Oops, my bad...Facts of the Day

Sutton Hoo
The Sutton Hoo ship burial mounds of the 6th and 7th centuries, discovered in Suffolk, England in 1939, were the richest treasure found in British soil. It was the Royal Cemetery of the Wuffingas, early Anglo-Saxon kings of East Anglia. The largest of the burial mounds was found to cover a Saxon boat, its form preserved only by the impression left in the sand by its vanished timbers, with their iron bolts still in their original positions. The boat had been propelled by 38 oars; there was no mast. The grave goods include a decorated helmet, sword, and shield; ceremonial whetstone; gold belt buckle; purse and cloak clasps; Millefiori glass; cloisonné garnets; Merovingian gold coins; and Byzantium silver vessels and spoons. It is likely to have been prepared as a cenotaph in honor of Redwald (d. 625), an important East Anglian king. The treasure shows a higher cultural level and wider commercial contacts than had previously been figured for the early Saxon period in England. This type of funerary ritual is known from Migration Period Europe and is described in the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf. The ship and artifacts are now housed in the British Museum.

Odometer and Speedometer
An odometer registers the distance traveled by a vehicle. An odometer consists of a train of gears (with a gear ratio of 1,000:1) that causes a drum, graduated in 10ths of a mile, to make one turn per mile. A series, commonly of six, such drums is arranged in such a way that one of the numerals on each drum is visible in a rectangular window. The drums are coupled so that 10 revolutions of the first cause 1 revolution of the second, and so forth; the numbers appearing in the window represent the vehicle's accumulated mileage. A speedometer is an instrument that indicates the speed of a vehicle. The speed-indicating mechanism of the speedometer is run by a circular permanent magnet that is rotated 1,000 revolutions per mile of vehicle travel by a flexible shaft driven by gears at the rear of the transmission. The magnet turns within a movable metal cup that is attached to the shaft carrying the indicator. As the magnet rotates, it exerts a magnetic drag on the cup that turns i t against a spiral spring. The faster the magnet rotates, the greater the pull on the cup and the pointer. Thomas Jefferson was the first to use the word odometer in writing in 1791; speedometer did not appear in writing until 1904.

Pope
The pope is elected by the College of Cardinals. Nine days after a deceased pope's funeral, the cardinals gather to elect a new pope. The voting is very secretive and the new pope must get over two-thirds of the votes. If after a week, the cardinals still have not picked a new pope, then they can choose someone who only garners half of the votes. The results are sent to the people outside the Vatican using smoke signals. Black smoke means the cardinals have not made up their minds yet. White smoke means they have chosen a new pope. There have been more than 265 holders of the office of pope from Saint Peter to John Paul II.

Migration
Migration is the seasonal movement of a population of animals to a different environment, most common in certain species of birds - such as Arctic terns, which migrate annually 17,600 km between their breeding ground in the Arctic Circle and the Antarctic. Migration is also observed in mammals such as porpoises, fish like eels and salmon, and some insects. Birds' migration is fascinating and it is based on their high metabolic rate, which means they require a rich, abundant supply of food at frequent intervals. Birds employ sighting - using landmarks and geographical features like rivers, coastlines, and mountain ranges. They also monitor the Earth's magnetic field, apparently with their visual system and with tiny grains of a mineral called magnetite in their heads. Birds also observe the stars, use the Sun for guidance, rely on their sense of smell, and may follow their neighbors.

Hurricane Season
The hurricane season generally is from June to November, with a great many in September when the surface ocean temperature warms to over 27 degrees C. Meteorological and oceanographic conditions are conducive during most of this period to the formation of hurricanes. Tropical storms reaching a hurricane velocity of more than 75 miles per hour are common in the northern Caribbean as well as in the Gulf of Mexico; they are almost nonexistent in the far south. The Caribbean has fewer hurricanes than either the western Pacific (where these storms are called typhoons) or the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricanes are divided into five categories, ranging from minimal to catastrophic.