Vol 1 Issue 12

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November 15-21, 2012

Death Valley is the driest spot in the U.S. It’s also the lowest spot in the West-ern Hemisphere. And it is one of the hot-test spots on Earth. Join Tidbits as we tour one of America’s most unusual national parks.

• It’s BIG! Death Valley National Park is the largest national park outside Alaska. The valley is about 130-140 miles long, and the valley f loor averages 5 miles wide. The national park contains nearly 3.4 mil-lion acres. The state of Rhode Island could fit inside Death Valley National Park more then three times over. It’s twice the size of Delaware, and nearly the same size as Connecticut.

• It’s LOW! A parking lot at a place called Badwater is 279 feet below sea level. Several miles away in a desolate salt pan, there are a few dips that are 282 feet below sea level. Death Valley is the lowest spot in the Western Hemisphere, but the Dead Sea (between Jordan and Israel) is 1,360 feet below sea level.

• Only six places on earth are deeper than Death Valley, and they are all desert val-leys. If these valleys received more rain, erosion would eventually fill them with sediments and they would no longer be be-low sea level. Also, they’d be lakes instead of valleys. turn the page for more! • It’s HOT! The heat is partly caused by the low elevation. With every thousand feet you lose in elevation, the temperature rises by about 5 degrees F. Death Valley’s

turn the page for more!

Vol. 1 Issue 12

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TIDBITS® VISITSDEATH VALLEY

by Janet Spencer

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topography—a deep valley sandwiched between two steep mountain ranges—also magnifies the heat. Hot air rising from the valley f loor gets trapped between mountain ranges. The hot air re-circulates and gets hotter. The dryness also contributes to the heat. Death Valley has no clouds for shade, no rain for cooling, and little vegetation to stop rocks from absorbing heat all day. In turn, the heat reinforces the dryness, evap-orating rain before it reaches the ground.

• The hottest temperature ever recorded in Death Valley was 134 F on July 13, 1913. By comparison, the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth was 136 F, recorded in the Sahara Desert in Libya in 1922.

• When it comes to average highs, Death Valley beats the Sahara. In 2001, Death Valley hit 100 F or higher on 154 days in a row. It’s hit 100 F or higher in every month except November, December, January, and February. It’s hit 110 F on (coincidentally) 110 days in a row, in 1996. And it hit 120 F on 43 days in a row, in 1917.

• July is the hottest month on average, with a daily high of 115 F. August is second, with an average daily high of 113 F. June is third, at 109 F.

• In July, when the average daily high is 115 F, the daily average LOW temperature is 88 F.

• Things cool off in winter. In November the average daily high is 76 F. In February it’s 72 F, and in January and December it’s 65 F.

• Death Valley’s official temperature is re-corded at a weather station five feet above the ground. But the ground gets hotter than the air. The hottest ground temperature ever recoded in Death Valley was 201 F in 1972.

• The record low temperature in Death Valley is 15 F, set in 1913, which was the same year that set the record high of 134 F. Death Valley’s all-time low is about the same as the all-time lows of Phoenix or Houston.

• It’s DRY! Why is Death Valley so hot and dry? Don Lago describes the science behind it in his book, Death Valley Trivia. The main factor is called the “rain shadow” effect. When storms come out of the Pa-cific Ocean and head inland, they have to cross a series of mountain ranges, which force clouds to rise, condense, and drop their moisture. With every mountain range they cross, the clouds have less moisture left for the next one. The Sierras can get 34

Hello Tidbits readers!

It’s the final week before Thanksgiving and we are thankful for YOU! Each week we distribute thousands of papers throughout our community to provide entertainment to our readers and we are so glad you’ve picked up this copy of Tidbits.

This week we have some interesting articles ranging from bees to the origins of popular Thanksgiving foods. We also have the usual puzzles and quizzes to stretch your mind on our break page and scattered throughout the paper.

Did you know you can also read Tidbits of Sno-King Counties online? Check us out at www.tidbitsofsno-king.com and like us on Facebook! Our 50th like will get a delicious prize!

