Today I learned of the Hmong people, who communicate by whistling - the valleys of the Himalayas they live in make for ideal transmission, sometimes carried as far as 8km. They even perform whistling courtship ceremonies, and once in a relationship, lovers can make up their own βsecretβ syllables! bbc.com/future/article/20β¦
Today I learned of the Death Valley Germans - a family of four German tourists who went missing in Death Valley National Park and whose remains were discovered 13 years later en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaβ¦
The Neanderthal was named after the valley where their first remains were found, and the valley itself was named after pastor Joachim Neander. Neander is the Greek translation of his name, both mean "new man". New man was found from a valley named after a man named "new man". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neaβ¦
The hottest place on Earth is the Lut desert of Iran, topping Death Valley, USA and and El Azizia, Libya. Over a seven year study, the hottest recorded temperature was 70.7Β°C (159.3Β°F). earthobservatory.nasa.govβ¦
California's Central Valley was home to the largest freshwater lake this side of the Great Lakes (three times the size of Lake Tahoe). Over the past century it disappeared. eccentricculinary.com/calβ¦
Today I learned of Six Californias, a proposed initiative in 2016 to split California into six separate states: Jefferson, North California, Silicon Valley, Central California, West California, and South California. The initiative failed to meet the required signatures to make the ballot. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixβ¦
The world's largest cemetery is Wadi-us-Salaam ("Valley of Peace") in Najaf, Iraq - it contains tens of millions of bodies over an area of 6 kmΒ², and approximately 500,000 new bodies from around the globe are buried there annually en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wadβ¦
In 1942 a forest guard in India made an alarming discovery. Some 16,000 feet above sea level, at the bottom of a small valley, was a frozen lake absolutely full of skeletons. atlasobscura.com/places/sβ¦
A study of robot aesthetics has found non-human-like machines gather positive emotional responses from viewers, while humanoid objects that imperfectly resemble human beings produces feelings of eeriness and revulsion in observers. This dip in positive responses is called the Uncanny Valley. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncβ¦
Today I learned of a non-profit called "The Last Mile," which teaches prisoners how to code and works with Silicon Valley companies to give ex-cons jobs upon release. Since 2010, The Last Mile has had 622 prisoner students, 90 are in full-time employment/higher ed. releases with 0% recidivism rate. cnbc.com/2017/04/10/san-qβ¦
The 4.2-kiloyear event was one of the most severe climatic events of the Holocene, which is said to have caused the decline of many civilizations from Egypt to the Indus valley. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4.2β¦
The Nile river valley used to be a deep canyon system, up to 1.8 km deep where Cairo is today (the same depth as the Grand Canyon). It filled with sediment 5 million years ago when the Mediterranean Sea refilled after a period of drying out. thenaturalhistorian.com/2β¦
In 1968, the US army accidentally killed 6,000 sheep on ranch land north of its biological and chemical weapons testing facility known as the Dugway Proving Ground. The Skull Valley Sheep Kill - as it came to be known, was caused by the open air testing of a highly toxic nerve agent "VX". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dugβ¦
The middle out compresion algorithm in the HBO series Silicon Valley is a real thing and is used by Dropbox's Lepton compression algorithm. techcrunch.com/2016/07/14β¦
Shock rocker Alice Cooper is now a born again Christian who attends Camelback Bible Church in Paradise Valley, California, and even teaches Sunday School gospelherald.com/articlesβ¦
The role as the Bond villain Max Zorin, a psychotic KGB deserter conspiring to destroy Silicon valley, was first offered to David Bowie, who declined as he didn't want to spend five months seeing his stunt doubles "fall off cliffs". The role went to Christopher Walken instead. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxβ¦
Today I learned of the Devils Hole Pupfish, the entire species exists within a 22 by 3.5 meter pool in Death Valley. In 2007 as few as 38 individuals remained. As of spring 2019, the population had reached 136. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devβ¦
Perry Farrell, frontman for Jane's Addiction, is the only person who has performed at all twelve Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festivals to date, having appeared under five different names. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perβ¦
Composer John Williams has been nominated for 51 Academy Awards (winning 5) second only to Walt Disney who has 59. Williams has been nominated in six different decades, receiving his first for Valley of the Dolls in 1968 and his last for Star Wars: The Last Jedi in 2018. vanityfair.com/hollywood/β¦
There is a college just outside Death Valley on a cattle ranch where tuition and room/board is free, but students are expected to work 20 hours a week on the ranch owlcation.com/academia/Frβ¦
Today I learned about the Great California flood of 1862 - which submerged Sacramento under 10 feet of water and turned Californiaβs Central Valley into a vast inland sea spanning 300 miles long, 20 miles wide and 30 feet deep. It killed thousands, bankrupted the state and historically happens every 200 years. scientificamerican.com/arβ¦
