Bob and Marcia Smith engaged in a wide-ranging conversation, sharing interesting facts and trivia about various subjects. Bob discussed the invention of the Cyrillic alphabet, while Marcia shared her food preferences and fascinating facts about food history. They delved into historical events, figures, and medical discoveries, as well as the remarkable cognitive abilities of animals, including hummingbirds, crocodiles, and humans. Both agreed that these animals’ cognitive abilities are truly fascinating and worth further exploration.
Outline
The origins of the Cyrillic alphabet and its use in Russia.
- Bob and Marcia Smith discuss the Catholic Church’s 9th-century invention used by Russian communists for 700 years.
- Bob Smith explains the invention of the Cyrillic alphabet by Christian missionaries Cyril and Methodius.
Food preferences, history, and trivia.
- Marcia and Bob discuss what food Americans would choose to eat for the rest of their lives, with pizza coming out on top.
- Archeologists have found evidence of 8000-year-old vegetables, with corn being the most likely candidate.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the significance of John Hancock’s large signature on the Declaration of Independence, with Marcia providing a humorous explanation and Bob sharing a personal anecdote about his own experiences with embarrassment.
- Bob reveals that Karl Marx distrusted Russians, citing a letter he wrote to his partner Friedrich Engels, while Marcia wonders why there are no mentions of kale in Stone Age settlements.
History, science, and culture.
- Marcia and Bob discuss the use of anesthesia during childbirth, with Marcia praising Queen Victoria for choosing to use it during her seventh pregnancy.
- Marcia and Bob discuss ancient Peruvian games, including one where the loser was killed, and the winner received the clothes of the audience.
- Bob Smith shares interesting historical facts, including Timbuktu’s advanced medical center in Africa during the Middle Ages.
Popular fruits, mermaids, and human body bacteria.
- Marcia and Bob Smith discuss popular American fruits, with Marcia providing the answers (cranberries, blueberries, and concord grapes).
- Bob asks a trivia question about electricity and the Sultan of Turkey, to which Marcia responds with the answer.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss a mermaid sighting in 1614 off the coast of Maine, with Bob mentioning a recent article on Mental Floss about the human body and sharing interesting facts, such as the presence of 2300 species of bacteria in the belly button.
- Marcia Smith asks Bob a question about a bone in the throat called the hyoid, which is not connected to any other bone in the body, and Bob shares additional information about the hyoid bone’s function in the throat.
Human anatomy and goosebumps.
- Marcia Smith and Bob Smith discuss crocodiles’ teeth, with Marcia stating they have 66 teeth and go through four sets of teeth in their lifetime, while Bob is surprised by this fact.
- Marcia and Bob also discuss the number of bones in the human body, with Marcia explaining that babies have fewer bones than adults and that new bones form as calcium increases over time.
- Bob and Marcia discuss goosebumps, their origins, and their potential use in defense, as well as interesting facts about hummingbirds.
- Hummingbirds have an amazing memory, with studies showing they can remember every flower they’ve visited and recognize specific feeders.
- Hummingbirds flap their wings 4800 times per minute, with their wings beating up to 80 times per second.
Bob Smith 0:00
What did the Catholic Church invent in the ninth century that Russian communists were forced to use for more than 70 years?
Marcia Smith 0:08
And if Americans could only eat one food for the rest of their lives, what would it be?
Bob Smith 0:15
answers to those and other trivia questions coming up today with Bob and Marsha Smith on the off ramp?
Welcome to the off ramp a chance to slow down steered clear of crazy, take a side road to sanity and get some perspective on life. Well, here we are, again. Marsha. We are here we are in our 12th week of trivia shows Marsha. Yes, and
Marcia Smith 0:54
it only seems like 13, doesn’t it?
Bob Smith 0:58
Hopefully not for people listening. Oh, yeah. Okay. All right. So there’s a lot of things that go through your mind during this time. I’ve got medical questions today. I also have a religious question today. I’d like to start off the show.
Marcia Smith 1:11
Yeah, I heard that on the teaser. Okay, going back to the 19th century, the
Bob Smith 1:15
19th century. Marcia, this goes back several years.
