Q-Tips & Tricks
- Humpday
- Feb 27, 2019
- 7 min read
Happy HumpDay!!
Check Out The New HumpDay Website!
Happy HumpDay! As February comes to an end, we are approaching the HumpDay of the Winter. The turning point where warmer weather is on the horizon and all we need to do is stick it out just a little bit longer! Nothing better to help pass the winter weather than curling up with some light reading from HumpDay. If you missed a week, check out the new website here and read every issue of the HumpDay Newsletter.
TWO FREE AUDIOBOOKS FROM HUMPDAY!?!?
HumpDay has now partnered with Audible to offer our readers two free audiobooks when they sign up for a free 30-day trial of Audible. If you try and enjoy the audiobooks, you will get a credit for a new audiobook each month for $15/month. If you don't want an Audible subscription, sign up anyway to get your two free audiobooks then cancel your subscription and keep your audiobooks free of charge.
We can't emphasize enough how easy it is to listen to an interesting story while commuting to work, cooking dinner or getting ready for bed. Try audible for free using the HumpDay link here and enjoy two free stories on us!
Biology
Earwax. The gross yellowish substance in the sides of our heads and a surprisingly tasty flavor of Harry Potter’s Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Jelly Beans (Dumbledore’s favorite for those Potter heads). We have all used a Q-Tip or finger to clean out our ears but, have you ever stopped and wondered what ear wax is for?
First, lets talk about the ear itself. The ear, like the rest of your body, has a layer of skin on the outer ear and all the way inside of the ear up to the ear drum. Unlike the rest of your body, the skin on the inner ear is not exposed to the open air. When skins cells die on your arm, they can just fall off and fly away (becoming dust which is gross) but, inside of your ear there is nowhere for the dead skin cells to go.
That is why our bodies excrete oils in our inner ears that collect the dead skin cells and thicken into what we know as ear wax. Interestingly, as we talk or chew food our ear canals contract causing built up ear wax to be pushed toward the outer ear canal. This process is effectively sweeping dead skin cells out of your ear canal using ear wax (kinda like a natural but gross Swiffer).
People also forget that your ear is basically a hole in your head that leads to your brain. Earwax helps defend the inside of your ear by trapping dust, germs, and even insects that may enter your ear. Also, since earwax is waxy (duh), it helps repel water from getting into our ears, allowing us to go swimming. If you have ever had water in your ears and couldn’t get it out, you know how annoying it would be to have that happen all the time.
Earwax, for as weird and gross as it is, is an amazing feat of evolution that keeps our ears clean, protects us from getting dirt in our brain, and allows us to go swimming. So next time you have the urge to take a Q-Tip to your ear, think about all the good things ear wax does for you.
(We almost added a video of bugs in people’s ears, but they are too gross… You’re Welcome)
Technology
Do you love finding sneaky ways to get free stuff? Here is a trick that can help you potentially scam your way into unlimited free promos on food delivery apps and organize your email at the same time!
Did you know that you could add words or numbers to your email address and still receive emails in your inbox? For example, if your email is johnsmith@gmail.com, you can send an email to johnsmith+1@gmail.com and the email will still send to your Gmail inbox.
This is because of one of Google’s filtering features that allows Gmail users to add keywords to their email addresses, so they can be automatically sorted in the users inbox. For instance, if you signed up for HumpDay with an email address Johnsmith+HumpDay@gmail.com, google can automatically sort the weekly HumpDay email into a priority mail folder for you to find it as quickly as possible 😊
The best part about Google’s filtering feature is that it can be used to generate an infinite amount of email addresses that are all directed to one inbox. Johnsmith+1@gmail.com, Johnsmith+2@gmail.com and Johnsmith+3@gmail.com are all unique email addresses that direct emails to the same inbox.
The unlimited number of easily created email addresses can be used to manipulate promotions that are meant for first time users like $25 off your first Uber ride or $10 off your first order from Grubhub. Since these websites and apps only require you to have a unique email address before giving you the promotional discount, all you need to do is type in your email with an added letter or number then respond to the validation email before receiving a discount on your order. Using this trick, you can get a promotional deal for every order you make on an app or website just by messing with your email address.
