I mean, do you see that waggy tail, hear the little whines, feel the snuggles? If you think your dog doesn’t love you, maybe try a different dog. Kidding, kidding. Of course, we all want to know if those signs of affection are love, the kind that we feel for our fluffy little friends, or just, “This guy gives me food!” Obviously we can’t read a dog’s mind, but according to some promising research, yes, your dog does love you. In one study, dogs were presented with five smells (their own, a familiar dog’s, an unfamiliar dog’s, a familiar human’s, and an unfamiliar human’s) as their brains were scanned. The area of the brain associated with positive emotional response was most activated by the familiar human scent, which suggests that dogs do love us uniquely. Keep that in mind the next time they chew up your favorite shoes.

I think either 21 or 22

The nickname dates back to the Roman Empire, believe it or not. The Romans had a pretty interesting timekeeping system, dividing the day into four chunks of three hours beginning at 6 a.m. The ninth hour (3 p.m.) was called None and signaled the start of the last section of the day. Over time, the church rituals that happened at None began earlier and earlier (maybe because monks could end their fasts after those rituals). The rest of the story is pretty murky, but at least partially due to these ever-earlier prayers, “noon” meant “midday” by the middle of the 13th century.

Yes, but for a really rank reek, you’re probably going to need scrub down the fridge. Baking soda is best suited to eliminating lingering odors of spoiled food that you’ve discovered and thrown out. How it works: Rotting food releases either acidic or strong alkaline molecules. Baking soda, an “amphoteric” compound that can react with both, neutralizes them and makes them a lot less stinky. The more baking soda surface area you expose, the better it will work, so it’s recommended to leave it in a shallow, open dish, or take the entire top off the box (just opening the little flap won’t cut it). You should also replace the baking soda every three months.

Despite the misconception that you need to wait 24 hours, most law enforcement agencies advise people to report a missing person as soon as possible. You should call the non-emergency police number to file a report (unless you suspect foul play). If the missing person is a child, you should call 911 then the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. A missing person is usually defined as someone whose location is unknown, and who therefore cannot be confirmed as alive or dead.

I hate to have to tell you this, but your friend is right. The federal holiday is officially called “Washington’s Birthday,” and it’s only observed as Presidents’ Day (or President’s Day or Presidents Day) in some states. For kind of a random day in February, the holiday’s history has some pretty interesting twists and turns. Washington’s birthday as a federal holiday goes back to 1885. At that time, it was observed on Feb. 22, what we believe to be George Washington’s actual birthday (the Julian calendar, not the Gregorian, was still in use when he was born, so it’s a little tricky). The move to the third Monday in February took effect in 1971 with a bill that established more federal holidays set on Mondays, ensuring more three-day weekends. There’s a lot more to how Abraham Lincoln’s birthday got thrown into all this mess, and how the day came to honor all presidents to some people, and if you’re not too devastated from losing the argument, I would totally recommend reading more about it.

MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) is studying Mars’ ionosphere, a very high level of the atmosphere, to learn more about certain ways radio waves are interrupted. Earth’s ionosphere is too low for satellites and too high for aircraft, so the research heretofore has been limited. On Mars, however, satellites like MAVEN are able to orbit in the ionosphere and collect valuable data about concentrated layers of electrically charged gas, which had never before been observed on another planet. This research is ongoing, and a paper about it was published Feb. 3, 2020.

Glad you asked, my friend. The answer is no. Hey, don’t shoot the messenger. The Cambridge Dictionary defines a nut as “the dry fruit of some trees, consisting of an edible seed within a hard, outer shell, or the seed itself.” Most often, we eat the seed itself. Some true nuts: chestnuts, hazelnuts, and acorns. An almond is a drupe. A drupe is “a type of fruit that has a thin skin and a large stone (= a single seed with a hard cover) in the middle,” Cambridge says. That’d make a cherry a drupe. That’d make a peach a drupe. And that, dear asker, would make an almond a drupe. See, with cherries and peaches, you eat the thin-skinned fruit and discard the stone/seed, but with almonds, you just eat the seed. Odds are you haven’t seen the fruit part of an almond, but it existed, I tell you. It was a dang drupe. A lot of things are drupes. Cashews, walnuts, olives, mangoes—all drupes. The question shouldn’t be what is a drupe, but what isn’t.

