When Do Fish Sleep? (8 page)
Submitted by Gail Lee of Los Angeles, California
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Does
It Ever Really Get Too Cold to Snow?
Having withstood a few snowy midwestern winters in our time, we’re not sure we would want to test this hypothesis personally. Luckily, meteorologists have.
No, it never gets too cold to snow, but at extremely low temperatures the amount of snow accumulation on the ground is likely to be much lower than at 25 degrees Fahrenheit. According to Raymond E. Falconer, of the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center, SUNY at Albany, there is so little water vapor available at subzero temperatures that snow takes the shape of tiny ice crystals, which have little volume and do not form deep piles. But at warmer temperatures more water vapor is available, “so the crystals grow larger and form snowflakes, which are an agglomerate of ice crystals.” The warmer the temperature is, the larger the snowflakes become.
What determines the size of the initial snow crystals? It depends upon the distribution of temperature and moisture from the ground up to the cloud base. If snow forming at a high level drops into much drier air below, the result may be no accumulation whatsoever. In the condition known as “virga,” streaks of ice particles fall from the base of a cloud but evaporate completely before hitting the ground.
Submitted by Ronald C. Semone of Washington, D.C
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You would prefer mauve, perhaps? Obviously dogs’ lips have to be some color, and black makes more sense than most.
According to veterinarian Dr. Peter Ihrke, pigmentation helps protect animals against solar radiation damage. Because dogs don’t have as much hair around their mouths as on most parts of their bodies, pigmentation plays a particularly important role in shielding dogs against the ravages of the sun.
According to Dr. Kathleen J. Kovacs, of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the gene for black pigment is dominant over the genes for all other pigments, so the presence of black lips is attributable to hereditary factors. If two purebred dogs with black lips breed, one can predict with confidence that their puppies will have black lips too.
Not all dogs have black lips, though. Some breeds have nonpigmented lips and oral cavities. James D. Conroy, a veterinary pathologist affiliated with Mississippi State University, told
Imponderables
that some dogs have a piebald pattern of nonpigmented areas alternating with pigmented areas. The only breed with an unusual lip color is the Chow Chow, which has a blue color. Conroy says that “the blue appearance of the lips and oral cavity is related to the depth of the pigment cells within the oral tissue.”
Submitted by Michael Barson of Brooklyn, New York
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The ritual of taking an oath with the right hand raised while placing the left hand on a holy object goes back to ancient times. Michael De L. Landon, secretary of the American Society for Legal History, sent us a picture of the Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts King Harold of England, who reigned from 1035-1040, taking an oath with both hands on a sacred object.
In the Middle Ages, before printed Bibles were commonly available, Christians placed the left hand on a relic of a saint or some other sacred object and raised the right hand while taking an oath. Professor De L. Landon comments:
the right hand raised and open, palm outward, is an internationally recognized gesture implying peace, honesty, and good intentions. In taking an oath, there is also probably the indication that one is pointing to heaven and calling upon God (or the gods) to be one’s witness that one is sincere and telling the truth.
The English adopted the practice of having witnesses swear an oath on the bible before testifying. American law was based originally on an English common law that stipulated that only witnesses who believed in a Supreme Being could testify at a trial. The framers of the common law assumed that only the fear of an eternal punishment would ensure the honesty of the witness. Lord Coke, the leading English jurist of the early seventeenth century, went further and argued that nonconformists as well as atheists were
petui inimici
(“eternal enemies”) and should be barred from testifying. Coke’s position was adopted by the English for almost two hundred years, and although it became impossible to enforce the doctrine, Parliament did not actually remove the statute until 1869.
Most courtrooms have stopped using Bibles to swear in witnesses, for the ritual was always a ceremonial demonstration of good faith rather than a legally mandated procedure. Most courts traditionally have used King James Bibles, but have allowed Jews or Catholics to substitute versions that were acceptable to their faith.
The United States adopted the rule disqualifying disbelievers in the Federal Judiciary Act of 1789, which provided that no one could testify “who did not believe that there is a God who rewards truth and avenges falsehood.” In 1906 Congress passed an amendment to allow states to determine their own rules for their own courts, although most states had already passed statutes voiding the disbeliever clause. Even today, a few states have not struck down the disbeliever clause; theoretically, an atheist could be barred from testifying in a trial in those states.
In his book
Church, State and Freedom
, Leo Pfeffer notes broader constitutional provisions ensure that no civil rights may be denied because of religious beliefs. Still, the issue hasn’t been addressed squarely by the Supreme Court, and Pfeffer documents a scary application of how the nonbeliever clause has been applied in the past:
in 1900 the Court upheld a Federal statute that required that the testimony of Chinese, in certain cases, be corroborated by that of white men, because of the ‘loose notions entertained by [Chinese] witnesses of the obligation of an oath.’ It would seem clear that if a defendant in a criminal case or a party in a civil case could not take the stand in his own behalf because of his religious beliefs or disbeliefs, he would be deprived of his liberty or property without due process of law and would be denied the equal protection of the laws in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Moreover…the ‘free exercise’ clause of the First Amendment protects religious disbelief as well as belief…
As might be expected, both the ACLU and Madalyn Murray-O’Hair’s Society of Separationists have been in the forefront of litigation attempting to eliminate swearing on Bibles (as well as eliminating other elements of religion in the courts). The path of least resistance, for most jurisdictions, has been to abandon the use of Bibles.
