Fasting during Ramadan lasts longer at the top

As the Burj Khalifa is 828 metres (2,710 ft) tall and located in Dubai, residents on higher floors are able to see the sun slightly later in the evening than those on the ground. In Ramadan 2011, Muslims living on floors 81- 150 were requested by Dubai religious officials to wait approximately 2 extra minutes before breaking their daily Ramadan fast compared to those on the ground floor or below. Those living on floors higher than 150 were asked to wait approximately 3 minutes.

It takes three to four months to clean all the windows

Burj Khalifa’s sheer size means that its exterior is made up of nearly 26,000 individual glass panels. Cleaning the exterior of the tower is therefore no small task. Window cleaning is performed by crews working from track-mounted units as well as suspended cradles and rope-access methods. A full cleaning cycle of the building takes about three to four months.

It wasn’t originally called the Burj Khalifa

During construction, the tower was called Burj Dubai. Upon its inauguration on January 4, 2010, however, the tower’s name was changed to Burj Khalifa after Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, then-president of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Abu Dhabi. The change of name was announced during the opening ceremony, so many people learned what the building would eventually be called on inauguration day.

The design was inspired by a desert flower

The Y-shaped, three-lobed footprint design of the Burj Khalifa was inspired partly by the Hymenocallis flower, whose petals grow outward from a central point in long curves. Architect Adrian Smith and the team at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill also referenced patterning techniques common to Islamic architecture.

The tower’s three wings are structurally functional as well. In addition to helping brace the building’s central core and creating sweeping views, they reduce the effects of powerful wind currents.

Its air-conditioning system produces millions of gallons of water

Due to Dubai’s hot and humid climate, the massive air-conditioning system of Burj Khalifa produces an enormous amount of condensation water. Rather than letting it go to waste, there is a condensate collection system that can supply about 15 million gallons (57 million litres) of supplemental water per year.

Water recycled through this system helps irrigate and landscape the gardens surrounding the tower, lessening the need for additional water sources.

Built with enough concrete to match 100,000 elephants

The Burj Khalifa used about 330,000 cubic metres of concrete and 39,000 tonnes of reinforcing steel. This is equal to approximately 100,000 elephants.

Dubai’s intense heat also posed significant issues during construction, especially when pouring high-performance concrete. Concrete temperatures were carefully controlled along with other precautions, such as cooler nighttime temperatures during major pours, to ensure the heat generated while curing would not damage the concrete.

It has special refuge areas for emergencies

Getting residents safely to and from an 828-metre skyscraper demands a highly complex fire- safety system. The Burj Khalifa features 57 elevators and eight escalators. Some of its double-deck elevators can reach speeds of about 10 metres per second.

In addition to elevators, the building includes protected refuge areas, fire-resistant compartments and pressurized stairways. Instead of attempting to rush people all the way down hundreds of floors, these safety features can help stage an evacuation.

The top can move more than a meter in strong winds

Although it appears to be entirely solid from street level, the Burj Khalifa, as with other super tall skyscrapers, sways slightly in high winds. Its tapering, twisting profile of setbacks constantly varies the shape of the tower as it ascends, eliminating coherent wind vortices that would otherwise cause larger amplitude oscillations.

Deflection at the top of the tower is approximately 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) during maximum expected conditions.

The top can experience different weather from the ground

The Burj Khalifa is so tall that local conditions near its summit may differ from those on the ground below. For example, temperatures near the top may be several degrees cooler than temperatures near ground level.

Upper portions of the building may even occasionally be enveloped by clouds or mist while conditions at ground level remain different. The building’s extreme height spans a sizable portion of the lower atmosphere.

Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.

1. Dubai Burj Khalifa: Ramadan fast ‘lasts longer high up’
2. Burj Khalifa
3. The Burj Khalifa Tower in UAE

The Malaysian exploding ant sacrifices itself

Workers of some species of exploding ant possess an incredible suicide defensive weapon as a last resort. If threatened by a lethal predator or enemy, a worker may implode its body with enough force to breach its abdominal wall, spraying the predator with a sticky, toxic bodily secretion. As this causes its own death, the secretion may serve to disable or repel an adversary attacking the colony.