Marcia Smith 1:18
So what did that’s before my time,
Bob Smith 1:21
what did the Catholic Church invent in the ninth century that Russian communists were forced to use? And are still using it? Russians are good lord. What do you think it is? What did they invent? That’s been used for the last 1100 50 years. Gilt? No. That was invented a long, long time
Marcia Smith 1:44
before the Knights said, No, I have no
Bob Smith 1:46
idea. Okay, they invented the alphabet that’s been used for the last 1100 50 years in Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. That’s the Cyrillic alphabet, that strange looking typeface. Actually, a two brothers who were Christian missionaries did that. You’ve seen that in Russian words, Russian posters and other Eastern European countries us that the brothers were Cyril? That’s where the first name comes from Cyrillic right? Oh, really Cyril and Methodius. They were from Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city. They were young boys when their father who was a he was a Greek government official died and they went to live with a high ranking official of the Byzantine Empire. He made sure they had an excellent education. They studied Greek and Arabic and Hebrew, they became monks, and they became diplomats for the Empire. And eventually, in 862 AD, the Byzantine emperor, at the request of the Duke of Moravia sent them to Christianize, the Dukes lands and when they got there, they found there was really no tradition of a written alphabet. So they invented this, representing the sounds of the Slavic tribes, and it became incorporated into the Catholic church over the years. And today, it’s the official alphabet for the national languages of Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Serbia. So I think the irony here is communism. The ideology that tried to stamp out religion for almost a century had to use an alphabet invented by the church. It went through changes over the years they actually started a university or where they taught they taught literacy and this alphabet was something as again they based it on the Slavic sounds who knew not me Bob and the apparently the communists didn’t try to change that when they were changing everything else when they took over Russia
Marcia Smith 3:31
they were busy with Oh, that’s right slaughters whatever they had things to do. Okay, from that on to the absolutely useless information that I like to ask questions about. If Americans Bob could only eat one food for the rest of their lives Oh, yeah, this study so I was somebody doing a study shows what food would it be? Hot dogs?
Bob Smith 3:55
That’s
Marcia Smith 3:56
not even on the top for hamburgers. That’s on the list. That’s that’s tied for number two apples. You give us more credit than we’re worth. Okay. What has all all the major food groups thrown on top of it? Pizza?
Bob Smith 4:13
Yeah. Oh, yeah. That’s what people would choose. This is what we choose. Think about
Marcia Smith 4:19
it you get all you get your protein you get your vegetables or you could have your fruit your pineapple and barbecue and get your fruit heat says pretty darn and second place is steak. Followed by hamburger tacos and pasta.
Bob Smith 4:36
No, that’s not too bad. I mean, once you get past the pizza out of all
Marcia Smith 4:39
those I think pizzas probably the healthiest because it’s got more variety.
Bob Smith 4:45
I know a lot of vegetarians that
Marcia Smith 4:48
that’s well you don’t have to have meat on it.
Bob Smith 4:51
Okay, speaking of food, I’ll talk about a drink here. Question on the drink. What brand name fruit drink was originally developed as substitute for wine used in church services.
Marcia Smith 5:03
There’s no substitute for.
Bob Smith 5:06
That’s your thinking.
Marcia Smith 5:08
Was it grape juice? Yeah,
Bob Smith 5:09
what? What kind? Well, Welch’s grape juice. Yeah, it was developed in 1869 by a New Jersey dentist Thomas Bramwell, Welsh, and it was a temperance substitute for wine used in church communion services.
Marcia Smith 5:24
69. Wow. But I don’t know if people
Bob Smith 5:27
went to great extremes. Well, we’re not going to drink any alcohol, so we’re not going to drink it in church, right. But anyway, he picked 40 pounds of concord grapes from his backyard, he pasteurized the juice in his wife’s kitchen, he bottled it and began selling unfermented wine to nearby churches. And it became a huge growers. Exchange. I think Welch’s is still owned by the farmers. But originally, it was a substitute for communion wine. Don’t want to get drunk in church because look how much wine you drink. What kind of services were they having where people were getting drunk on communion wine? Oh,
Marcia Smith 6:02
that’s good to know. Good to know. Well, sticking with consumables, okay, what’s the oldest known vegetable in the world? The oldest known that yeah, that we know that has been around for?
Bob Smith 6:15
What is this? This one God started growing or what are we talking about? Not
Marcia Smith 6:19
going into theology here? This is archeologists have found this from 8000 years ago, people were eating this.
Bob Smith 6:31
Corn.