One need not be philosophically opposed to the use of Bibles in the courtroom to note that a Bible has never been a guarantee of truthful testimony; perjurers have been swearing on Bibles for a long, long time.
Why
Do Females Tend to Throw “Like a Girl”?
Not only do girls (and later, women) tend not to be able to throw balls as far as boys, but their form is noticeably different. If you ask the average boy to throw a baseball as far as he can, he will lift his elbow and wind his arm far back. A girl will tend to keep her elbow static and push forward with her hand in a motion not unlike that of a shot putter.
Why the difference? Our correspondent mentions that he has heard theories that females have an extra bone that prevents them from throwing “like a boy.” Or is it that they are missing one bone?
We talked to some physiologists (who assured us that boys and girls have all the same relevant bones) and to some specialists in exercise physiology who have studied the underperformance of girls in throwing.
In their textbook,
Training for Sport and Activity: The Physiological Basis of the Conditioning Process
, Jack H. Wilmore and David L. Costill cite quite a few studies that indicate that up until the ages of ten to twelve, boys and girls have remarkably similar scores in motor skills and athletic ability. In almost every test, boys barely beat the girls. But at the onset of puberty, the male becomes much stronger, possesses greater muscular and cardiovascular endurance, and outperforms girls in virtually all motor skills.
In only one athletic test do the boys far exceed the girls before and after puberty: the softball throw. From the ages of five to sixteen, the average boy can throw a softball about twice as far as a girl.
Wilmore and Costill cite a fascinating study that attempted to explain this phenomenon. Two hundred males and females from ages three to twenty threw softballs for science. The result: males beat females two to one when throwing with their dominant hand, but females threw almost as far as males with their nondominant hand. Up until the ages of ten to twelve, girls threw just as far with their nondominant hand as boys did.
The conclusion of Wilmore and Costill is inescapable:
Major differences at all ages were the results for the dominant arm…the softball throw for distance using the dominant arm appears to be biased by the previous experience and practice of the males. When the influence of experience and practice was removed by using the nondominant arm, this motor skill task was identical to each of the others.
All the evidence suggests that girls can be taught, or learn through experience, how to throw “like a boy.” Exercise physiologist Ralph Wickstrom believes most children go through several developmental stages of throwing. Boys simply continue growing in sophistication, while girls are not encouraged to throw softballs or baseballs and stop in the learning curve. As an example, Wickstrom notes that most right-handed girls throw with their right foot forward. Simply shifting their left foot forward would increase their throwing distance.
When forced to throw with their nondominant hand, most boys throw “like a girl.” The loss in distance is accountable not only to lesser muscular development in the nondominant side, but to a breakdown in form caused by a lack of practice.
Submitted by Tony Alessandrini of Brooklyn, New York
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Jack Belck, the true zealot who posed this Imponderable, gave as his return address his full name, a street number, and 48858, with a note: “The above address is guaranteed to work.”
Evidently it did. He received a letter we wrote to him in that lovely town, 48858.
But the question is a good one, so we asked our friends at the USPS to respond.
And they were a tad cranky.
Yes, they will deliver letters addressed by the Belcks of the world, but they aren’t too happy about it for a couple of reasons. First of all, many people inadvertently transpose digits of the ZIP code. The city and state names then serves as a cross check. Without the city and state names, the letter would be returned automatically to the sender. Even if it is delayed, the postal service will reroute a letter with an incorrect ZIP code.
Secondly, Mr. Belck isn’t quite right about one of his premises. In rural areas, more than one municipality might share the same zip code. City names can thus be of assistance to the local post office in sorting and delivering the mail.
Submitted by Jack Belck of 48858
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Why
Do Telephone Cords Spontaneously Twist Up? What Can One Do About this Dreaded Affliction?
Spontaneously twist up, you say? You mean you sit on your sofa watching TV and suddenly the telephone cord starts winding like a snake?
After considerable research into the matter, we must conclude that telephone cords do not twist up spontaneously. You’ve been turning around the headset, Alan. We’re not accusing you of doing this intentionally, mind you. As far as we know, twisting a headset is not even a misdemeanor in any state or locality. But don’t try to blame your indiscretions on the laws of nature. Cords don’t cause twisted cords—people do.
Now that we’ve chastised you, we’ll offer the obvious, simple yet elegant solution. Remove the plug that connects the headset to the body of the phone. Hold the cord by the plug side and let the headset fall down (without hitting the floor, please). The cord will “spontaneously” untwist.