloged more of them in the Great Barrier Reef corals than anywhere else.

The following sources were consulted in the preparation of this article:

1. Moonrise timing is key for synchronized spawning in coral Dipsastraea speciosa
2. Laboratory study on the relative predation rates of crown-of-thorns starfish (CoTS) larvae by five fish species
3. The contribution of coral-reef-derived dimethyl sulfide to aerosol burden over the Great Barrier Reef: a modelling study
4. Acoustic enrichment can enhance fish community development on degraded coral reef habitat
5. Distribution of sea snakes in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park: Observations from 10 yrs of baited remote underwater video station (BRUVS) sampling
6. A Potted Geological History of the Great Barrier Reef
7. Why corals glow even in the depths of the sea

Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Cracking windows in a tornado doesn’t prevent damage

Plenty of families have passed down the claim that when a tornado’s coming, you should open the windows. But that’s bad advice. Opening windows lets more wind whip inside & ramps up the pressure. Lab tests with simulated tornadoes found that houses with forced openings suffered greater roof lift and worse wall strain than sealed ones. Keep them closed.

A green sky doesn’t prove a tornado is coming

Some storms give off a creepy green glow, which people claim is a sign of a tornado. That’s not always the case, though, as researchers have traced the color to thick water or hail in the clouds, bending sunlight toward green. Yes, it’s often linked to strong storms. But tornadoes can form under gray skies as well & plenty of green storms only drop hail.

Metal objects and phones don’t “attract” lightning

Wearing a necklace or carrying keys doesn’t pull lightning out of the sky. Even holding your phone isn’t enough to guarantee a lightning strike. These bolts connect to tall, isolated things because of how electric fields build up, not because of a ring on your finger. The metal will conduct it if a strike happens nearby, but it doesn’t lure it in.

Hurricanes can form at the equator

Ask most people, and they’ll swear hurricanes can’t happen on the equator. That’s almost always true. Storms need the Coriolis effect to spin & it’s weakest there. However, in 2001, Typhoon Vamei bucked the odds by appearing just 1.4° north of the equator near Singapore. It proved that hurricanes are possible this close to the equator.

Fresh snow isn’t automatically “clean”

Some people scoop up new snow & claim it’s pure enough to eat. You shouldn’t do that. In reality, snowflakes collect stuff as they fall, including soot & dust, even microbes. Studies show snow samples often contain measurable pollution & bacteria. This is especially true when the snow is downwind of industrial zones, and once it melts, those particles end up everywhere.

The eye of a hurricane isn’t always calm

It’s easy to think that the eye of a hurricane is a safe zone where nothing happens. And sure, it’s calmer than the eyewall, but it’s not guaranteed. Pilots who fly hurricane missions have seen winds still whipping inside the eye & dangerous ocean waves. As such, just because you see blue sky overhead doesn’t mean you’re out of trouble.

Thick clouds don’t always mean heavy rain

Despite what you might think, big, dark clouds aren’t always a sign of heavy rain coming. These clouds are dark because the light struggles to pass through a thick layer of droplets. It’s not necessarily because of a cloud stuffed full of rain. In fact, some of the scariest-looking skies barely sprinkle, while a thin gray layer higher up could force you to get an umbrella.

Cold weather doesn’t cause colds

So many people blame their sniffles on freezing air. But the real culprit is viruses. Studies show bugs like rhinovirus survive better in dry winter air, which is when people spend more time huddled indoors. Such a combination makes it easier for germs to spread. As such, you should blame the people you’re around, rather than the weather, for any illnesses during the winter.