Have a great week and enjoy reading Tidbits!

Harrison and Jennifer BurkeOwners/PublishersJBurke Publishing

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A Note from the Editors feet of snow per year, but then the clouds have little moisture left for the Owens Valley just west of the Sierras; the Owens Valley gets less than 6 inches of rain per year. Clouds that make it past the Sierras then hit the Panamint Mountains and lose most of their remaining moisture. This leaves little rain for Death Valley, or for the Amargosa Range on the east side of Death Valley. While the Panamints get 15 inches of annual precipitation, the Amar-gosa Range gets only 3-5 inches.

• The average annual rainfall in Death Valley is only 1.94 inches. By compari-son, New York City receives an average of 49.64 inches of rain per year. In some years, Death Valley has recorded no rain-fall at all, such as 1929 and 1953.

• With so little rainfall and so much evaporation, the humidity level in Death Valley sometimes falls to 2 percent. With humidity this low, even when the tem-perature is a pleasant 70 F, people can become seriously dehydrated.

• Even in the summer heat, people in Death Valley may not get sweaty. The human skin often remains dry. But this doesn’t mean you aren’t perspiring: it means that perspiration is evaporating in-stantly. For people from humid climates, who are accustomed to skin and clothes drenched with sweat, this can trick them into seriously underestimating how much water they are losing.

Finding Water• There is no place in Death Valley more than 15 miles away from a spring. Natives knew all the water sources in Death Val-ley, but prospectors and tourists have died of thirst even when springs were nearby because they didn’t know where they were.

• Death Valley has over 350 seeps and springs. Some are barely large enough to keep the ground damp, but the larg-est, Travertine Spring, can pour out up to 2,000 gallons per minute. If Death Val-ley wasn’t so dry, its springs would start building a lake on the valley f loor.

• The water that pours from these springs comes from the mountains of central Nevada. Snowmelt f lows underground for hundreds of miles until water reaches the surface. This water can take thousands of years to arrive in Death Valley. This means that the tap water you are drinking in Death Valley may have fallen as rain when the Egyptian pyramids were being built.

DEATH VALLEY (continued):

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only for a short time, a generator might not be cost effective -- unless you need it for heat.

Outdoor grill with propane tank: When the power goes out, grills are handy not only to cook meat before it goes bad, but to heat pots of water for tea, coffee, instant oatmeal and other prepared foods like soup or macaroni and cheese. One benefit of propane is that you can instantly turn it off and not have wood or briquettes still hot if the wind blows.

A word about candles: Don’t. For safety, use flashlights instead.

David Uffington regrets that he cannot person-ally answer reader questions, but will incorpo-rate them into his column whenever possible. Write to him in care of King Features Weekly Service, P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475, or send email to [email protected].

© 2012 King Features Synd., Inc.

Recent storms brought home the fact that we need to be prepared for emergencies, especially in the winter.

Unless you have a storm on the way right now, your best bet is to assemble your emergen-cy supplies one step at a time. Watch for sales, and stock up when the items you need cost less.

Flashlights and lanterns: Before buying a new one, read the fine print. Many handheld flash-lights now have the specs right on the label: how many batteries it takes, the range of the light beam, the lumens (higher is brighter) and how many hours it will run on a set of batteries.

Compare the features. Don’t spend extra for a torch-type flashlight that will send its beam 100 feet but only for five hours if what you really need is one that will light a room for many more hours. Be sure each member of the family has one for moving around the house safely.

Hand-crank radio: These require no batteries, only arm muscles to wind the crank to charge. Many of them come with a set of adapters to charge your cell phone as well.

Battery-operated TV: Before you buy one, go online and read the comments from others. Many of these tiny televisions are finicky about receiving signals, only get a few channels or are otherwise hard to operate. Be sure of the return policy if you buy.

