Recent Articles Written by Janet Spencer
Demographics:If you started counting at the Stone Age about 200,000 years ago, and counted until today, the total number of humans that have ever lived would be about 108 billion people. Of those, 7% are currently alive. Come along with Tidbits as we consider the demographics of humanity!
JUST THE FACTS • If you started counting in year 1 A.D., about 55 billion humans have lived on earth, including the 8 billion alive today. • In the year 1 A.D. the world’s population was about 170 million. • The population of the U.S., currently at 337 million, is 4% of the world’s population. • The growth rate of the U.S. was 0.5% in 2023, lower than at any point since 1979. • About 50 years ago, the average woman worldwide had four kids. Today the average has dropped to only 2 children per woman. In the U.S., the average is 1.6 kids. • Out of the 30 countries with the highest birth rates, 29 are located in Africa. The one exception is Afghanistan. • Countries with the lowest birth rates include Ukraine due to the war; Monaco due to the predominantly elderly population; as well as Japan and South Korea where career pressure is heavy. POPULATION FACTS • The country with the oldest average population is Monaco, the tiny ultra-rich nation on the French Riviera where the average age is 55. Japan comes in 2nd at 43. • The median age of residents of Monaco is longer than the life expectancy of people in many African nations, including Chad, Nigeria, Sudan, and Somalia. This means that when someone in Monaco reaches that country’s median age, they have already lived longer than the typical lifespan of someone in Africa. • Although Japan has the highest percentage of its population that has reached the age of 100, the U.S. has a higher number of centenarians, with about 98,000. • Globally, the male-to-female ratio of the population is pretty steady at 50-50, though it generally tips towards 101 males for every 100 females. However, at birth, the ratio is about 105 boys for every 100 girls. • The country with the highest percentage of male citizens is Qatar, with 248 men for every 100 women due to the influx of migrant workers to perform manual labor. In second place is the United Arab Emirates (177 men for every 100 women), mainly for the same reason. • Globally, women outlive men by an average of five years, and among older segments, women vastly outnumber men. In the U.S., for people aged 85 and older, there are only 56 males for every 100 females, according to the 2020 census. • Alaska has the highest male-to-female ratio of 110 men for every 100 women, followed by North Dakota, which has 103 to 100. • On the other hand, the District of Columbia has the lowest male-to-female ratio at 90 men for every 100 women. Mississippi ranks second to last with 93 men for every 100 women. Much more in the downloadable file below! 
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DonutsIt was once said that in order to make a donut, you take a hole and then put some dough around it. Come along with Tidbits as we eat donuts!
WHODONUT? • Donuts, or items similar to donuts, have been part of the human diet for centuries. It’s claimed that a sailor from Maine named Hanson Gregory invented the hole in the donut in 1847 when he stuck his cake onto the spoke of the ship’s wheel during a storm. There’s even a plaque in his honor. However, it has long been known that removing the middle of a fried cake would make the center crispier and less soggy. • A petrified donut was found under layers of ash in the ruins of Pompeii. Another ossified donut was found in a cave in Oklahoma, made by an unknown prehistoric tribe. A painting created in 1627 shows a donut among other items of food and household objects. • However, the American donut experience began with a Dutch immigrant in New York City. Anna Joralemon opened her donut shop in the year 1673, long before the United States was even a country. She is credited with bringing donuts to America, though claims that she “invented” donuts are false. • During WWI and WWII, ladies working as volunteers for the Salvation Army set up “soup kitchen” type outlets near the front lines to serve soldiers on duty. Instead of serving soup, however, they served hot sweet donuts, giving war-weary Americans a morale boost. When the war ended, men returning home clamored for donuts, contributing to their burgeoning popularity. Today, the Salvation Army continues to give out the Golden Doughnut Award to honor citizens who exemplify the good works of the Salvation Army. • In 1920, the first successful donut-making machine was invented after a dozen unsuccessful models. The creator, a Russian immigrant named Adolph Levitt, dubbed the all-in-one contraption “the Wonderful Almost Human Automatic Donut Machine.” Ingredients went in one end, and donuts came out the other. Crowds assembled in front of Levitt’s New York bakery storefront to watch the spectacle, and he sold 128 of his machines in the first year. This was just the beginning of Levitt’s donut empire. He sold thousands of the machines to corner cafes, roadside eateries, and local bakeries worldwide. • It was Levitt who first made a concerted effort to change the spelling from “doughnut” to “donut.” Many of his customers were not proficient in English and had trouble pronouncing “dough.” Dunkin’ Donuts adopted the simpler spelling for their nationwide chain of franchises. Today, both spellings are considered correct. • At the 1934 World’s Fair in Chicago, the display showing donuts being turned out by an automated machine was a big hit. During the Great Depression, donuts were a sweet treat that nearly everyone could afford, with a dozen selling for five cents. • Dunking donuts in coffee or milk came about as a result of an accident. Hollywood starlet Mae Murray dropped a donut into her coffee by mistake while dining out at an upscale New York eatery. Not wanting her to feel embarrassed, her companion dropped his into his cup as well. • Clark Gable made dunking fashionable in a scene in Frank Capra’s 1934 movie “It Happened One Night” in which he teaches actress Claudette Colbert how to properly dunk her donut in a cup of coffee. • At one time, the Dunkin’ Donuts chain offered a donut shaped like a Q, with a “handle” meant to facilitate dunking. It was discontinued because it had to be hand-cut and people tended to dunk the handle first. DONUT FACTS • In a typical donut shop, it takes 55 minutes to create a donut from start to finish. It must fry for 85 seconds in hot grease. • When it comes to dunking, a donut made of finely ground flour will hold more liquid than a donut made of course flour and will be less likely to break. Tip it in at an angle so the top remains dry, with just a quick dunk. • Donuts are between 15 and 25% fat. Cake donuts are 15% sugar, while raised yeast donuts are only 3% sugar. The calorie count ranges from 200 for plain donuts (equal to toast with jam) to 500 for frosted or filled. • The most popular donut in America is the cream-filled donut, followed by plain glazed donuts. • Krispy Kreme donuts are kosher. • About 20 million donuts are produced annually in a typical Krispy Kreme store. Much more in the downloadable file below:
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FeathersBirds are one of the most successful vertebrates on earth. There are about 6,500 species of mammals, 32,000 species of fish, 8,800 species of amphibians, 10,000 species of reptiles, and around 11,000 species of birds. All birds have several things in common: wings, beaks, eggs, and feathers. Each species of bird has its own unique feather pattern, shape, and color. Come along with Tidbits as we consider feathers!
