Good Day DU (October 28, 2021)

[EarlG]

Today in History: October 28

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Question of the Day: What's an interesting fact that you recently learned?

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Today's milestones: Congratulations to the following active DU members!

Anniversaries
The Magistrate (20 years), farmbo (19 years), mopinko (18 years), marmar (17 years), berni_mccoy (17 years), gabeana (17 years), Gidney N Cloyd (17 years), Mickju (17 years), montanaliberaldem (17 years), d_r (17 years), deminks (17 years), susanr516 (17 years), FraDon (17 years), WheelWalker (14 years), consider_this (13 years), PacificBreeze (13 years), hoosierspud (13 years), marybourg (13 years), ritz719 (13 years), 4now (13 years), KevTucky (13 years), cmos_sue (13 years), royable (13 years), Starseer (13 years), mrmpa (12 years), William Gustafson (9 years), New Haven (9 years), JoeOtterbein (9 years), Nanjeanne (6 years), Leghorn21 (5 years), NameAlreadyTaken (4 years), Bdub (2 years)

Posting milestones
elleng (110000 posts)

New members who posted for the first time
tsodog, Lawrence454, Froggyproggy

[Aristus]

1. Mansa Musa is believed to have been the wealthiest person who ever lived.

Musa was the Emperor of the Islamic West African Mali Empire in the 14th Century. His fortune (measured in tons of gold) is estimated to have been in excess of the equivalent of 400 billion dollars.

Take that, Elon Musk!...

[consider_this]

2. Pinecones do what???

I cannot believe I am this old and just learned this.
If you put a nice open pinecone in water, it will close right up! There's a reason for this as posted below.
I learned about this when toddler grandson put a beauty to float into our fountain and shortly later when we did not see it, we found it at the bottom of the bowl, all closed up.

what/why/etc, at:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/unlocking-the-secrets-of-the-pinecone/

excerpt:

Did you know that pinecones can stay on pine trees for more than 10 years before falling to the ground? During that time seeds for new pine trees grow under the scales of the pinecones. The scales protect the seeds from bad weather—and hungry animals. Eventually, however, the seeds need to be released so that they can grow into new trees. To make sure they have the best chance of finding fertile soil and growing into trees, the pinecone scales stay tightly closed when the weather is inhospitable to new seed growth—that is, when it’s very cold and damp outside. In contrast, when the weather is hot and dry, the seeds will have an easier time finding good soil for growing into trees. In these conditions the pinecone scales will open, allowing seeds to escape and drift away to find new ground to grow into new trees!

Happy DU anniversary to me. Good thing 'the lurking' years are not also counted as i am racking up time!

[royable]

3. Thank you for the acknowledgement, EarlG.

It may have been 13 years, but sometimes it feels like yesterday. And I was actually lurking without creating an account almost since DU's inception.
I'll celebrate the anniversary by renewing my membership.