Tag Archives: FactSlap

September, I’ll Remember

Evidentialism Factslap: September is the most common month for birthdays in the U.S.

The most common birthday in America is September 9, and the second-most common is September 19. In fact, nine of the 10 most popular U.S. birthdays fall between September 9 and September 20 — making September the most common month for birthdays in the U.S. overall, at least based on data from 1994 to 2014. The reason for September’s popularity may be fairly simple. Flipping the calendar back nine months brings us to December, when people tend to have more time off for the holidays and thus more reason to celebrate in a variety of ways. In addition to being in good company, fall babies are blessed with good fortune and/or good genes, as people born in October are far more likely to live until 100, and those born in September and November often live longer as well (although scientists still aren’t sure exactly why).

On the other end of the spectrum are the year’s biggest holidays, with December 25 being the least common birthday — in the 20 years of data compiled by data journalist Matt Stiles, there were even fewer babies born on Christmas than on February 29. Rounding out the bottom four are January 1, December 24, and July 4, respectively. One reason for this is that so many births are scheduled, either by cesarean or induced labor, and doctors generally don’t schedule births on the holidays when they may not be working. This might also shed some light on why September births are so popular, according to some — with no major holidays that month aside from Labor Day, there’s less reason for soon-to-be parents to worry about hospitals being short-staffed the way they might be on Christmas or New Year’s Day.

Factslap: The first vending machine was made for holy water

Democracy, theater, olive oil, and other bedrocks of Western civilization all got their start with the Greeks. But even some things that might seem like squarely modern inventions have Hellenistic roots, including the humble vending machine.

In the first century CE, Greek engineer and mathematician Heron of Alexandria published a two-volume treatise on mechanics called Pneumatica. Within its pages were an assortment of mechanical devices capable of all types of wonders: a never-ending wine cup, rudimentary automatic doors, singing mechanical birds, various automata, the world’s first steam engine, and a coin-operated vending machine. 

Heron’s invention wasn’t made with Funyuns and Coca-Cola in mind, however: It dispensed holy water. In Heron’s time, Alexandria was a province of the Greek empire and home to a cornucopia of religions with Roman, Greek, and Egyptian influences.

To stand out, many temples hired Heron to supply mechanical miracles meant to encourage faith in believers. Some of these temples also had holy water, and experts believe Heron’s vending machine was invented to moderate acolytes who took too much of it.

The mechanism was simple enough: When a coin was inserted in the machine, it weighed down a balancing arm, which in turn pulled a string opening a plug on a container of liquid. Once the coin dropped off the arm, the liquid stopped flowing. It would be another 1,800 years before modern vending machines began to take shape — many of them using the same principles as Heron’s miraculous holy water dispenser.

And the miracles are just as effective.

I’d Like To Be, Under The Sea

Why grumpy octopuses are suckers for Ecstasy | The Times

Apropos of nothing, John Oliver ripped off the HollywoodBowles with his own version of a FactSlap this weekend. To which we say: Let us show you how it’s done. A FactSlap column (Cephalopod Remix):

  • An octopus is a mollusk, like clams and shells; however, through evolution, it lost its shell.
  • Octopuses have three hearts that pump blue, copper-based blood.
  • Octopuses are found in all oceans at every depth.
  • All octopuses are venomous. Their venom contains enzymes that help digest their food]
  • Octopuses can remember and recognize individual humans.
  • All octopuses have short life spans. The longest living octopus only lives three to four years. Most of the smaller octopuses live for 6 months to a year.
  • The venom of a blue-ringed octopus can be fatal to humans.
  • Octopuses can change their appearance in less than 30 milliseconds. They change colors by expanding tiny pigment sacs in their skin called chromatophores.
  • The blood of octopuses (and other mollusks) is blue because of the oxygen-carrying pigment called hemocyanin.
  • Because the octopus’s oxygen-carrying pigment (hemocyanin) isn’t as efficient as hemoglobin, the octopus has evolved two accessory hearts.
  • The plural of octopus is not octopi because the word is Greek “octopous,” not Latin. The Greek plural would be octopodes, but scientists refer to them as octopuses.
  • An octopus named Otto threw rocks and sprayed water on a light above his aquarium in order to short-circuit it.
  • In what is called “autophagy,” bored octopuses will often eat their own arms.
  • Like dolphins, crows, and chimpanzees, octopuses are part of a special class of animals that can use tools.

And check out more facts in the podcast!