The Tassel is Worth the Hassle

Why do Americans pronounce the last letter of the alphabet "zee" while the rest of the English-speaking world says "zed"?

According to Canadian word columnist Howard Richler, the Romans called this letter zeta and, over time, zed became the predominant designation in England even though other variants, such as zad, izzard and zee, cropped up in British writings well into the nineteenth century. Both zee and zed were exported to America.

The matter was finally decided in the United States when Daniel Webster wrote in his American Dictionary of the English Language in 1828 that , henceforth, the letter was to be pronounced zee.

As the Earth’s population of people and animals gets bigger, does the weight of the planet increase?

Earth is not putting on weight. Because humans and animals are made up of nothing  but materials that come from the Earth, nothing can be added to this mass by an increase in population. For example, two mice might produce 20 offspring. But these 20 mice eat 20 times as much food and drink 20 times as much water.

However, the planet’s mass is increasing because of the number of meteorites and asteroids and the meteoric dust that strike the Earth. Our planet gains weight by this method at an average of 150 million kilograms a year.

Can we really sense if someone is staring at us?

It would seem that many of us can, according to research by Cambridge University biologist Rupert Sheldrake. "I’ve conducted more than 20,000 trials, and the results show o ver and over agin that bmost people know when they are being looked at from behind -  even if they’re blindfolded," says Sheldrake.

Some scientists question  just how conclusive Sheldrake’s findings are.

How do ancient ruins gets covered in so much earth?

You’d be surprised at how quickly earth can form. A neglected garden path can become hidden in only a decade, so it’s little wonder that archeologists often have to dig metres down to find very old buildings. Earth is created as rocks in the ground are broken down into smaller particles by weathering and erosion. The process is continued by plant decay and by worms, which convert organic matter to soil via their digestive systems. If a ruin is in a river valley or a typical field, where there are lots of plants and eroding water, soil could cover it in as little as a few hundered years.

Why do we call illegal activity "bootlegging"?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a "boot-leg" as, perhaps obviously, the leg of a tall boot and says that from this arose the term "bootlegger" to describe someone who carries liquor in his boot-legs. It quotes a New York  publication that printed, in 1890, "The ‘boot-legger’ is  a grim spectre. He is a man who wears boots in whose tops are concealed a flask or two of liquor."

The first reference to "bootleg" actually appeared a year earlier, when the Omaha Herald  wrote, "There is a much whisky consumed in Iowa now as there was before ‘ for medical purposes only,’ and on the bootleg plan."

Today, the term refers to any item that is illicitly transported or produced, such as CDs.

Why, when we twist and turn in our sleep so much, is it rare that we fall out of bed?

 Even when you’re sleep, your brain is still aware of it’s surroundings to some extent. It will have remembered how big your bed is and how far your body can safely turn. Should you get too close to the edge, your brain will tell your muscles, and you’ll roll backward.

Be warned, though: Your brain will often lose its bearings if you’ve been drinking or if you’re in an unfamiliar bed.