The Iberian ribbed newt pushes its own ribs through its skin

If attacked or threatened, this species displays a truly bizarre defense mechanism. It can flip its ribs forwards until the points tear through its own skin. It then secretes toxins through glands in its skin, which can cover the rib spikes, creating a truly unpleasant surprise for any predator. Miraculously, the small wounds sustained do not cause lasting damage to the newt.

The sea cucumber can eject some of its internal organs

Species of sea cucumber expel internal organs through the rear part of the body if seriously threatened. This may involve parts of their intestines in some species, but other species extrude sticky Cuvierian tubules instead. These left-behind body parts can distract predators or bind to them, giving the sea cucumber time to flee. The animal will regenerate these organs later.

The hairy frog can create its own “claws”

To scare off predators, the hairy frog of Central Africa literally grows its own claws. When threatened, the frog snaps bones inside its toes, and jagged tips of the broken bones puncture through the skin to make “claws”. Those claws retract when not in use, and the damaged tissues repairs itself. They’re not made of keratin like normal claws; they’re actual bones ripped straight from the frog’s skeleton.

The Texas horned lizard shoots blood from its eyes

If standard camouflage and defensive displays fail, the Texas horned lizard has another strategy up its sleeve. The lizard forces blood vessels around its eyes to swell with blood until jets of blood are sprayed out of its eye sockets, oftentimes reaching astounding distances. The blood vessels contain chemicals that are highly offensive to predatory mammals like coyotes and foxes.

The opossum doesn’t simply decide to “play dead”

The Virginia opossum has the ability to fall into a state that mimics death if it becomes severely threatened. The animal may slump over, become stiff, hold its teeth out, and be mostly unresponsive. The added secretion of foul-smelling bodily fluids may convince predators that the animal is already dead or rotting. However, this reaction is not always a voluntary act of deception on behalf of the opossum. The reaction may simply be an involuntary reflex caused by extreme fear.

The wood frog can survive while partially frozen

The wood frog lives through northern winters by means of an extreme example of freeze tolerance. The frog can allow ice formation extracellularly, stop its heart and breathing, and permit up to three-quarters of its body water to freeze. High levels of glucose and other cryoprotectants allow its cells to survive damage during freezing. When the weather warms up, the frog’s heart restarts, and it becomes active once again.

Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.

1. Wood frog adaptations to overwintering in Alaska
2. Apparent death
3. ‘Exploding Ant’ Rips Itself Apart To Protect Its Own
4. Iberian ribbed newt
5. The Spineless Gutless Sea Cucumber
6. The hairy frog can create its own “claws”
7. Short-Horned Lizard

The 1933 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle is illegal to own, except one

The U.S. Mint produced 445,500 Saint- Gaudens Double Eagles in 1933, but they were never officially released for circulation because President Roosevelt ended gold coin payments and forbade private citizens from owning monetary gold.

The bulk of the 1933 Double Eagle mintage was melted down, though a few coins left the Mint without authorization. The subsequent investigations and litigation continued for decades.

Now only one 1933 Double Eagle can legally be owned by a private person in the U.S. under a settlement with the government. That coin sold at auction in 2021 for $18.87 million, a world auction record for a coin.

The 1794 Flowing Hair Dollar was struck on a hand-operated press

1794 Flowing Hair Silver Dollar was the first silver dollar minted by the United States Mint. Only 1,758 were delivered to the Mint that year. Workers at the young Philadelphia Mint struck coins with a hand-operated screw press.

Production equipment at the Mint was ill-suited to making large silver coins, and problems such as inadequate striking pressure and die alignment resulted in many of the surviving coins having thin details along their edges. A single 1794 dollar sold for over $10 million dollars in 2013, becoming the first coin to reach that threshold at auction.