Marcia Smith 6:31
I would have guessed that. Yeah. But no. What is it? peas,
Bob Smith 6:36
peas, peas,
Marcia Smith 6:36
they found peas in Stone Age settlements. They were grown and eaten. Obviously. That
Bob Smith 6:43
makes sense. If they could be left behind. They could be in petrified. Yeah. Or they could be in jars or something. Yeah, you know? Yeah.
Marcia Smith 6:50
I don’t know. They don’t just grow in the wild, do they? But anyway, Stone Age settlements had peas. You don’t find any kale in those settlements?
Bob Smith 7:02
Hey, I have a boy. I spoke about Russians a moment ago, I found I got an interesting question. How did Karl Marx feel about the Russians? They were the first real big country to adopt his ideology of communism. Yeah. How did Karl Marx feel about the Russians? Did he like him? Well,
Marcia Smith 7:21
I suspect he probably didn’t like him at all judging, you’re asking the question. So what’s the yes
Bob Smith 7:26
answer, father of the Marxist philosophy distrusted Russians. He wrote to his partner when he was writing the Communist Manifesto, Friedrich Engels. He said, I do not trust any Russian as soon as a Russian wormed his way in all hell breaks loose.
Marcia Smith 7:43
Well, here’s here’s the history question, Bob. Why did John Hancock sign his name so large on the on the Declaration of Independence? Well, he
Bob Smith 7:53
was the first to sign so he signed very big and I don’t know if he’s, I don’t know if he signed very big because he thought, well, they’re all going to sign their name Big. I want to sign mine big. I thought it was an ego thing. But what is it? Why did he sign it so large? Yeah, he’s gonna start an insurance company. I gotta have some advertising for this insurance company of mine.
Marcia Smith 8:16
No, it’s because the poor cited English King George the Third could read it without his spectacle. Oh, he
Bob Smith 8:24
wanted to make sure George could read it. So they must have known George had a vision problem. Yeah. How interesting.
Marcia Smith 8:30
Isn’t that funny? I mean, you know, I everybody went Why the heck was Hancock’s name so big. All right. But that’s embarrassing when you’re the first of anything, you know, stand the risk of being embarrassed by doing something nobody else does. And you recall that guy did that.
Bob Smith 8:49
Yes, one of our classrooms and and it’s I had a I think everybody was invited to write a little remembrance of their life or what they’ve done and I wrote this. When I saw it published everybody else’s were like a sentence. Mine was like paragraphs and you and you and my sister both said, “Look at me! Look at me!”
Marcia Smith 9:09
Yeah, you were very embarrassed and rightly so.
Bob Smith 9:12
Okay. All right. You spoke of the English I have a question about the English. When anesthesia was first used to diminish the pains of childbirth for English women, church men protested. The Bible said women should suffer in pain when bearing children that
Marcia Smith 9:27
is such a misogynistic thing.
Bob Smith 9:30
Can you believe that? Yes. Okay, so how were those protests silenced when anesthesia was first used? Oh, that’s
Marcia Smith 9:38
a good one.
Bob Smith 9:39
Somebody had to do something that would you know, kind of be an example. Who would that be?
Marcia Smith 9:45
Who would that what year was that?
Bob Smith 9:47
Was the 19th century.
Marcia Smith 9:49
Oh, I don’t know did what did they do? You liked
Bob Smith 9:53
this person. You admire this person based on a TV series. We watched English TV series.
Marcia Smith 9:58
Oh, Vera.
Bob Smith 10:01
That’s the detective. Oh, it’s historic. All right, I’ll tell you Okay, Queen Victoria oh really chose anesthesia when she gave birth to her seventh child is so she allowed herself to be chloral formed and all the criticism stopped. Oh, because you know, back then there was respect for royalty. British men was saying, Well, women should not be have any anesthesia when they have childbirth. They should have pain and then Queen Victoria. Okay.
Marcia Smith 10:24
Shut the hell up.
Bob Smith 10:26
So none of the churchmen had the nerve to criticize
Marcia Smith 10:28
Queen Bravo, Vicki,
Bob Smith 10:31
Vicki, isn’t that isn’t that amazing? That men would say, well, the women should suffer in pain. That’s just part of it. That’s what they have to do. Good God,
Marcia Smith 10:44
if only we could give them the thrill of birth that we can. Okay. You’ve often told me Yeah, yeah. Honest.
