Free The Wise Book of Whys by Daven Hiskey, Today I Found Out.com

rather than pressing them out, which gives Swiss cheese its distinctive holes. Historically, however, these holes were seen as an imperfection in the cheese and most manufacturers would try to avoid them by pressing this type of cheese during the aging process to force the bubbles out and keep the cheese solid throughout the block or wheel.
     
     
     
    BONUS FACT
     
    The size of the holes in Swiss cheese sold in the United States is regulated by the U.S. government. This is widely criticized by many Swiss cheese manufactures outside of the U.S., particularly in Switzerland, which tend to produce their cheese in a non-factory environment and thus, take more pride in the end product, rather than the bottom line. The reason for the protest is that the size of the holes is regulated by varying the curing time, acidity, and temperature, during the fermentation process, which typically lasts 60-100 days. These changes, however, also will significantly affect the texture and flavor of the cheese itself. Many foreign Swiss cheese manufactures claim that the regulations put forth by the American government produce an inferior flavored Swiss cheese, hence the protest.
    The U.S. g overnment created these regulations at the behest of commercial American Swiss cheese producers, who were having problems with their mechanical slicers cutting cheese when the Swiss cheese holes were too big, (typical sizes of the holes used to be around the size of a nickel). Rather than innovate or upgrade their equipment, they went with the age-old practice of simply lobbying the government to make laws to fix their problem. Namely, to specify that, in order for Swiss cheese to be classified as “Grade A,” which is generally necessary for high-volume sales in the United States, it must have holes no bigger than 3/8 of an inch, which was about half the typical size before these new regulations were put in place. This also significantly shortens the required aging time of North American style Swiss cheese, which also benefited the American mass-producers of the cheese.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Why Cats Like Catnip
     
    Catnip, which is a perennial herb in the mint family, contains a chemical called “nepetalactone” that is released when catnip is crushed . When cats get a whiff of nepetalactone, most will start rubbing themselves against it, playing with it, sometimes eating it, and generally will act quite bizarrely. It is thought, but not known exactly, that this chemical mimics certain feline pheromones, specifically their theoretical facial pheromones. (It isn’t known whether these actually exist, but many researchers think they do.)
    Once cats have been exposed to the nepetalactone for a few minutes, the chemical loses its effect on them, and cats will usually no longer be interested in it for about an hour or two. At this point the chemical will start to kick in again as the cats breathe it in, and they will once again begin acting bizarrely around it for a few minutes.
    Despite the apparent drug-like effect, it isn’t thought that catnip is in any way harmful to cats, nor is it thought that it is addictive . Most researches think that nepetalactone simply triggers something in their brains that causes them to want to rub up against this particular smell, not unlike what dogs often do when they encounter certain smells. That being said, cats can “overdose” on catnip, which typically results in vomiting or diarrhea.
    Interestingly, not all cats respond to catnip. Whatever genetic quirk that causes them to respond to nepetalactone is inherited and only about 70% of ca ts show a behavioral difference around catnip. Further, cats under the age of a few weeks old are also not attracted to catnip, and some even show an aversion to it.
    Not only are very young cats sometimes averse to catnip, but so are cockroaches, mosquitoes, flies, and termites . In fact, nepetalactone extract has been