Happy February 32nd! Here's 4 things...
- Alpacas have toes not hooves
- In 1974, a long jumper from New Zealand used a front flip in competition (transferring his upward momentum into forward momentum) to travel further through the air. By the next season, the sport's governing body banned the technique. (h/t Jason Kottke)
- Supreme Court decisions generally have an opinion written for the majority and one written by the minority (the dissent). Justices will then sign their name to either one depending on how they voted. Sometimes justices will write their own opinion, agreeing with the majority (called a "concurrence") and sometimes they'll write their own dissent. There have been two cases where the majority opinion was given no author (called "a per curium") and every single justice wrote their own opinion, for a total of 10 different opinions. New York Times v. US which was about the Pentagon Papers and Furman v. Georgia which was about the death penalty.
- Due to the way lenses refract different colors at different angles (this is why prisms create rainbows), the colors red and blue have different focal points in the eye. This phenomenon is called the longitudinal chromatic aberration and is what causes this optical illusion below. The illusion of depth created by different colors is called chromosteoropsis.