Bob Smith 10:51
When when I saw you go through our first child, I remember thinking I’ve never seen a man work this hard. Oh my god. That’s Herculean strengthen. Tolerance. It was amazing. Watching childbirth, especially
Marcia Smith 11:04
since our first child was almost 10 pounds. It was a special thrill. Okay. All right. Okay. All right. I got one. Okay. You know, half of this, I believe, because we actually saw this in Mexico. In ancient Peru, Aztecs played a primitive form of basketball shooting a rubber like ball through a stone ring. Hung high on a wall. That’s right. Yeah, I remember seeing that. Chichén Itzá needs my ah, probably remember what the loser got
Bob Smith 11:35
loser was killed. It’s a losing team was just massacre. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 11:39
I remembered that too. But what did the winners get?
Bob Smith 11:42
I heard the winners were killed sometimes too. No, actually, this
Marcia Smith 11:46
just talking about two people a winner and a loser. Okay, it says the loser was put to death rather quickly. But it’s so stupid. The winner was awarded the clothes of all the spectators present.
Bob Smith 12:02
And you get this brand new wardrobe.
Marcia Smith 12:06
Here’s a toga from George and
Bob Smith 12:08
row three. Lord that’s so strange.
Marcia Smith 12:11
I’m sure they didn’t wear togas but that was still I mean, you die and you get all the clothes. And then what the the the audience goes home Nick,
Bob Smith 12:20
I guess that’s a strange, strange customer. All right, I have a this is a medical question what fruits liquid can be substituted for blood plasma during an emergency of fruits liquid can be substituted for blood plasma, or at least it has been during an emergency. Wow. I had no idea about this. Wow. Comes from Isaac Asimov’s book of facts. He wrote these. He did so much research when he was writing all his books. And he wrote 200 Yes, unlike us. So So when he did he started he just kept all these facts he found and this is one of them. This is a fruit juice of what juice? What fruits liquid can be
Marcia Smith 13:01
substituted for blender now say the kiwi.
Bob Smith 13:04
While you’re close to it. It’s the liquid inside young coconuts.
Marcia Smith 13:09
Really? Yeah, it’s a milky kind. Yeah,
Bob Smith 13:11
apparently this was discovered during World War Two doctors in Fiji also discovered surgical incisions heal faster when sewn with sterilized coconut fiber instead of cat gut. So if they could take coconut fiber to heal, the stitches would heal fast. Wow. Incisions would heal us put it that way. Yeah, interesting fact. It
Marcia Smith 13:32
is fascinating. Okay,
Bob Smith 13:33
I’ve got another history fact. You’ve always heard the expression about Timbuktu. I had to go all the way to Timbuktu to get this or okay. Yeah, send you to Timbuktu jokes in songs. Where was Timbuktu? And was it noted for anything?
Marcia Smith 13:50
I know is it it was is it in the Middle East?
Bob Smith 13:53
I thought it was in India, where it was, but no Asia. It was actually in Africa. No, yeah, in the Middle Ages and the late 1400s Timbuktu was the most progressive city in an African kingdom that was in many ways more well advanced than Western Europe. It was located in sun Hey, so NHK why which was an African kingdom, larger than Western Europe. And Timbuktu’s University was famous throughout Africa and Europe. What year was that? In the Middle Ages in the late 1400s. Its Medical Center near the Niger River attracted sick people from all over the world. Saved Timbuktu is it’s not like oh, this is in the middle of nowhere. This is the place to go isn’t
Marcia Smith 14:37
something. It’s CAD. It’s like the Mayo Clinic of the
Bob Smith 14:42
Middle Ages. Yeah, wow is Timbuktu.
Marcia Smith 14:45
Here’s a fun fact. Okay. The manager of a movie theater in Seoul, Korea. He was going to show the sound of music and thought it was too long. What did he edit out of the movie?
Bob Smith 14:58
He thought the sound The music was too long. Yeah. Did he edit all the songs out? Here’s the story. musical family. It’s
Marcia Smith 15:09
called the worst editing of a movie ever. A story of a musical family
Bob Smith 15:14
with no music. You can figure it out. Oh, my God, what an atrocious thing to do.
Marcia Smith 15:23
I’m just trying to picture that movie. You know how it would cut from scene to scene without a song, especially
Bob Smith 15:28
that last part where they’re doing the show and they’re leaving the stage and the Germans don’t realize they’re leaving, he cut out, can you cut that scene out? And all of a sudden, they were gone. We’re not going to tell you how cleverly they left the stadium
Marcia Smith 15:42
on the stage and then they cut to the marching over the hills quietly.