Hill valley from back to the Future was a set used in many shows including twilight zone, to kill a mockingbird and leave it to beaver. Just to name a few. latimes.com/archives/la-xβ¦
The tuxedo is named after Tuxedo Park a Hudson valley enclave for NY Social elite. The first one was made for the prince of Wales (king Edward VII) by Henry Poole tailors in Savile Row. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaβ¦
The largest volcanic eruption of the 20th Century was Novarupta, in Alaska in 1912. The eruption lasted for 60 hours and created the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. Due to its remoteness, the eruption did not kill anyone. britannica.com/place/Novaβ¦
The famous "Mushroom" red sandstone rock is located in Timna Valley (ΧͺΦ΄ΦΌΧΦ°Χ ΦΈΧ’), southern Israel, and the rock formation is a called hoodoo. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timβ¦
Today I learned about a British man who bought a ceramic pot at a junk sale for less than Β£4 and used it as a toothbrush holder until learning it was actually made in the Indus Valley of present-day Afghanistan about 4,000 years ago. It's thought the pot was originally brought to the UK by British tourists. atlasobscura.com/articlesβ¦
From atop Telescope Peak in Death Valley, CA, one can see both the highest point (Mt Whitney) and the lowest point (Badwater Basin) in the Continental US. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telβ¦
Today I learned of Ski Valley at Sangre de Cristo in New Mexico, which has "Tree Martinis" to calm the nerves of the skiers heading down the mountain. skifederation.org/tree-maβ¦
Today I learned of the "Jersey Devil" sightings of 1909. Newspapers of the time published hundreds of claimed encounters with the Jersey Devil from all over New Jersey. The widespread newspaper coverage created fear throughout the Delaware Valley prompting a number of schools to close and workers to stay home. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerβ¦
The creators/directors/writers for Parks and Rec, Bobβs Burgers, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Silicon Valley, Modern Family, The Good Place, American Dad, and Rick and Morty all got their big breaks on King of the Hill vulture.com/2015/02/none-β¦
There is a town in Japan known as the "the valley of dolls" with only 27 residents, but with 270 dolls to make it look more lively. The town of Nagoro in Tokushima Prefecture no longer has children; the youngest resident is 55. japantimes.co.jp/life/201β¦
A character in a Turkish political tv series called 'Valley Of Wolves' is so liked and highly appreciated by the public that when he died in the show a fan published an obituary in local newspapers superhaber.tv/suleyman-caβ¦
In 2017 thieves stole $18k worth of tracking equipment from a Silicon Valley startup business. They were caught within 5 to 6 hours. firstpost.com/tech/news-aβ¦
In the San Gabriel Valley, the city of San Marino was envisioned as the exclusive domain of the well-to-do from its inception. βSan Marino was formed to β¦ control the growth and activities of the cityβ so that βproperty values will be protected by stringent zoning regulations.β latimes.com/business/realβ¦
The 13th century BC battlefield of the Tollense valley in Germany is the oldest battlefield discovered. Between 3,000 and 5,000 trained and experienced warriors fought in a single battle with a 20-25% casualty rate. Until this find the Bronze Age was assumed to be peaceful. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolβ¦
Today I learned of Joachim Neander - latin for "New Man"- a 17th century pastor who composed music inspired by a small German valley. That valley would be the site of the discovery of a new species of hominid called Neanderthal. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joaβ¦
The driest place on earth is McMurdo dry Valleys in Antarctica where it hasn't rained for 2 million years. Only anaerobic bacteria are able to survive in the extreme conditions. Scientists also consider the area terrestrially closest to Mars on earth. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMβ¦
Today I learned about Death Valley Ranch in California, where a businessman from Chicago built a mansion, nearing compeltion he found out it had been built on government land, as the land he had actually purchased was further up the valley. The house, known as 'Scotty's Castle' was never finished. houseandhistory.com/scottβ¦
The 1986 comedy-drama "A Great Wall" was the first American feature film shot in the People's Republic of China. It features a Silicon Valley Chinese American executive who goes back to his homeland of China for the first time in 30 years, encountering many culture clashes en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Gβ¦
βIndiana Jones and the Temple of Doomβ was originally planned to start with Indie riding a motorcycle on the Great Wall of China, followed by the discovery of a βLost Worldβ type of hidden valley with dinosaurs. The idea was scrapped when the Chinese government refused to let them film there. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indβ¦
There is a part of Mount Everest known as the Rainbow Valley. It is named not because there are rainbows there, but because of the brightly-colored jackets on the frozen corpses that litter the valley. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouβ¦
New Mexico was not named after the nation of Mexico, but rather after the Aztec Valley of Mexico...in 1563, more than 250 years before Mexico became a nation. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newβ¦