Although, some websites have figured out that people use this trick and have figured out ways to prevent people from abusing their promotions. But, next time you go to order some food on an app, why not try registering a new account using your email with and added “+1” and see if you can get money off your order.
History
As an 18 year old, Hiroo Onoda joined the Japanese army in 1942 during the height of World War II. He was trained to be an officer at an elite military school where he specialized in the art of guerilla warfare (aka attacking suddenly then quickly running away).
When Onoda turned 20, he was sent to a small island in the Philippines that was a strategic harbor for Japanese ships in the south pacific. He was ordered by his commanding officer to protect the island at all costs. No matter if the enemy took the island, he was never to surrender and to always continue fighting. Onoda’s orders instructed him to fight for the island until his commanding officer came back to get him at the end of the war.
Soon after Onoda arrived, the island was overrun by enemy troops and almost all of the Japanese soldiers were captured or killed. The few soldiers who escaped, ran off into the jungle to hide from the enemy. Onoda and three other soldiers ran off into the jungle and continued to sporadically attack allied forces on the island using guerilla tactics. Eventually, Onoda and his men were the only Japanese left on the island and they survived by strictly rationing food and ammo. They also collected bananas and coconuts from the jungle and stole from local farms on the island.
One day while raiding a local farm for food, the soldiers found a sign that said “The war has ended, come out from the jungle”. Not knowing that Japan had surrendered, the soldiers figured that the sign must be a trick intended to draw them out of hiding and continued to hid in the jungle and attack allied forces.
For years the soldiers remained in the jungle where they became convinced that the enemy was constructing an elaborate ploy to get them to surrender. Tired of having their food stolen, the locals tried to convince Onoda and his men to stop fighting by sending messages into the jungle with newspapers about the surrender, letters from the soldiers families and orders from Japanese officials. None of these message worked and instead the messages only made the soldiers more paranoid.
Finally, after 5 years in the jungle, one of the four soldiers snuck off in the middle of the night and surrendered to the local police. The other three men believed that he was captured by the enemy and they hid even futher into the jungle. 5 years after that, one of the soldiers was killed in a gun fight with local villagers leaving only two Japanese soldiers left on the island.
For 17 year more years, Onoda and another soldier lived in the jungle together, surviving off coconuts and waiting for reinforcements from the Japanese army. Then, during a fire fight with Filipino police, the third soldier died, leaving Onoda all alone. Onoda lived alone in the jungle and continued to attack local villagers and refuse to surrender
30 years after WWII had ended, a college student visiting the island found out where Onoda lived and tried to convince him to come home. Onoda refused, saying that the only way he would leave the island was from a direct order from his commanding officer (as he was originally instructed). Weeks later, the Japanese army arranged to have his former commanding officer travel to the island and order him to surrender.
After 30 years surviving in the jungle, fighting a war that had already been lost, Onoda found peace in a relaxing retirement. He returned to Japan, traveled the world, married a woman he loved, and started a nature school to teach young Japanese boys how to survive in the wilderness.
Nevermind that he was a lunatic who spent three decades attacking poor villagers. For some reason, it still feels nice that this story has a happy ending.
HumpDay Healthy Helpings
Add a little flavor to your chicken with this weeks recipe.
Calories Per Serving: 232 I Servings: 6 I Cook Time: 1 Hour
This Week in History
On this week in 1993, 6 terrorists aligned with the terrorist group Al-Queda detonated a 1,200lb bomb in the parking garage of New York City’s World Trade Center. The enormous explosion occurred underneath the North Tower, killing 6 and injuring close to 1,000 people. The attack was intended to destroy the foundation of the North Tower, causing it to fall into the South Tower taking both buildings down. Fortunately, the highly destructive bomb failed to affect the foundation of the North Tower and all of the occupants in both towers were successfully evacuated.
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