The 1804 Silver Dollar was actually not minted in 1804

Although dated 1804, the famous 1804 Silver Dollars were never struck during that year. During the 1830s, U.S. officials put together sets of American coins to be used as diplomatic presentation pieces to foreign monarchs such as the King of Siam and the ruler of Muscat.

Since officials assumed silver dollars had been minted in 1804, the Mint engraved new dies with that date and struck special coins for the sets. More coins were struck later, and only 15 examples are known to exist today.

Ephraim Brasher stamped his initials onto his famous gold doubloons

Before the issuance of the first regular federal gold coins by the U.S. Mint, New York goldsmith and assayer Ephraim Brasher produced his famous gold doubloons in 1787. Brasher stamped his unique “EB” hallmark on his coins, which doubled as a hallmark of his profession of testing and certifying gold coins.

Most examples of New York-style Brasher Doubloons are struck with his EB punch on the eagle’s wing. However, there is one very special example struck with the punch on the eagle’s breast. Often referred to as the “EB on Breast” Brasher Doubloon, this piece sold privately in 2011 for an estimated $7.4 million.

Nobody knows exactly who made the five mysterious 1913 nickels

Records of the U. S. Mint state that Liberty Head nickels stopped being produced in 1912. However, five curious specimens dated 1913 have come into existence. Samuel W. Brown, who had worked at the Philadelphia Mint, placed an advertisement offering to purchase 1913 Liberty nickels and later exhibited all five of them, causing many generations of collectors to believe he had something to do with their removal from the Mint.

There is no proof that Brown had them struck, however, nor is there any evidence that tells how the five coins were produced. One sold for $100,000 in 1972, the first U.S. coin to do so.

A 220-pound gold coin was stolen with a wheelbarrow

Five giant “Big Maple Leaf” coins made of 99.999% pure gold were produced by the Royal Canadian Mint, each coin weighing 100 kilograms (220 lb) and with a face value of C$1 million, though worth much more than that face value. One of them was stolen from Berlin’s Bode Museum in 2017; thieves used a ladder, rope, and wheelbarrow to remove and transport the very heavy loot. The coin has never been recovered and is believed to have been melted down for its gold content or cut into pieces.

A 1,300-year-old gold dinar actually names the region of its mine

A very rare Umayyad gold dinar, struck in AH 105 (AD 723–724), also bears an unusual Arabic inscription: “from the mine of the Commander of the Faithful in the Hijaz”. This inscription unmistakably ties the source of the gold used to produce the coinage to a mine owned by the caliph himself in that region.

However, the exact site of the mine has been the subject of debate, and assertions that it can be conclusively located near Mecca are overstated. It is one of the earliest Islamic coins produced in gold to name a region of mining in Arabia. Coins of this rare type have sold for multi-million dollar prices.

Edward III’s Double Leopard disappeared almost as soon as it appeared

Issued in 1344, Edward III’s new gold florin (popularly known as the Double Leopard) depicts the King of England seated on his throne flanked by two leopards. It was valued at six shillings, but the high gold content and its official rate of exchange made the coin unpopular with merchants.

England’s first venture into high-value gold coins was not a success. The coins were only issued for a few months before being recalled, and most of them were almost certainly melted down. Three examples of the Double Leopard are known to still exist, which makes it one of the rarest medieval English coins and consequently extremely valuable.

Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.

1. 1933 Double Eagle
2. Flowing Hair dollar
3. 1804 dollar
4. Brasher Doubloon
5. 1913 Liberty Head nickel
6. Big Maple Leaf
7. Florin (English coin)

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

Elevator operator

Before elevators became fully automated, in department stores, hotels, and office skyscrapers, there was always a human operator working an elevator.

Operators manually controlled heavy lever controls in order to level the elevator car precisely with each floor, opened and closed inner metal grates, and announced department names or floor numbers.

Switchboard operator

Even as automatic switching was in its infancy, operators working at large physical switchboards were still handling the majority of telephone calls during the 1950s. They connected calls locally, long-distance, or between households by plugging cords into jacks. The role has since been nearly completely eliminated by automation and digital telephone networks.