Steve Jobs was adopted and had met his biological father years before discovering they were actually related. His father, Abdulfattah Jandali, was a Syrian immigrant who owned a restaurant in Silicon Valley which Jobs had frequented; they even shook hands once. telegraph.co.uk/technologβ¦
The highest point (The peak of Mount Whitney at 14,494 feet / 4,418 meters) and lowest point (The Badwater Basin area of Death Valley at -282 feet / -86 meters) in the Contiguous United States are both in California, both in the same county in California, and only 88 miles apart. howderfamily.com/blog/deaβ¦
"Hill Valley High School" from Back to the Future was filmed at Whittier High School in California. Richard Nixon attended this high school from 1928 to 1930 - some 25 years before Marty's visit seeing-stars.com/Locationβ¦
Today I learned about George Johnson, the Ballarat Bandit. He was a Canadian marijuana farmer, and after a psychotic breakdown, he moved to Death Valley and started a crime spree that lasted over a year. After incredible feats of endurance, police trapped him and he took his own life. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoβ¦
Tule Fog is a phenomenon which occurs only in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys, spanning over 400 miles, reducing visibility to near zero, and sometimes lasting for weeks on end. wikipedia.org/wiki/Tule_fβ¦
A plane carrying 6,000 pounds of pot crashed in Yosemite National Park. Climbers in Yosemite Valley heard news of the crash and sparked a miniature gold rush with up to 20 people searching the frozen crash site. Much of the weed was salvaged, smoked, or sold before park rangers caught on. mensjournal.com/features/β¦
That, like champagne, tequila is a designation of origin product and must be grown in the Tequila Valley to be called tequila. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teqβ¦
Sycamore Valley Ranch, formerly Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch, has been vacant since 2003 and is for sale for $31 million. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevβ¦
Today I learned of the motor valley and the motor valley association, area in Italy where many motor companies are located. In particular the headquarters of Lamborghini, Maserati, Ferrari, Pagani and Ducati are all less than 40km apart. motorvalley.it/en/
In 1982, a Caltrans worker happened upon a wallet belonging to one of the Salomons alongside the Antelope Valley Freeway. A subsequent search turned up another wallet as well as photos and personal documents belonging to the couple. The case was reclassified as an active homicide investigation. lamag.com/citythinkblog/sβ¦
Tennessee Valley Authority is a federally owned electric utility company that competes with private utility corporations to this day. history.com/topics/great-β¦
Isdal Woman Mystery: In November 1970, the badly burnt body of a woman was found in a remote spot in Norway's Isdalen valley. Someone had cut the labels off her clothes, and scraped distinctive marks off her belongings. Police uncovered a trail of coded messages, disguises, and fake identities bbc.com/news/world-europeβ¦
The Pacific NW is responsible for the majority of hop production in the U.S. with 99% of all production occuring in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. In 2017 Washington State alone produced 75.4% of the total hops in the country, the majority of which was grown in the Yakima Valley region. washingtonbeerblog.com/thβ¦
A geophysics professor discovered that there is a river flowing uphill beneath an ice sheet in Antarctica. The location is in the Gamburtsev Mountains, an enormous range with valleys and peaks that are as big as the Alps. The enormous pressure from the ice sheet above it pushes the water uphill. ibtimes.co.in/can-river-fβ¦
Silicon Valley began in Palo Alto because the inventor of the transistor wanted his new company to be closer to his sick mother's house en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoβ¦
According to scientists the South China Tiger is "functionally extinct" as one has not been spotted in the wild for over 25 Years, however a banker known as Stuart Bray has 19 of them held in captivity at the Laohu Valley Reserve in South Africa. bloomberg.com/features/20β¦
The street plan of Rovaniemi in Lapland, home of 'Santa Claus Village', is based on a reindeer's head and antlers. Architect Alvar Aalto was commissioned in 1945 after the retreating German army burnt down the city in WWII. He was partly inspired by Roosevelt's Tennessee Valley Authority. theguardian.com/cities/20β¦
Myron Cope, Pittsburgh Steelers radio announcer and creator of the Terrible Towel, gave the rights away of the Terrible Towel to Allegheny Valley School, nonprofit organization that provides services to those with dis abilities, which has raised more than 2 million dollars for the organization. wikipedia.org/wiki/Terribβ¦
Neanderthals could have been called Gibraltar . So it turns out that the first discovered Neanderthal skull was found in Gibraltar but got sent back to England to arrive after the skull from the Neanderthal valley arrived. They discussed renaming the species but stuck with Neanderthal. youtu.be/EppjcgN3dTk
When a library cat was removed from its institution in Putnam Valley, New York two members of the community were so upset about the removal that they deleted bequests to the library from their wills, producing an $80,000 loss in potential revenue. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libβ¦