Bob Smith 15:48
And then they must have had a Julie up there in that field running around without any music. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 15:52
just well, okay, time
Bob Smith 15:56
to take a break. You’re listening to the off ramp trivia with Bob and Marsha Smith. We’ll be back in just a moment. All right, we’re back here on the off ramp with Bob and Marsha Smith.
Marcia Smith 16:09
Okay, there are very few popular fruits, Bob, that can be classified as American in origin. Can you name the top three?
Bob Smith 16:19
Are these originated in America or were they they developed through crossbreeding or something like that?
Marcia Smith 16:25
There are just three. Okay,
Bob Smith 16:27
I’m just thinking like nectarines or something like that, which is a combination of two different
Marcia Smith 16:31
well in origin. Well, the first one, we actually saw these harvested
Bob Smith 16:37
harvested right here. Okay, so those are, I call them Craisins. But they’re, well, you know, they look like raisins. But they’re not I can’t think of the berries cranberries. Cranberries.
Marcia Smith 16:47
Yes. And that’s a huge crop in Wisconsin and Massachusetts. There’s two big producers of cranberries. And we saw them being in a big bog it was really interesting. So the first one is cranberries. The second one is blueberries. And the third one is concord grapes.
Bob Smith 17:04
No kidding. So those are all three originated in. In America. Their origins are here because now there were grapes for 1000s of years in Europe, but not Yeah, concord grapes, right.
Marcia Smith 17:15
Well, I don’t know. What did they use?
Bob Smith 17:16
Are they make wine out of grapes Marsh? Well, yeah. Okay. Yeah, well, yeah, I
Marcia Smith 17:20
know that there were grapes ever go ahead
Bob Smith 17:22
and look into that. I’ve got a got a question. A modern question. On electricity. Yes, sir. Okay. They were trying to introduce electricity to Constantinople, who modern people Ah, but the Sultan of Turkey was told it would be necessary to install dynamos. What did he think they were saying? Dynamite. That’s right. And he knew what Dynamite was. So he vetoed the project. And Turkey had to wait for several additional years before electricity just because the ruler didn’t understand the word. Oh,
Marcia Smith 17:55
that’s interesting. You know, things still happen like that. That’s true. Here’s some who was the first person ever to report seeing a mermaid off the American coast?
Bob Smith 18:10
Why would I know the answer to that? Is
Marcia Smith 18:13
it’s a famous person. Okay. Tom Hanks.
Bob Smith 18:16
That was the movie that I remember. It was
Marcia Smith 18:18
but now he entered it in his diary. He cited the mermaid in the waters near Mohican island off the coast of Maine in 1614. Who
Bob Smith 18:30
would 1614 Who would have been before the pilgrims? That’s so this would have been a explorer. I don’t know who said Captain
Marcia Smith 18:42
John Smith. Your uncle? Oh. Captain John Smith. Yeah. from Virginia. Virginia colonists. He saw a mermaid. Okay, well, what are you going to? What are you gotta say?
Bob Smith 18:56
I think you’re gonna say he saw a mermaid. Interesting. All right. I recently saw an article on one of my favorite websites, Mental Floss, and it was 26 fascinating facts about the human body. I’m not going to ask you about all of them. But I have a couple. Okay, all right. There is a place in your body that has 2300 species of bacteria.
Marcia Smith 19:18
Oh, swell.
Bob Smith 19:19
Where is that your
Marcia Smith 19:20
tongue? No,
Bob Smith 19:22
I think it’d be something like that.
Marcia Smith 19:23
Is it inside your body? No. Okay, so it’s outside. Okay, I’ll
Bob Smith 19:29
tell you what it is. Thanks to your belly button.
Marcia Smith 19:31
It has Okay, how many again 2300
Bob Smith 19:34
species of bacteria. In 2011. A group of scientists started the belly button biodiversity project. There actually was a project wasn’t called the Knievel. It was called the belly button biodiversity project and they counted the bacteria. Well, they wanted to find out what’s going on inside of those little caves of mystery we call belly buttons, you know, so tight turns out quite a lot. Yeah. They sampled six He people revealing 2300 Total species of bacteria
Marcia Smith 20:04
like I said, it’s not exposed. Most of us don’t have it that exposed in
Bob Smith 20:08
eastern Andes and all that, but well, you know, he captures lint and so that yeah, then the everything feeds off of that. Well, this is this is disturbing, I would call it.