Generator: Let history be your guide here. If you’re in an area that frequently loses power for long periods, a generator can help keep a few of your appliances going, such as refrigerator and freezer, thereby saving the cost of replacing all your food. If you lose power now and then, but

BUILD EMERGENCY KIT BEFOREDISASTER STRIKES

OVERCOMING THE ODDS:

JOSEPH STRAUSS• Joseph Strauss was born in Cincinnati in 1870. He was short, but he nevertheless tried out for the school football team. As a result, he spent several weeks recovering in the infir-mary, where the window in his room offered a view of the Cincinnati-Covington Bridge, which was America’s first long-span suspen-sion bridge. Strauss subsequently developed a fascination with bridges. When he gradu-ated from college with degrees in business and economics, his commencement address presented a proposal to construct a railroad bridge across the Bering Strait, linking Alaska and Russia.

• Strauss got a job working for a foundry where he learned the ropes of steel and iron manufacturing, and then went to work for a bridge building company. Later, he went to work for an engineering firm, and then started his own engineering firm in 1904. His spe-cialty was drawbridges, and he constructed

around 400 of them. However, he dreamed of something more challenging, so when offi-cials from San Francisco approached him in 1919 about spanning the Golden Gate Strait, he jumped at the chance, even though he had never constructed a single suspension bridge. He didn’t even have a degree in engineering. It took more than a decade for Strauss and city officials to convince the public that a bridge should be built. In the midst of the Great De-pression, a city bond raised the funds needed, and work on the Golden Gate Bridge began in 1933.

• There were many challenges to overcome: deep water, turbulent currents, corrosive fogs, high winds, and heavy sea traffic. Strauss asked for help from engineering visionar-ies Charles Ellis and Leon Moissieff, whose contributions were essential in refining the design and overcoming the engineering chal-lenges. He then downplayed their involvement so that he would get more of the limelight. To his credit, his insistence on rigid safety mea-sures prevented many deaths and proved that large projects could be completed safely when worker’s health and well-being was given a

priority, which was not typically the case at the time. He wanted people using his bridge while admiring the workers who built it; he was horrified by the thought that wives and children and parents might one day be cross-ing the bridge while remembering the hus-bands and fathers and sons who died during its construction. He also instituted the policy of hiring men for the duration of the entire proj-ect in a day and age when construction work-ers were more typically hired on a daily basis. He wanted continuity among workers and did not want to be constantly training newly hired men, because the work was so dangerous.

• His health began to fail during the construc-tion, which lasted four years. He was once gone from the site for a six-month stretch, leading to rumors he’d had a nervous break-down. Yet, he managed to see the project through to the end, and proudly walked across the completed bridge on the day it was opened to the public. Strauss died of a heart attack a year later, at the age of 68. He is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery, with a bas-relief of the bridge etched in brass mounted upon his tombstone.

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Millions of people across the United States will sit down Nov. 22 to a traditional Thanks-giving meal, includ-ing turkey, potatoes, squash, corn and cran-berries. These foods have become synony-mous with Thanksgiv-ing, but how did they end up on tables from Maine to California?

According to Bruce Smith, senior scientist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, much of what is eaten at Thanksgiving today came from Mexico and South America.

“We can trace many of these foods up through the southwestern United States into other parts of the country,” he said. “Most likely this diffusion happened as a result of trading or other contact among American Indian tribes in this country.”

So, where did these Thanksgiving favorites come from? Smith shares some facts about the origins of the food on this holiday menu:

Turkey-- The turkey was domesticated twice, in cen-tral Mexico and in the southwestern United States. This domestication happened at the same time about 2,000 years ago. The south-western domesticate disappeared, and the tur-keys eaten today are derived from the Mexican domesticate.

-- Wild turkeys were eaten at the first Thanks-giving. Domesticated turkeys made quite a journey to tables in the United States. They were most likely brought from Mexico to Europe, and then came to the eastern United States by Europeans when they settled the colonies.