Dyea is a Gold Rush town in Alaska. A few people live on individual small homesteads in the valley; however, it is largely abandoned. Confidence man and crime boss Soapy Smith, famous for his underworld control of the neighboring town of Skagway in 1897β98 is believed to have had control of Dyea en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyeβ¦
A ground temperature of 93.9 Β°C (201 Β°F) was recorded in Furnace Creek, Death Valley, California, United States on 15 July 1972 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extβ¦
In 1970 film critic Roger Ebert wrote the screenplay for βBeyond the Valley of the Dollsβ. One review described it as βa treat for the emotionally retarded, sexually inadequate and dimwitted. It is a grievously sick melange of hypermammalian girls, obvious double-entendres and sadistic violenceβ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyβ¦
The largest salt flat on earth has naturally occurring ridges, hills and valleys formed not by topography or erosion but by local variations in the pull of gravity gpsdaily.com/reports/The_β¦
The all-time heat record of 134 Β°F (56.7 Β°C) at Death Valley on July 10, 1913 is highly contested, being described as "essentially not possible" given the conditions at the time by some meteorologists and especially questionable as it was recorded by an untrained and eccentric observer. wunderground.com/blog/weaβ¦
The word βdollarβ - and the names of several other currencies past and present - is derived from the βthalerβ, a type of European coin in circulation for centuries whose name originally comes from the German word for βvalleyβ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JΓ‘cβ¦
Silicon Valley is obsessed with the simulation hypothesis (the argument that what we experience as reality is in fact fabricated in a computer) according to Y Combinator head Sam Altman. In an interview he admitted, "Two tech billionaires have gone so far as to secretly engage scientists." newyorker.com/magazine/20β¦
California has both the highest and lowest elevation points in the lower 48 states, and they are only 80 miles apart. Mount Whitney at 14,495 ft and Death Valley at -282 ft. wvnews.com/theet/news/locβ¦
In 1998 a U.S. marine corps aircraft killed 20 people in an Italian valley when it flew too low and snapped the cable of a passing cable car. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavβ¦
In 1970, Roger Ebert wrote the screenplay for Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls and in a review for the Chicago Tribune, Gene Siskel gave it 0/4 stars, writing that "Boredom aplenty is provided by a screenplay which for some reason has been turned over to a screenwriting neophyte." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyβ¦
The Kingdom of Bhutan only has one international airport, located at 7,332 ft elevation in a deep valley surrounded by 18,000 ft mountains and only a select number of pilots are certified to land there, due to it being one of the most challenging airports in the world. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parβ¦
The mountain with all of the TV broadcasting antennae for the Salt Lake valley is called Farnsworth Peak. Philo Farnsworth is the inventor of television. He is also a distant ancestor of Professor Farnsworth from Futurama. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farβ¦
Relativity dictates that, like a strange syrup, time flows slower on moving trains than in the stations and faster in the mountains than in the valleys. The time for our wristwatch or digital screen is not exactly the same as the time for our head scientificamerican.com/arβ¦
While in Los Angeles, the βrichβ live in the hills and the βpoorβ live in the valleys, in Mexico City (and in most of Latin America), itβs the opposite gringopotpourri.com/2013/β¦
When USSR premier Nikita Khrushchev visited IBM's Silicon Valley research facility in 1959 he showed indifference to computing technology, but he was so impressed by their buffet style cafeteria that he instructed factories across the Soviet Union to implement the self service dining concept. fastcompany.com/3037598/kβ¦
A mere 11K years ago San Francisco Bay was a dry valley. Melting ice sheets raised the sea level by 300ft between 9K and 5K BC. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanβ¦
The Indian village of Meghalaya, the wettest place on Earth, has trained branches of rubber trees to create natural bridges over rainy valleys. theatlantic.com/photo/201β¦
Silicon Valley companies like Intel hire anthropologists to study and predict how humans will interact with technology in the future. thefamiliarstrange.com/20β¦
The largest lake in California, the Salton Sea, was created by accident between 1905-1907 when the Colorado River breached its levees and flooded an inland desert valley that lies below sea level. slate.com/blogs/atlas_obsβ¦
The earliest flush toilets were used by the people of the Indus Valley Civilization (existing from approx. 3300 BC - 1700 BC). Almost every home in the ancient cities of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa had a flush toilet connected to a common sewage system. wikipedia.org/wiki/Flush_β¦
Twice a year in Monument Valley, mitten-shaped rock formations line up with the sun as it sets, causing one to "high five" the other with its shadow. blog.nicodebarmore.com/20β¦
Three California volcanoes top the government's volcano threat assessment list. Mt. Shasta, the Lassen Volcanic Center, and the Long Valley Caldera (near Mammoth Lakes) are considered to be a "very high threat." Over 190,000 Californians live within a Volcano Hazard Zone. latimes.com/local/lanow/lβ¦
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