You’re right, it is really cool! The firefall is a natural phenomenon that occurs for a few days in mid to late February each year in Yosemite National Park. When the setting sun hits Horsetail Fall just right, the waterfall glows red and orange, as if it’s made of fire. This year, though, the fall might not turn fiery. As of Feb. 13, there wasn’t enough water flowing, and there’s no rain in the forecast during the dates when the sun would hit at the right angle. If you’re still wanting to go see it despite the low chance of the spectacle making an appearance, know that it’ll probably be difficult to manage. Last year, thousands of visitors tried to catch a glimpse of the firefall, and the overcrowding caused some destruction, like trampled plants and eroded riverbanks. Park staff hopes to avoid those issues this year by more tightly controlling access to that part of the park.

On one hand, I’ll quell your fears: Greeting card companies didn’t create Valentine’s Day—they simply cashed in on an established holiday. But about those purer origins you seek…can’t really help you there, boss. The history of the holiday is a murky, bloodsoaked lake. The concept of a passion-oriented tradition in mid-February dates back to ancient Rome with the Lupercalia festival. From Feb. 13–15, drunken (and potentially naked) Roman men would sacrifice goats and dogs, then take to the streets to whip women with strips of the sacrificial hides. This was supposed to increase their fertility. How romantic—err, at least Roman. Meanwhile, Roman Emperor Claudius II executed two Christian men named Valentine on separate Feb. 14s in the third century. Legend has it that one of the men, before his beheading, wrote a note to a woman and signed it “from your Valentine.” There doesn’t appear to be much truth to that part of the story, but in the murky lake of legend, does it really matter? In the late fifth century, Lupercalia was struck from the Roman calendar in an effort to eliminate pagan traditions. St. Valentine’s Day, however, was added to the calendar in 496 A.D. to honor the third-century martyrs. Perhaps in the absence of Lupercalia in mid-February, people began associating fertility, and eventually pure love, with Valentine’s Day. By the Middle Ages, Chaucer was romanticizing the holiday in his poems; Shakespeare followed suit a few hundred years later. Eventually, romantic Europeans were hand-making cards to give to their true loves on Feb. 14. Then, yes, in the 19th and 20th centuries, greeting card companies made absolute boatloads of cash by making it incredibly easy for said romantics.

So it’s kind of a complicated process, but here’s the two-sentence version: Lightning is an electric current that takes the path of least resistance from the base of a cloud to the ground. Since the air it travels through is not uniform—variations in things like temperature, humidity, and pollutants determine how resistant air is to the charge—the lightning has to zig and zag to stay on that path.

I too have seen those pictures, and they are adorable. Cheetahs that live in captivity tend to be really anxious, and some zoos pair them with happy-go-lucky dogs hoping they’ll teach the cheetahs to be more relaxed. They can even help them cope with hard times, like having to have surgery. True heroes, we have no choice but to stan.

My friends and I used to chill in Xbox Live parties for hours. We had a buddy named DrunkMonkey, who lived across the country from us, but would pop in and chill with us all the same. This isn't a unique story—I just found it interesting that we 1) had a friend we referred to without laugh as "DrunkMonkey", 2) he'd talk with us like old pals even though we'd never met him.

Rosalind Franklin was a distinguished scientist whose research played a pivotal role in discovering the structure of DNA. However, she wasn’t widely credited for that discovery until fairly recently. She earned her PhD in physical chemistry from Cambridge University in 1945, and she did her pivotal DNA research at King’s College between 1951 and 1953. The controversy over her role in the discovery of DNA’s structure stems from the fact that Maurice Wilkins, another researcher at King’s College, showed Franklin’s images of DNA to James Watson, another scientist trying to create a DNA model. Watson and his research partner Francis Crick published a paper about it shortly after, and Wilkins, Watson, and Crick all went on to receive a Nobel Prize for the double helix DNA model. Franklin was not recognized. She spent the rest of her career studying viruses at Birkbeck College, and she passed away in 1958.

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No, you’re not missing anything. We’re all confused. Eminem wasn’t up for any awards this year, and there was nothing that suddenly made “Lose Yourself” more culturally relevant this year. The rapper’s tweet about his performance implied that it was to make up for the fact that he couldn’t make it to the 2003 ceremony where “Lose Yourself” was honored with Best Original Song. And since the performance was introduced with a montage about the power of music in films, I guess that’s what made it make sense? We’re all talking about it, anyway, and that was clearly the goal.