Look South for Origins of Thanksgiving Foods

Potatoes-- Potatoes were domesticated in South America (likely Peru) about 10,000 years ago. The Span-ish probably took the potato from South Amer-ica to Europe, where it slowly became a staple crop.

-- Like turkeys, potatoes also had quite a jour-ney to the dinner table. Europeans likely in-troduced potatoes to the eastern United States when they settled there.

Squash and Pumpkins-- There are many species of squash and pump-kins grown today in the United States; the most common species (Cucurbita pepo) also was, like the turkey, domesticated twice -- in Mexico and the eastern United States. Some common members of the species C. pepo include acorn squash, pattypan squash and spaghetti squash.

-- The orange-skinned “pumpkin” lineage of C. pepo (what is carved as a jack-o-lantern) was the first plant to be domesticated in the Ameri-cas, about 10,000 years ago in Mexico.

--There was a second domestication of C. pepo squash in the eastern United States about 5,000 years ago. All of the yellow- and green-skinned summer squashes in the U.S., such as zucchini and acorn squash, were derived from a wild gourd that can still be found in the Ozarks.

Corn-- Corn (maize) was domesticated in Mexico more than 8,000 years ago. This important crop plant arrived in the southwestern United States by 4,000 years ago, and reached eastern North America at about 200 B.C.

-- Maize is derived from teosinte, a large wild grass that has five species growing in Mexico, Guatemala and Nicaragua.

(c) 2012 King Features Synd., Inc.

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Seattle Seahawks Schedule

Nov. 25 Seahawks vs. DolphinsDec. 2 Seahawks vs. BearsDec. 9 Seahawks vs. CardinalsDec. 16 Seahawks vs. Bills

Onions, slowly cooked until deep-brown and caramelized, give this classic its distinctive flavor. Great for a party, this recipe is easily doubled; simply cook the onions in two skillets.

4 tablespoons butter or margarine6 medium onions, thinly sliced1/4 teaspoon salt4 cups water1 can (14 1/2 ounces) beef broth (1 3/4 cups brown beef stock may be substi-tuted)1/4 teaspoon dried thyme4 slices (1/2-inch thick) diagonal French bread4 ounces Gruyere or Swiss cheese, shredded (1 cup)

1. In nonstick 12-inch skillet, melt but-ter over medium-low heat. Add onions and salt and cook, stirring occasion-ally, until onions are very tender and begin to caramelize, about 45 minutes. Reduce heat to low and cook, stirring frequently, until onions are deep golden brown, about 15 minutes longer.2. Transfer onions to 5-quart Dutch oven. Add 1/2 cup water to same skil-let and heat to boiling, stirring until browned bits are loosened from bottom of skillet. Add to onions in Dutch oven. Add remaining 3 1/2 cups water, broth and thyme to onions and heat to boiling over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes.3. Preheat oven to 450 F. Arrange bread slices on cookie sheet and bake until lightly toasted, about 5 minutes. Place four ovenproof bowls in jelly-roll pan for easier handling. Spoon soup evenly into bowls and top with toasted bread, slightly pressing bread into soup. Sprin-kle Gruyere evenly on top. Bake until cheese has melted and begins to brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Makes about 5 cups, or 4 first-course servings.

• Each serving: About 402 calories, 22g total fat (13g saturated), 64mg choles-terol, 887mg sodium, 37g total carbs, 15g protein.

For thousands of triple-tested recipes, visit our website at www.goodhouse-keeping.com/recipefinder/.

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• It was American bridge expert Phillip Alder who made the following sage observation: “We are born with talents, but we acquire skills.”

• The inventor of Life Savers was Clarence Crane (incidentally, he was also the father of poet Hart Crane). In 1913, a year after com-ing up with the recipe for the candy, Crane sold the patent for his sweet treat for $2,900. Seems like a paltry recompense for creating a pop culture icon that is still going strong after 100 years.

• Do you suffer from arachibutyrophobia? If so, you probably refuse to eat PB&J sand-wiches, for fear that the peanut butter will stick to the roof of your mouth.