THE BASIC FACTS • Feathers serve many purposes: insulation, mating, camouflage, nesting material, and maneuverability for flight. Think of the bird's plumage as an all-purpose coat, serving as a raincoat, winter jacket, body armor, sunscreen, and fashion statement. • Feathers likely evolved from reptilian scales around 150 million years ago during the Jurassic period. The earliest known feathered dinosaurs, such as Archaeopteryx, had feathers similar to modern birds. Even today, birds still have reptilian-style scales on the lower parts of their legs and feet. • Every feather on a bird's body is controlled by a network of muscles located in the feather's follicles. The muscles can pull the feathers into a tight mat to protect against rain and cold, fluff them for better insulation, spread them for a mating display, or fan them out for better flight. • Feathers are made of keratin, a fibrous protein. Hair, horns, hooves, claws, fingernails, beaks, porcupine quills, and whale baleen are also made of keratin. • Feathers, like hair and fingernails, are dead structures that do not have nerves and cannot repair themselves when damaged. Hair and fingernails grow continuously, but feathers grow to completion and then stop, and must be replaced when worn out. When feathers first grow in, they have a blood supply, but mature feathers do not. • Most birds condition their feathers by distributing an oily wax from a gland near the base of their tail, using their beak to preen. The wax keeps the feathers waterproof and inhibits bacteria and pests. Other birds, such as owls and pigeons, don't have this gland but rely instead on specialized downy feathers that disintegrate into a powder that sifts throughout the feathers. • Birds replace their old and damaged feathers by molting, usually once a year. Some birds, such as puffins, drop all of their feathers at once. They are unable to fly and can only swim until the new feathers grow in several weeks later. Other birds molt in stages, staggering the loss of feathers to prevent the bird from becoming completely vulnerable. • When ptarmigans molt, the coloring of their feathers changes according to the season in order to offer maximum camouflage, changing from all white in winter to all brown in summer. • The words plume, plumage, and pluck all spring from the same Old English word. • A parrot has green feathers to blend in with the jungle's foliage. An owl's drab plumage looks exactly like tree bark. A penguin's tuxedo coloring, with white on the belly and black on the back, hides them from predators when swimming. FEATHER FACTS • Feathers are used for communication, though different birds have different languages, even for identical gestures. Birds such as blue jays and cardinals use their trademark pointy crests when communicating with other birds. They raise their head feathers to intimidate intruders or to indicate agitation. The crest lays flat when the bird is calm. During courtship, a male wood duck raises its colorful crest in order to attract a mate. California quails have a top knot protruding from their forehead made of a cluster of six feathers. When males fight for dominance, the winner raises his top knot and the loser flattens his. FEATHER DENSITY • The number of feathers on a bird varies by species. A hummingbird has the least, with around 1,000 feathers; a small songbird, 1,500–3,000; a turkey has about 3,500; a bird of prey, 5,000–8,000; and a swan, up to 25,000. An emperor penguin has the most with about 80,000 feathers. • Although they have the least number of feathers, hummingbirds have the greatest ratio of feathers to body size of any bird. • Penguin feathers are short but extremely dense, with between 60 and 100 feathers per square inch, providing maximum insulation. • Most birds have more feathers in winter than in summer. • The bones of most birds are hollow, making them lightweight to assist in flying. Therefore, the feathers generally weigh more than the bones. A frigate bird has a 7-foot (2.1 m) wingspan, yet its skeleton weighs less than its feathers. When measured, one eagle was found to have feathers that comprised 17% of its body weight, while its skeleton accounted for only 7%. • Peacock feathers are around 6 feet (1.8 m) long. Download the file for more!
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