Page 7 - Best of the Month

Octopuses are so smart, the UK considers them honorary vertebrates for animal cruelty laws!

The UK has an official Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act of 1986. The act, which serves to protect animal welfare, covers a number of different sections. Some of these include regulated procedures, scientific procedure establishments, breeding and supplying establishments, conditions and re-use of protected animals.

The act only identifies certain animals as "protected." Generally, the act specifies that a "'protected animal' for the purposes of this Act means any living vertebrate other than man." Despite the fact that they are invertebrates, the act also covers any members of the species octopus vulgaris from the stage at which it can independently feed.

Why this distinction? Octopuses are among the most intelligent and behaviorally flexible of all invertebrates. Hence, the UK found them intelligent enough to include them in the protection act.

(Source)

The curve of the samurai sword is natural

A Katana is a type of traditionally made Japanese sword used by the samurai class. It is characterized by it's unique appearance--a curved, slender, one-sided blade and long grip for two-hand use. It is renowned for it's sharpness and strength.

The swords are traditionally forged from a Japanese steel called Tamahagane. The sword smith layers steels with different carbon concentrations on top of one another. This helps remove impurities. After this, the sword only has a slight curve, if any.

The curve comes about through a process called differential quenching. The smith coats the blade with several layers of a wet clay slurry. This concoction is unique to each smith. The edge of the blade is coated with a thinner layer than the sides. The sword is then heated and then quenched in water.

This causes only the blade's edge to harden and also causes the sword to curve because of the difference in the densities in the microstructures of the steel. Once the sword is forged, it is sent to be polished. This process can take between 1 and 3 weeks.

(Source)

The longest Tennis point ever played lasted for 29 minutes and 643 shots!

On September 24, 1984 Vicki Nelson and Jean Hepner, at the time ranked 93 and 172 in the world, engaged in what is still the longest point played in a professional tennis match.

This whopper of a point lasted for 29 minutes and 643 exchanged shots between the two of them. The match itself lasted for 6 hours and 31 minutes which was the longest match ever played for over 20 years. It still hold the record for being the longest match completed on the same day.

(Source)

A test showed that people are willing to electrocute people to death if they are told to!

In the 1960’s, Milgram conduced an experiment to test the power of authority and the limits of obedience.

The participants of the experiment were asked to administer electrical shocks to human beings in another location. The people being shocked were not actually being shocked; they were actors who had to respond as the voltage the participant thought he/she was administering increased.

The actors screamed, cried, and begged for it to stop as the voltage increased. The participants of the experience were obviously uncomfortable with inflicting pain upon other human beings but continued to do so anyways because the psychologist who was overseeing the experiment told them to. Sixty percent of participants inflicted the maximum dose.

They tested this experiment with many different types of overseeing psychologists. What they found was that the results did not vary significantly on whether these authority figures were male, female, tall, short, etc. All they needed was that clean white lab coat.

(Source)

Calling someone a Patriot was an insult during the American Revolution!

The referring to someone as a patriot, you are typically saying that the person is very passionate about their country and they support it. While that has always been the case, the word has in fact been used to insult someone during the American Revolution.

It's not people thought it was an insult to be loyal to one's country, but rather they were using the word ironically and a little sarcastically in the mid 18th century. In fact, people that were keeping definitions of words in England actually wrote in that the word patriot 'is sometimes used for a factious disturber of the government'!

For more on the word etymology, click the source! To see an example of the perfect American Patriot, take a look at the picture on this article!

(Source)