Page 35 - Language Facts
Australians used to name their hurricanes after politicians they disliked.
This tradition is said to have been started by a meteorologist by the name of Clement Wragge, who is often considered to be the father of modern meteorology. "Inclement" Wragge, as he was often called, was the first person to do real weather forecasting "down under". He was very outspoken and expressed his disapproval for certain politicians by naming tropical cyclones after them in his forecasts! This also marks the first time that names were used to classify weather systems. (Read more about Wragge here.
Starting in 1953, the United States began naming tropical storms, which initially were all named after women. They later caved into pressure from feminists groups in 1979 to use men's names as well. Currently, the duty of naming hurricanes and tropical storms is given to the World Meteorological Organization, an agency of the United Nations. The current system uses an alphabetical list. There is a storm name chosen for each letter of the alphabet, and as hurricane season progresses they go from an "A" name to a "B" name and so on. The WMO has 4 lists and reuses a list of names every 4 years. The more famous storm names are retired from their respective lists (thus, there was no "Tropical Storm Katrina" in 2009).
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There is a type of Italian wine called "Vigneti di Moron."
And yes, it apparently means exactly what you think it means - "vineyard of the idiot."
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Some awesome lists!
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The color orange was named after the fruit.
Before then, the English-speaking world referred to the orange color as 'geoluhread,' which literally translates to "yellow-red!" The word orange itself was derived from the Spanish word 'naranja,' which likewise came from the Sanskrit word 'n?ra?ga,' meaning "orange tree." Over time, the English dropped the first "n," and soon the word was transformed to 'orange.' This word was also applied to the fruit's color in the 1540's, likely due to the increased popularity of oranges around this time.
(Sources: 1, 2)
A space vehicle must travel at a rate of 7 miles per second in order to escape Earth's gravity.
The speed required to break free of the gravitational pull of a planet or moon is called its escape velocity. If a plane were traveling at this speed, it could go from Philadelphia to New York City (a distance of 81 miles as the crow flies) in under 12 seconds!