Marcia Smith 20:18
Alright, I feel more knowledgeable already. Here’s
Bob Smith 20:20
another one. Do you know you have the bone that’s not connected to any other bone in your body? You have a bone?
Marcia Smith 20:26
Is it my turn? Bob? No,
Bob Smith 20:28
this is a bone question. I got a bone with you, Marcia.
Marcia Smith 20:31
And this is it. Good bone. Okay, I’ll pick let me pick a bone. What is this called? What’s
Bob Smith 20:35
the bone called?
Marcia Smith 20:36
The hammer in your ear? Oh,
Bob Smith 20:39
that’s, that’s yeah, that’s a good one. But that those are all connected up there. Are they? Yeah, okay. This is the hyoid h y o ID. second choice. It sits between the jaw and the voice box. And it’s used to keep all the lower mouth muscles in place. And it also helps with swallowing and talking. So it’s a bone but it’s not connected by your joint to any other bones.
Marcia Smith 20:58
Where’s it located in your throat? Hmm, I
Bob Smith 21:00
thought you’d find that interesting. Sure. Okay, how about your question? Okay.
Marcia Smith 21:03
I started out with a fascinating information and I’ll end it with a question. A crocodile can stay underwater for more than 24 hours without surfacing for fresh air? No, yes. crocodiles have 66 teeth. Some members of the species can go through how many sets of teeth in their general at your lifetime. Oh, really? Okay. Like we go through to baby and they have about our lifespan.
Bob Smith 21:34
Okay, well, now they have to use their teeth much more. You know, when you think about crocodiles don’t they don’t they don’t really have arms. You know, they have these little things.
Marcia Smith 21:41
They got those little. Yeah, but
Bob Smith 21:43
almost everything. Almost everything they do is with their jaw.
Marcia Smith 21:46
Yeah, yeah, they have. Again, they have 66 teeth.
Bob Smith 21:50
Okay, I say they go through four sets of teeth in their lifetime. That’s, that’s twice
Marcia Smith 21:54
what we have. And yeah, same type. But no, the answer is 40. sets of teeth. 40
Bob Smith 22:01
sets of 40 cycles of death in that
Marcia Smith 22:05
66 teeth they they lose in girl back it boy if you’d like to be on the down cycle when we’ve won ever grab. I hope you’re in your 40s set of teeth because gumming you to death. But oh my god 40 sets of teeth.
Bob Smith 22:19
I had no idea. 40 sets of teeth. That is fascinating. So they lose a tooth. It’s not a big deal.
Marcia Smith 22:25
There’s another one it’s coming alive shortly.
Bob Smith 22:27
Where are more than half of the bones in your body. I found this kind of interesting. Where are more than half the bones in your body?
Marcia Smith 22:37
doubled the medical people out there from our many, many listeners would know this. But
Bob Smith 22:45
former writer you’re not in your brain?
Marcia Smith 22:47
I’ll tell you that. Yeah, they’re not in your ear.
Bob Smith 22:51
More than half the bones in your body?
Marcia Smith 22:53
I’ll say hands. They’re
Bob Smith 22:54
in your hands and feet. Yeah, there are about 27 bones in each of your hands in each of your hands. And there are about 26 bones in each of your feet. So
Marcia Smith 23:05
I got it right. Yeah. All right, because that amazing. One more bone in your feet. See, I
Bob Smith 23:10
knew that. Did you know that babies have fewer bones in their bodies than adults? Why? And how did they get more? Yeah. Right. There’s
Marcia Smith 23:18
a there’s a question. Yeah. How did they so babies
Bob Smith 23:20
have fewer bones in their bodies than adults? Why? And how do they get more as they age? Well, you don’t have transplants?
Marcia Smith 23:27
No. They just grow more bones and more calcium. I have
Bob Smith 23:32
no idea. Right? It’s along those lines. You’re on the right as they grow
Marcia Smith 23:35
that calcium increases and new bones form? Well, it’s
Bob Smith 23:39
primarily Feet. Feet mostly contain cartilage and birth, then bones form over time from the cartilage. They don’t fully harden until they’re in their early 20s All your bones, but that’s how babies actually grow bones in their feet because of the cartilage. They can’t walk right away. Babies can’t walk because he can’t stand up. Right and our kids. Our kids came right out and started walking. I don’t remember that.