There are now biometric scanners in airports that are meant to prevent fraud and terrorism by providing additional identity verification. Smiling is actually considered an unnatural expression, which makes it more difficult for this facial recognition software to work effectively. According to Angela Aggeler, spokeswoman for the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs, smiling "distorts other facial features, for example your eyes, so you're supposed to have a neutral expression. … The most neutral face is the most desirable standard for any type of identification.”

2019 was a very strong year for the film industry. Avengers: Engame became the highest-grossing film of all time, the Star Wars Saga came to a close, and many unique and interesting independent films were released and well-received. I have a hard time narrowing down just one movie, so here's my Top 5 of 2019 (in order): Parasite (dir. Bong Joon-ho) I was already a major fan of South Korean director Bong Joon-ho, and was certainly looking forward to his latest project. This movie absolutely floored me and after seeing it four times now, I can comfortably call it his masterpiece. This is one of those films that I think is best to go in as cold as possible, knowing very little about the plot or the themes. The Lighthouse (dir. Robert Eggers) Eggers' period piece horror film The Witch (2015) is easily one my favorite horror films in recent years, and his sophomore effort is something entirely different and wonderful. The Lighthouse offers career-best performances from both Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, eery sound design, incredibly realistic period-specific dialogue, and a Lovecraftian madness that is sure to delight horror fans. Once Upon A Time...In Hollywood (dir. Quentin Tarantino) Tarantino's filmography has been pretty hit-or-miss for me, as I find the tone of most of his movies a little too similar. However, his newest entry really impressed me with its authentic laid-back take on 1969 Hollywood. Brad and Leo give some stellar, nuanced performances as well. Definitely a fun and nostalgic ride! Under the Silver Lake (dir. David Robert Mitchell) After being impressed with Mitchell's debut effort It Follows (2014), I was definitely on the lookout for his next project. And yes, I do know that Under the Silver Lake is technically a film from 2018, but I live in the United States and it was released here the following year, so I'm counting it. This cryptic and frantic comedy-thriller had an extremely unique tone and an excellent performance from Andrew Garfield. Check this one out if you are looking for a brain teaser-type of experience. Avengers: Engame (dir. Joe & Anthony Russo) While I'm not the biggest fan of comic book movies or blockbusters in general, I think the monumental achievement that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe is really something to behold. Never before had we seen such a vast collection of films in one series that encompassed so many varying characters, themes, and stories. I'd even go so far as to call Avengers: Endgame more than a movie. To me, it felt like a huge cultural event that the whole world of moviegoers got to experience together, and that was truly special.

This strange, somewhat surrealist phrase has a contested origin. It dates back to at least 1651, and it might have to do with dogs and cats symbolizing wind and rain, respectively, in different mythologies. Another possibility is that it’s a mangled form of obsolete words, either the Greek cata doxa (meaning “contrary to experience or belief”), or the old English catadupe (“waterfall”). None of those explanations have conclusive evidence to support them, but they’re all plausible. One theory that’s been totally busted, however, is the idea that cats and dogs would huddle in thatch roofs during storms, and the rain would wash them out. For that to happen, the animals would have to be on the outside of the roof, which doesn’t track.

Although this theory would explain why his novels tend to be rather...dense, it’s not true. Dickens published most of his novels serially, meaning one section would be printed and sold each month, and he was paid for each one of these installments. For his first full-length novel, The Pickwick Papers, that meant 19 monthly installments at 32 pages each (except the last, which was a special “double issue”), and Dickens got paid each time he turned in 32 pages of text. So, even though he wasn’t paid for each word, what is true is that he had a monetary incentive to make his novels longer, and honestly, I don’t blame him.

To calculate the weight of a cloud, you first have to figure out how dense it is. The average density of a cumulus cloud is around half a gram of water per cubic meter. Second, you need to determine how big the cloud is, presumably by measuring its shadow while the sun is above it. A typical cloud is about a kilometer across and roughly cube shaped, meaning it has a volume of one billion cubic meters. Using this formula, scientists have determined that the average cumulus cloud weighs around 1.1 million pounds.