• There are 120 drops of water in a single tea-spoon.

• In 1976, John Moore, a California man, had his spleen removed at the UCLA Medical Center in order to treat his cancer. The op-eration was successful -- in more ways than anyone anticipated. It seems that the doc-tors, upon studying the removed organ, found certain cells that had unique cancer-fighting properties. The discovery led to a new -- and profitable -- treatment. When Moore found out that his spleen had led to this discovery, he sued the Regents of the University of Cali-fornia for a share of the profits. In 1990, 14 years after his cancer was cured, he lost his court case.

• Those who study such things say that ants stretch and yawn when they wake up.

• If you’re like 43 percent of the Ameri-can population, you refuse to ever try eat-ing snails, regardless of the fact that they’re regarded as a delicacy in other parts of the world.

***

Thought for the Day: “The fear of becoming a ‘has-been’ keeps some people from becom-ing anything.” -- Eric Hoffer

© 2012 King Features Synd., Inc.

by Samantha Weaver

listic approach to education which emphasizes joy in learning, practical skills for living and spiritual development. They are a WA State approved independent school. Living Wisdom Schools know that a child who is given ap-propriate and self-expansive opportunities to express positive emotions, to exercise the body, and to experience calm, inner awareness, is prepared and eager to explore the world: intel-lectually, scientifically, socially, and artistically. One of the primary ways that they accomplish their mission of serving a diverse community of families and students is through fund-raising events such as this. All proceeds from the auc-tion directly benefit LWS.

Living Wisdom School hosts their 5th annual silent auction and luncheon, Saturday, Novem-ber 17th, from 12 to 3 on campus in Shoreline. The event will feature Asian cuisine, entertain-ment, and free child care. Advance reservations requested.

2000 NE Perkins WyShoreline, WA 98155

Adults $20Children 5+, $5425-772-9862

Living Wisdom School, located in Shoreline, is one of a network of such schools which are based on the Education for Life system, a ho-

Local Bits Around TownA bite of local bits

1. TELEVISION: In the “X-Files” TV drama series, what was the phrase on the UFO poster in Fox Mulder’s office?

2. MOVIES: What did Bruce Willis’ charac-ter do for a living in “Die Hard”?

3. BUSINESS: What is the name of Nike’s logo that appears on its sports merchan-dise?

4. U.S. GOVERNMENT: Where is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention locat-ed?

5. LANGUAGE: What is a fen?

6. SCIENCE: What is the botanist Carolus Linnaeus famous for?

7. HISTORY: What did the Edict of Nantes do for the French in 1598?

8. GEOGRAPHY: Where is the island of Bo-naire located?

9. ASTRONOMY: What are the Perseids?

10. PSYCHOLOGY: What kind of fear is rep-resented in thanatophobia?

5th Annual Auction and Luncheon at Living Wisdom School

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1. Who is the San Diego Padres’ all-time leader in career stolen bases?

2. Name the only team to win a World Series after losing it the previous two years.

3. When was the last time before 2011 (New Orleans) that a team scored at least 62 points in a game?

4. Name the player who holds the NCAA Division I record for most consecutive games with at least one 3-point shot made.

5. Who was the last defenseman before Erik Karlsson in 2011-12 to finish in the top 10 in scoring for an NHL regular season?

6. When was the last time before 2012 that Dale Earnhardt Jr. led the NASCAR Cup points standings during a season?

7. How many Grand Slam singles finals did Ivan Lendl lose before winning his first of eight in 1984 (French Open)?

1. “I Want to Believe”2. Police officer3. Swoosh4. Atlanta5. Bog6. Creating a classification system for plants7. Promised French Protestants the same rights as French Catholics8. The Caribbean, just north of Venezuela9. A meteor shower most visible in August10. Fear of death

Page 8 Tidbits® of Dallas CountyTidbits® of Sno-King Counties

1. Tony Gwynn, with 319 stolen bases.2. The New York Yankees, 1921-23. 3. It was 1985 (the New York Jets scored 62 against Tampa Bay).4. Illinois’ Cory Bradford had at least one 3-pointer in 88 games between 1998 and 2001.5. Detroit’s Paul Coffey, in 1994-95.6. It was 2004.7. Four.