Marcia Smith 24:04
Okay, it’s the way I remembered Bob. Okay, well, that’s interesting. What’s your next question? Emily Dickinson Okay. littles are getting into art that that little Dickinson had authored more than 900 poems. Holy cow. How many were actually published during her life
Bob Smith 24:24
in her lifetime? Maybe one to a book. Keep
Marcia Smith 24:29
going. Three. One more. All right. Yeah. She
Bob Smith 24:32
published four poems in her life. And she actually wrote 900 Yeah,
Marcia Smith 24:36
so that’s afraid to to get a rejection. Yeah,
Bob Smith 24:40
I think so. Okay, here’s another question. It’s kind of fun. I’m on the body. I got a lot of body. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 24:47
I’m
Bob Smith 24:47
thinking foodtown Did goosebumps help early human beings defend themselves? How did goose bumps help early human beings defend themselves defend themselves in fact, that’s They think that’s the only thing they’re good for. Really?
Marcia Smith 25:02
What do certain animals not like to bite you? If you got bumps on your skin? Well,
Bob Smith 25:07
it’s kind of
Marcia Smith 25:08
odd. I’ll tell you the answer eat you rather
Bob Smith 25:11
you know your you associate your goose bumps with adrenaline being released by cold. Yeah, when you’re cold or you’re upset. Yeah, so what? Well, scientists believe that goosebumps used to be important when people had more hair on their bodies. We’re talking like cave people here. Yeah, it’s believed goosebumps would elevate the hair and make a person look bigger when they were in danger and scarier. Yeah, and scarier.
Marcia Smith 25:33
But now they’re a pretty useless feature. Again, who figures this stuff out? And
Bob Smith 25:37
as you would say, Who cares? Well, Bob Smith cares. All right, what subject are we switching to now? birds, birds?
Marcia Smith 25:47
Hummingbirds. Okay. You know, there’s a lot of interesting facts about hummingbirds. But what do hummingbirds have an amazing memory
Bob Smith 25:56
for? Hummingbirds have an amazing memory.
Marcia Smith 25:59
Their brain is twice as big as a human’s. Wow, compared to size, relatively speaking, okay. They have pretty good intellectual skills.
Bob Smith 26:08
So is it a memory of breeding grounds or a memory of where they are or routes that they have to fly? What is it? Yeah,
Marcia Smith 26:15
that’s what I would have said. But studies have shown that hummingbird can remember every flower they ever visited. Even on their migration route, oh, there it there’s in Lexington, there’s really see I’ve visited before
Bob Smith 26:30
them, they must have a GPS of where the where each one is even recognize
Marcia Smith 26:35
human beings and know which ones can be counted on to fill their feeder. Oh, so their brand is 4.2% of their body weight and human beings
Bob Smith 26:48
are what’s your percent 2% of our body is our brain. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 26:52
and theirs is 4.2%. So they have a really good memory. Just think next time we’re looking out the window at the hummingbirds. They’re looking at us and saying fill the feet or
Bob Smith 27:02
the feet, especially when they’re tapping on the window. So aggressively push the little birds.
Marcia Smith 27:08
Just for fun. How many flaps of those little wings do they have per second?
Bob Smith 27:12
Oh, no, that’s a good question. Because it’s a blur. It’s a blur when we look at it, yes. So let’s see. Okay, give me a second here. I’m trying to get a second in, let’s say 200 times,
Marcia Smith 27:23
but now at it’s
Bob Smith 27:24
8080 times a second. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 27:26
so 60 times 80 is a 4800 a minute. Wow.
Bob Smith 27:32
Per Minute their wings flap 4800 times. Yeah, it’s amazing. And there we go. That’s it for this week. I’m Bob Smith.
Marcia Smith 27:41
I’m Marcia Smith.
Bob Smith 27:42
Hopefully you’ve learned something I’ve learned something.
Marcia Smith 27:45
Pizza. Let’s go have some pizza. Yeah,
Bob Smith 27:47
there you go. I will that keep us alive for long is my question. It’s not what I want to eat as well. It is
Marcia Smith 27:54
all the major food groups if we do it
Bob Smith 27:55
right. Okay. All right, pizza. That is
Marcia Smith 27:58
all right. Off you go.
Bob Smith 28:01
Thanks for listening to the off ramp with Bob
Marcia Smith 28:04
and Marcia Smith.
Bob Smith 28:09
The off ramp is produced in association with CPL radio and the Cedarbrook Public Library Cedarburg, Wisconsin.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