Milkman

Because home refrigerators were inefficient and most foods had short shelf lives back in the 1950s, milk, cream, and butter were delivered daily or twice-weekly in fresh glass bottles to your doorstep or milk box. Refrigerators in every kitchen and suburban supermarkets eventually replaced this occupation.

Ice Cutter

By the 1950s, harvesting natural ice had become rare, but there were still labourers cutting large blocks of ice from frozen lakes in winter. It was stored and eventually sold for people to keep food and drinks cool. Sales of electric refrigerators and freezers led to this job disappearing in the decades following.

Pinsetter

Before automatic pin-setters were standard in bowling alleys, people (usually teenagers) stood behind bowling lanes manually resetting pins after each ball and returning bowling balls to bowlers. Automation took away one of bowling’s most strenuous jobs.

Gas station attendant

Service station attendants pumped gas, wiped windshields, and checked tire pressure (and sometimes even oil) at every vehicle that pulled in during the 1950s. There are still some full-service gas stations around, but automatic pumps have replaced attendants for the most part.

Telegraph operator

Businesses, railroads, newspapers and government offices relied on skilled telegraph operators to transmit and receive Morse code messages. When telephones, fax machines, computers and the internet replaced the telegraph, the need for skilled workers vanished.

Linotype operator

Newspapers were previously printed on large Linotype machines that cast whole lines of metal type. Competent operators had to learn how to operate complex machines to prepare material for newspaper and book printing. Desktop publishing and computer typesetting have replaced the trade.

Movie projectionist

Projectionists were needed in movie theaters of the past to load, watch, and change giant reels of film while the movie played. Digital cinema systems today require very little human interaction, thus there are drastically fewer projectionists needed per theater.

Human computer

Before the widespread availability of electronic computers, it was common practice for businesses, research labs, and government agencies to employ individuals to do mathematical computations manually (or with mechanical calculating devices). These employees were referred to as computers. With the fast evolution of electronic computers in the second half of the 20th century, this job largely vanished.

Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.

1. Elevator operator
2. Computer (occupation)
3. Movie projectionist
4. Linotype machine
5. Telegraph operator
6. Gas station attendant
7. Pinsetter
8. Ice Cutting
9. Milk delivery
10. Switchboard operator

M&M

Forrest Mars Sr. realized soldiers in the Spanish Civil War were eating bite-sized chocolates with a hard sugar coating that kept the cocoa from melting in the heat.

Mars developed his own formula and began selling M&Ms in 1941. During World War II, he sold the candies exclusively to the U.S. military so troops stationed in warm countries could enjoy chocolate without it melting inside their bags.

Instant coffee

Although primitive forms of soluble coffee had been available since the 19th century, instant was further developed and distributed widely when the U.S. War Department bought the entire U.S. supply of instant coffee during World War I.

Many doughboys in the trenches became dependent on the speedy caffeine hit, establishing an immense, habit-driven civilian demand when they returned from war.

Cheese powder

The dehydrated cheese powder that coats Cheetos, Doritos and boxed macaroni came into being in 1943. George Sanders, who worked for the U. S. Department of Agriculture and the U. S. Army Quartermaster Corps, came up with the idea.

It was a means to remove moisture from real cheese to compress it for overseas shipping as lightweight shelf-stable bricks. The cheese bricks were later pulverized by food manufacturers to become snack seasoning.

Canned food

In 1795, starvation and diseases like scurvy caused more casualties in the French military than armed conflict. In hopes of finding a solution, Napoleon Bonaparte offered a 12,000 franc prize to anyone who could devise a way to keep food from spoiling for his marching armies.

Nicolas Appert, a confectioner, claimed the prize when he found that sealing cooked food in airtight glass jars prevented it from spoiling, which eventually led to canning in metal tins.

Condensed milk

Sweetened condensed milk was patented by inventor Gail Borden in 1856. However, it wasn’t until the American Civil War began in 1861 that condensed milk caught on commercially.