Bees are among the most intelligent of insects, and they demonstrate that in a variety of ways: • When bees find food, they communicate its location by doing a dance that signifies direc-tion and distance to their fellow bees. One bee researcher set up two food sources near a hive. One was close to it; the other was farther away. Then he watched the dancing movements of the bees that fed at the different stations. The bees that fed at the nearby station did wagging dances; those that fed at the more distant place did circling dances. When he moved the food sources, the dances changed accordingly. He found that a bee returning from a spot 100 yards away would make 10 turns in 15 seconds, but those returning from 2 miles away would make only 3 turns in 15 sec-onds. If the food was in the direction of the sun,

the bee danced with its head up. If it was away from the sun, the head was down. If it was at a 45-degree angle to the sun, the bee danced in a corresponding angle to the hive. •Researchers once did an interesting experiment with bees. They brought two groups of bees from their home hive to Carnegie Lake in Princeton, New Jersey. One group of bees was taken to a bunch of pollen-laden flowers in a rowboat that was anchored close to shore; the other group was taken to a bunch of flowers in a rowboat way out in the middle of the lake. After sampling the flowers, the bees flew home to their hive and both groups did a waggling dance indicating a source of pollen had been found. The bees at home evidently refused to believe that there could be flowers in the middle of the lake, because whereas lots of bees returned to harvest pollen from the flowers close to shore, almost none came to the boat in the middle of the lake. • Professor James Gould tested some bees by placing a bowl of sugar water near a beehive. After it had been discovered by the bees, he started mov-ing it. Every few minutes he moved the dish, but each move was four times longer than the previous move. Thus, he moved it one inch, then four inches, then 16 inches and so on. Soon he was moving the dish more than 100 feet in a single jump. The bees

B IS FOR BEES

© 2012 King Features Synd., Inc.

• If you run out of buttermilk, you can use an equal amount of yogurt, preferably the nonsweetened, plain variety, but you can adjust the sugar in a recipe slightly if your yogurt is favorably flavored.

• When entertaining, keep cold drinks in a cooler away from the kitchen. This keeps the floor space free for the cooks.

• Soften brown sugar quickly by grating it on a fine hand grater. If you have a bit more time, add an apple to the container and seal tightly.

• “Day-old bread makes excellent hand-made croutons. Slice, spray with cooking spray and season with whatever spices on hand sound good. Toast in a 300 de-gree F. oven for 10 minutes or so. They are especially good with soups.” -- S.S.D. in Maryland

• Gotta keep those buns warm? Line your crockpot with foil and add the buns. Keep on low or warm, and place on the buffet. Yum.

• “When making platters of fruit that may brown (apples, pears), coat slices with lemon juice. The acid keeps them from browning.” -- T.P. in Washington

caught on and were waiting for him when he arrived. BEE FACTS

• Number of flowers a bee must visit to make one pound of honey: 2 million • Number of miles flown by a hive of bees in order to make 1 pound of honey: 55,000 • Amount of honey made by a worker honey bee in a lifetime: 1/12 teaspoon • Average annual per capita consumption of honey: 1.1 lbs. • Average speed of a honey bee: 15 mph • Average number of flowers visited during a single collection trip: 50-100 • Average lifespan of a worker bee: 28-35 days • Average lifespan of a queen bee: 2 years • Percent of the average human diet derived from insect-pollinated plants: 33% • Percent of that pollination performed by honey bees: 80% • Percent of the time bees spend sleeping: 0 • Number of bees in a hive: up to 60,000 • Percent of body weight an average bee can carry in its nectar load: 50% • Number of eggs an average queen bee lays per day: 3,000 • Amount of food she needs to eat daily to do so: 80 times her weight