The following sources were consulted in the preparation of this article:

1. Characteristics of internal pressures and net local roof wind forces on a building exposed to a tornado-like vortex
2. Exploring severe weather environments using CM1 simulations: The 29 August 2020 event in the Balearic Islands
3. Assessment of Protection System Positioning and Models Using Observations of Lightning Strikes to Structures
4. Typhoon Vamei: An equatorial tropical cyclone formation
5. Snow Scavenging of Polychlorinated Biphenyls and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Minnesota
6. Wind Distribution in the Eye of Tropical Cyclone Revealed by a Novel Atmospheric Motion Vector Derivation
7. Impact of aerosols on convective clouds and precipitation
8. Influenza Virus Transmission Is Dependent on Relative Humidity and Temperature

Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Built as a hump yard and expanded in stages

Bailey Yard began taking shape in the late 1940s, with Union Pacific rolling out the first big changes in 1948. They added a modern hump yard with new classification tracks. Over the next few decades, construction continued, with an eastbound hump & diesel facilities arriving in the 1960s. They added more upgrades in the 1970s. The yard’s name came from Edd H. Bailey, who once ran Union Pacific. 

Footprint bigger than a European city-state

Bailey Yard is more than 25 times bigger than Vatican City. The train station is around 11.5 km², or 4.44 square miles, while Vatican City is just 0.44 km², or 0.16 square miles. Bailey Yard also has about 315 miles of track inside its boundaries. That’s enough track to drive from New York City to Baltimore.

How it stacks up against big U.S. yards

Yes, there are many massive yards across America, but Bailey still dominates in terms of size at roughly 2,850 acres. BNSF’s Argentine Yard in Kansas City is about 780 acres, while Norfolk Southern’s Moorman Yard in Ohio is smaller, too, at 620 acres. That’s even after a huge expansion. 

Where it ranks in the world by area

Outside the U.S., only a few facilities come close to Bailey Yard in size. Germany’s Maschen yard is just under 700 acres, and China has some huge classification yards, including Zhengzhou North & Wuhan North. But Bailey Yard is still the largest railroad classification yard in the entire world.

Track layout built for mass sorting

The yard also has a maze of tracks, including over a hundred that are used simply for sorting railcars. It’s arranged east–west, with the “bowl” tracks lining up side by side so that it’s possible to juggle thousands of cars every day. And workers here do it all without the train station getting jammed up. The west bowl alone fits over 5,500 cars.

Twin humps and their measured heights

In the middle of all that track are two mounds, called humps, where cars roll down by gravity to get sorted. The east hump is taller at around 10 meters, while the west one is closer to six. Every day, thousands of railcars glide over those humps and make their way through the train station. 

Daily workload in cars and trains

As you might expect, traffic at the station doesn’t stop. More than 10,000 railcars pass through daily & about 4,000 of those are reshuffled for new routes. On top of that, around 32 coal trains stop at the station each day, just for fuel & quick checks. Then, these trains continue rolling west. 

Repair work happens around the clock

The yard has a repair zone that never really quiets down, with crews coming in at all hours to deal with whatever’s acting up. Sometimes it’s small stuff like brakes, other times, it’s swapping heavy parts. But the shop never shuts its doors because the trains don’t stop coming. Instead, they handle the problems right there, rather than waiting somewhere else.

Fueling stations are built like mini truck stops

Of course, engines don’t leave here thirsty. Bailey has its own fueling spots that are designed to handle a lot of locomotives without slowing everything down. Workers refuel the trains while they’re still in the yard, and they have the capacity for multiple engines to line up. The whole thing’s timed to keep traffic flowing.

A specialized tower oversees every movement

Above the tracks is a control tower, where a small team keeps an eye on everything going on down below. They’re the ones juggling departures & watching switches to make sure that nothing is blocking an important track. Every train that rolls out of the yard passes through their plans first.

The following sources were consulted in the preparation of this article:

1. The Location-Allocation Model for Multi-Classification-Yard Location Problem in a Railway Network
2. Modeling of Railway Stations Based on Queuing Networks
3. Dwelling on the positive at UP’s Bailey Yard
4. Union Pacific Bailey Yard
5. Norfolk Southern names its largest freight train classification yard in honor of Wick Moorman
6. BNSF’s Argentine Yard gets facelift in less than 48 hours