The Union Army bought millions of cans to feed hospital patients and soldiers in the field with a high-calorie, long-lasting dairy source. Instantly successful, Borden’s condensed milk became a staple ingredient in home baking.

Spam

Spam was created by Hormel in 1937, but the canned pork shoulder did not become popular worldwide until World War II, when over 150 million pounds were bought by the U.S. military for its troops in Europe and the Pacific Theater.

As it didn’t need refrigeration and held up well under harsh conditions, Spam was shipped out to not only the Allied troops but also the local civilians of countries where troops were stationed. It became part of local diets in places like Hawaii, Okinawa, and the Philippines.

Energy bars

The ancestors of today’s energy and protein bars were military survival rations. The predecessor to modern-day bars began with the development of the U. S. Army’s “Ration D” bar in 1937.

Developed by the Army and Hershey Chocolate Company, the compact 600-calorie bar was intended to provide emergency food for soldiers behind enemy lines in case of an invasion.

Powdered eggs

Military strategists required an easily portable substitute for fresh eggs with a long shelf life. Powdered eggs were consumed by soldiers throughout World War II all over the world. Now you can find them primarily in emergency preparedness foods, camp cuisine, and commercial bakeries.

Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.

1. M&M’S History
2. Better living through Military innovation: Instant Coffee
3. How the US Military Helped Invent Cheetos
4. How Napoleon Influenced The Canned Food Industry
5. Sweetened Condensed Milk Was Popularized By Soldiers
6. A War Won With Spam (and a Few Other Things)
7. The Rise and Rise of Energy Bars
8. The History of Powdered Eggs During World War II

Their humps store fat, not water

Contrary to popular belief, camel humps aren’t actually reservoirs of water. They are composed of dense fat and weigh up to 80 pounds. This stored fat allows camels to convert their humps into nutritional, backup generators when food is hard to come by.

By storing their fat in a single place on their backs, camels can release body heat more quickly from the other parts of their bodies. This helps prevent overheating in extreme conditions.

They have a complex ocular defense system

As camels need to protect their eyes from severe desert sandstorms, they have a unique built-in ocular defense mechanism. They have not one, but two rows of extra-long eyelashes that lock together to prevent blowing debris from getting into the eye.

Underneath these eyelashes is a third eyelid that’s semi-transparent (called a nictitating membrane) that sweeps horizontally across the eye like a windshield wiper, wiping away dust and still permitting enough light in for the camel to see where it’s going.

Their blood cells expand up to 240% without bursting

A camel can lose more than 30% of their total body water weight when severely dehydrated. This kind of dehydration would kill humans through heart failure or stroke. After going without water for so long, camels can drink up to 30 gallons of water in less than 10 minutes once they locate water.

Their red blood cells are oval instead of round, allowing the cells to flow easily when their blood is thick from dehydration and expand up to 240% their normal size to store the large amounts of water without bursting.

They excrete almost zero water

Camels are masters of moisture retention. Their kidneys excrete urine that is twice as salty as seawater, and reduced in volume until it’s syrupy.

Moreover, their intestinal tract squeezes every last particle of moisture from their food. As a result, camel dung is expelled completely dry, and Bedouin have traditionally used it right away for fires without having to dry it first.

Their nostrils can reabsorb their own breath

Inside a camel’s nostrils there are specialized, labyrinth-like scroll structures lined with hygroscopic mucous membranes.

During exhalation, moisture is absorbed out of warm exhaled air by these cool, dry membranes and stored inside the nose. Upon inhalation, the moisture is evaporated and drawn back into the lungs, thus conserving water which would otherwise be lost through breathing.

They can completely seal their nostrils

Unlike people, camels’ nostrils are muscular slits that they can voluntarily close completely.

When sandstorms are severe or when camels walk behind other animals in dusty caravans, they seal their nostrils shut in order to prevent fine sand and dust from entering their respiratory systems without interrupting their breathing patterns.

