Badass Dudes Wearing Earrings

Happy HumpDay!!

HumpDay On Holiday!

Happy HumpDay! Another week another HumpDay Newsletter! This time its in your inbox bright and early to help you power through the rest of your week. Unfortunately, the HumpDay newsletter will be a little shorter for the next two weeks while the team is on vacation. DON'T PANIC. We will still be sending out abridged newsletters while we are away! We know our readers need some fun facts to get them through their week and we would never leave them hanging! If this newsletter isn't enough to get you through to Sunday night, check out the HumpDay website here and read all of the issues of the HumpDay Newsletter.

TWO FREE AUDIOBOOKS FROM HUMPDAY!?!?

HumpDay is still partnered with Audible to offer our readers more content with less reading. Try audible for free using the HumpDay link here and enjoy two free audiobooks courtesy of HumpDay!

Astronomy

Rain is kind of a polarizing natural phenomenon. It can cancel a baseball game while also helping vegetables grow. Whether you love rain or hate it, its something that we all deal with. Too bad our rain on earth is made up of boring old water. A rainy day would be much more interesting on Jupiter.

Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system (11x the size of the earth) and it is made two main gases, hydrogen and helium. Because its so large, Jupiter has much higher gravity which creates incredibly high atmospheric pressure and extremely hot average temperatures. The climate of Jupiter creates the perfect conditions for one of the most interesting weather phenomenon in our solar system.

Because the surface of Jupiter is so hot and under so much pressure, carbon atoms in the atmosphere are compressed into graphite (the stuff inside pencils). Then, the graphite in the atmosphere begins to fall like rain toward the center of the planet. As the graphite move towards to the center of the planet the temperature reaches 8,000 degrees Celsius and the pressure builds exponentially. The combination of carbon, pressure, and heat causes the graphite to turn into a girl’s best friend, diamonds!

Every day on Jupiter it rains diamonds but unfortunately, we are 365 million miles away, so we can’t all stand outside on Jupiter with buckets.

Drops of Jupiter

Scale of the Solar System

Fashion

Pirates had an interesting fashion sense during their heyday in the early 1700s. Bandanas, flowy shirts and eye patches were all staples of a pirate’s ensemble. Their clothing choices weren’t just stylish though, they also played a practical purpose. Eye patches helped them see in the darkness below deck and the bandanas looked really cool, but the most important part of a pirate’s outfit was their gold earrings.

The gold earrings that pirates wore were some of the most expensive possessions that they owned. Pirates wore their cash in the form of earrings in case something happened to them during their dangerous day jobs. They served a source of quick cash that could be used to pay for a burial incase a pirate died at sea or washed up on shore. It was vital for each pirate to have earrings so they could receive a proper burial rather than being dumped into the ocean.

The pirate community respected this practice too and always tried to ensure that a fallen pirate would be receive a proper burial. Even when pirates would wash up on shore after falling overboard, the people who found him would sell his earrings and pay for his funeral.

The earrings that pirates wore were the most important part of their outfits. Not only did they ensure they would be eternally put to rest but they also made them look totally badass.

International Talk Like a Pirate Day

Legend of the Flying Dutchman

Television

Game of Thrones had one of their biggest episodes of all time with the long-awaited Battle of Winterfell. With the series coming to a close, this week’s epic battle brought back memories all of the epic battles the show has had.

One of the earliest and most visually impressive battles included a deadly green substance known as “wildfire”. This substance was highly flammable, explosive, burned at a temperature that could melt flesh, and couldn’t be extinguished using water. Sounds like something from the authors dark twisted imagination but actually, the basis of this deadly weapon can be found in history.

In the late 7th century, the most powerful empire in the world was the Byzantine Empire headquartered in Constantinople (Modern day Istanbul, Turkey). The Byzantine Empire had a secret weapon that devastated enemy navies and struck fear into all attacking soldiers. The weapon was called Greek Fire and its properties were much like “wildfire” from Game of Thrones.

Greek fire was a incendiary substance that was used to cover enemy soldiers and ships in inextinguishable flames. The weapon was a sticky liquid that could be shot out of flamethrower-like cannons or tossed in small grenade-like containers. Once Greek Fire came into contact with a ship it would explosively burst into flames and engulf ships and sailors. Even worse, the substance couldn’t be extinguished using water, instead, water caused the substance to explode again, making the fire grow larger and larger. Greek fire could be pour into a body of water and effectively create a firewall that would engulf any ship that tried to pass through it.

The weapon was used for centuries to help defend cities and decimate enemy fleets but, over the years the technology was lost to time. Scientists and engineers tried to recreate Greek Fire unsuccessfully until the invention of Gunpowder came to Europe from Asia. Today we have weapons like napalm that serve the same incendiary purpose as Greek Fire.

If Wildfire from game of thrones was based on something from the real world, were dragons or ice zombies real? Hope not...

HumpDay Healthy Helpings

You may have read above that we are taking a vacation. Summer is amost here so its time for us all to get our beach bodies going.

Beach Body Hearty Veggie Soup

Calories Per Serving: 163 I Servings: 6 I Cook Time: 28 Min

This Week in History

On this week in 1986, one of the most impressive feats in sports occurred in Boston, MA at Fenway Park when starting pitcher, Roger Clemens, struck out 20 batters in a 9-inning game. For those not familiar with baseball, there are 27 possible outs in a 9-inning game and on this night in 1986 the pitcher accounted for nearly all of them. This game set the record for the most strikeouts by a pitcher in a single game. Even more incredibly, Roger Clemens achieved the same feat 10 years later at the age of 34. To this day, he is the only pitcher to ever meet the strikeout record twice.

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