There are two main camel species

Not all camels are alike. Dromedary camels have one hump and are the camel most people think of when they imagine a Middle Eastern or North African desert.

Bactrian camels have two humps and are native to Central Asia’s cold deserts. Wild Bactrian camels are critically endangered and a different species than domesticated Bactrian camels. They are among the rarest large mammals on Earth.

Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.

1. Camel | Description, Humps, Food, Types, Adaptations
2. Camel

Honey

One of nature’s strongest demulcents, honey coats irritated throat tissue and helps reduce inflammation. It literally sticks to your throat and forms a protective barrier over raw tissues.

Studies have found that simply consuming one tablespoon of raw honey before bed can work as well as, or better than, typical OTC cough suppressants. Plus, it’s safe for kids and adults over the age of 1. Raw honey’s natural antibacterial and antioxidant effects also fight inflammation right where it happens.

Saline nasal rinse

Rinsing your nasal passages with warm saline (saltwater) washes away thickened mucus as well as allergens and pathogens that are caught in your nose and sinuses. It moisturizes swollen nasal tissues as well.

The use of a neti pot or squeeze bottle, or saline nasal spray rinse, can help relieve stuffy sinuses by opening up nasal passages. It also improves nasal breathing and does not cause rebound congestion like nasal decongestant sprays do. For safety and to avoid infection, make sure to use distilled or sterilized water, or water that has been boiled and then cooled to make up saline rinses.

Zinc lozenges

If taken within the first day of symptom onset, zinc lozenges can reduce the length of your cold by up to 33%. Elemental zinc ions that dissolve from the lozenge directly inhibit rhinovirus attachment to nasal/throat mucosal cells, thus preventing the virus from multiplying as quickly.

For best results, look for lozenges that contain either zinc acetate or zinc gluconate, and take them every couple of hours as soon as you feel the first signs of a sore throat.

Saltwater gargle

Mix half a teaspoon of salt into a warm glass of water and gargle. Salt will provide almost instantaneous relief to your sore throat because of osmosis. Salt will pull water from fluid-filled tissues of your swollen, inflamed throat, decreasing swelling, pain, and discomfort right away.

It will also help loosen any thick mucus deposits while rinsing away bacteria and viruses that may be remaining at the back of your throat.

Steam inhalation

Breathing in steam (whether from a hot shower, bowl of steaming water, or facial vaporizer) provides direct hydration to dry, irritated passages in your throat and thins thick mucus.

Inhalation won’t kill the virus itself, but the steam helps loosen congestion in your nasal passages and chest so you can clear your breathing passages more easily. Steam also relieves sinus headaches due to pressure.

High-dose vitamin C

Although daily vitamin C will not keep you from ever getting sick, increasing your vitamin C consumption at the very first sign of a cold will lessen the severity and shorten the duration by a few days.

Vitamin C aids your body’s white blood cells in fighting infections. So when you are fighting that nasty cold, eat foods high in vitamin C or take a high-quality supplement.

Elderberry (Sambucus nigra)

Black elderberry extract contains strong antioxidants as well as flavonoids that prevent viruses from entering and infecting healthy human cells.

Some clinical trials have shown that when elderberry syrup, lozenges, or extracts are taken at the onset of an upper respiratory infection, they can significantly decrease the length of time and physical intensity of cold and flu symptoms by reducing inflammation in the airway and assisting your immune system to fight off viral infections.

Aggressive hydration

When you have a virus, it’s important to be extra hydrated as your body is losing fluids quickly due to increased mucus production, perspiration, or fever.

Warm fluids, like clear broths, herbal teas, or water with lemon, will help keep your mucous membranes hydrated and thin out thick secretions so your body can expel them. Warm fluids also promote increased blood flow to the throat and nasal passages, which feels soothing and comforting.

Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.

1. What are the health benefits of elderberry?
2. Honey: An effective cough remedy?
3. Zinc lozenges and the common cold: a meta-analysis comparing zinc acetate and zinc gluconate, and the role of zinc dosage
4. “Drink plenty of fluids”: No harm in fluids for colds and flu – PMC
5. Vitamin C for preventing and treating the common cold – PMC
6. Effects of steam inhalation on nasal patency and nasal symptoms in patients with the common cold
7. Saline nasal drops reduce the duration of the common cold in young children by two days
8. Sore throat

Savory Jell-O molds

Mid-century cooks made Savory Jell-O molds by including canned tuna, chopped hard-boiled eggs, shredded cabbage, or ground beef inside lime-flavored or lemon-flavored gelatins. After World War II, powdered gelatin had only recently become inexpensive and represented the exciting world of modern convenience foods.

Plus, it allowed families to turn leftover proteins and vegetables into a mold that looked impressive and stayed firm without refrigeration.

Vinegar pie

This pie from frontier days is made by whisking together cider vinegar, sugar, butter, flour, and eggs to form a sweet-and-tangy custard.

It was baked in homes across the American frontier and during times of financial struggle because while fresh citrus fruits such as lemons were rare, costly, or impossible to find, rural homesteaders still craved that citrus flavor. They found that the acidic punch of inexpensive cupboard vinegar could mimic it nicely in a dessert.

Syllabub

Syllabub was a favourite dessert during Tudor and Victorian times. Made by whisking together heavy cream and wine, cider, or sherry, lemon juice, and sugar until it became a fizzy, layered, drinkable cream, it was drunk everywhere at festivities and feasts.

Syllabub allowed upper-class families to present their fine imported booze, sugar, and fresh dairy together in an extravagant fashion.

Tomato soup cake

This moist spice cake gets its name from one simple can: condensed tomato soup. The condensed tomato soup gets mixed right into a batter with warm spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.

Made famous by Campbell’s in the midst of the Great Depression, homemakers baked this cake because the acidity and natural moisture from canned tomato soup improved the texture of the cake without using costly, hard-to-find ingredients such as fresh eggs, milk, or additional butter.

Suet puddings

Suet puddings like Spotted Dick or the traditional steamed Christmas pudding were heavy puddings made by combining raw beef or mutton kidney fat (also known as suet), flour, breadcrumbs, dried fruit and spices, then steaming the batter for several hours.

Many traditional cooks used suet because animal fats were readily available after killing livestock and also had a high melting point. This made for a pudding that stayed moist and would last long, able to stay preserved during the cold winter months before refrigerators became common.

Mock apple pie

Mock Apple Pie was a pie made during the Great Depression era. Instead of using fruit, crushed Ritz crackers were soaked in a syrup made of sugar, water, lemon juice, and warm spices. Cooks made it because apples could be out of season, too costly, or even rationed during tough financial times. The crackers absorbed the syrup while baking and became soft, simulating apples cooked in sugar and spices economically.

Ambergris ice cream

Ambergris ice cream is a rich ice cream created by adding small quantities of ambergris (a waxy substance made in the intestines of sperm whales) to sweetened cream and custards of eggs. It was eaten by the rich and upper-class Europeans, as ambergris was one of the world’s costliest luxury ingredients.

Ambergris ice cream gave desserts a delicate, musky floral scent and aftertaste, the height of opulence.

Candied watermelon rind

Candied Watermelon Rind used to be a popular recipe made by cutting off the green skin from a watermelon, dicing the thick white part of the rind, and boiling it for hours in heavy sugar syrup flavored with ginger, lemon, and cloves.

Families made it at home because waste was not tolerated, and making tasty treats from watermelon refuse that would otherwise be thrown away was an economical means of extending the budget.

Flummery

Flummery was originally a British and American pudding consisting of oatmeal soaked overnight in water until it began to ferment slightly, then boiled down after straining until it formed a thick gelatinous starch pudding. This would then be flavored with rosewater, sugar, or wine.

Oats were cheap and natural starches in them allowed home cooks to produce a firmly set jellied dessert without using costly gelatin or Isinglass.

Baked alaska

Created in the 1800s, this dessert features ice cream and cake topped with meringue and quickly baked at a high temperature. The meringue keeps the ice cream frozen while the outside toasts evenly. Baked Alaska is still impressive, but few people make it at home these days.

Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.

1. Ambergris – Whale excrement once flavored ice cream
2. Baked alsaka
3. Flummery
4. History of Mock Apple Pie
5. Suet pudding
6. Tomato soup cake
7. Syllabub
8. Old-fashioned Vinegar pie
9. Jello salad

Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock.

In medieval writing, i and j weren’t separate

In the Middle Ages, scribes didn’t see “i” & “j” as different letters because there was just one symbol doing both jobs. Any time that they needed to make the last “i” in a Roman numeral stand out, they’d stretch the tail down & leave it like that. They’d write the number 23 as “xxiij” for 23, which is where the j-shape came from.

Trissino’s 1524 proposal split i and j

The story then moves to Renaissance Italy. This is where Giangiorgio Trissino began adjusting the alphabet, and in 1524, he wrote a pamphlet about it. He suggested that the vowel “i” & consonant “j” should finally get their own letters. However, it took a while for his ideas to catch on through reprints & scholars across Europe.

Printers normalized the distinction

English printers also had their role in changing things. By the 1600s, more of them started setting “i” & “j” as separate letters, especially at the start of words, although some of the presses did hang on to the old habits. It took a few decades for the newer style to become the norm in printed books.

The 1611 King James Bible still printed “Iesus”

One of the most obvious examples of that old style lives in the first edition of the King James Bible. After all, it contains names like “Iesus,” “Iuda,” & “Iohn,” which look like typos to a modern reader. But that’s just how things were. “J” hadn’t officially become a letter yet, so “I” was used in its place.

Grammar books flagged the shift

Soon after, grammar writers like Charles Butler began talking about how English spelling was changing. They wrote about how “i” & “j” were becoming separate letters in everyday language, and some of these books included spelling rules to keep things consistent. It says a lot about how common the confusion had become.

English gave j the sound through French loans

Interestingly, the sound we connect to “j” today didn’t actually start in English. It came with French words like “joy” & “jewel” that have that soft /dʒ/ sound. Later, English adopted the sound & kept the spelling before eventually pairing it with the letter “j.” But the split wasn’t totally settled. Samuel Johnson’s 1755 dictionary still included “I” & “J” in one section.

France’s 1694 academy dictionary drew a line

The Académie française printed its first dictionary in 1694. In it, they clearly spelled out that i and j were two different letters in their system, although this wasn’t meant to change pronunciation. They were simply trying to define how the alphabet should look on paper going forward.

Spanish rules in 1815 gave j the /x/ sound

Things went a different way in Spain. The Real Academia Española published new spelling rules in 1815 that officially stated that j made the /x/ sound, as before that, x sometimes carried it. That was rather confusing. However, the update didn’t erase older spellings entirely, but instead created the modern rule.

The 1769 Oxford KJV created modern spellings

In 1769, Oxford University handled a major Bible revision, which is when spellings across the entire King James text were cleaned up. Words like “Jesus” replaced older forms such as “Iesus.” Those changes stuck. Soon enough, this version became the one that most people actually saw, whether in church or at home.

Webster’s 1828 dictionary called j the tenth letter

Noah Webster’s dictionary also affected how Americans thought about language. Near the start, he listed J as the tenth letter of the alphabet, while also mentioning the history of I and J. Including this detail was important. Now, it was clear that J was officially part of the alphabet on its own, no question.

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

1. The Alphabet Book: A guide to early modern English secretary hand
2. Early modern English: grammar, pronunciation, and spelling
3. The Holy Bible: a facsimile in a reduced size of the Authorized version published in the year 1611
4. Popular Speech: Oral and Literate Culture in England 1500–1700
5. The influence of Latin and French on the use and phonological development of the digraphs <ie>, <ea> and <ou> in English between 900 and 1800 CE
6. A Textual History of the King James Bible
7. An American dictionary of the English language