mental_floss Blog

“Aliens Are Our Brothers,” says Vatican

Ransom Riggs — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:43:45 +0000

We don’t usually cover straight-up news as such here on the floss, but this particular item was so out there — and so geeky at the same time — I just couldn’t let it fall through the cracks. For the first time ever, Vatican astronomers have admitted the possibility — even the probability — of intelligent life on other planets. Vatican official Father Gabriel Funes, a respected astronomer in his own right, released an article titled, literally, Aliens Are My Brother, detailing various extraterrestrial scenarios as they relate to Christian theology. He compares the potential multiplicity of life forms in the universe to that here on Earth, and goes on to speculate that such alien life forms could even be “free from Original Sin … [remaining] in full friendship with their creator.” (In short, expect to hear lots more conspiracy theories about how Jesus and the angels were aliens in the near future.)

But it’s not just the Catholic Church that has aliens on the brain — also this week, the British government released years’ worth of newly-declassified documents pertaining to UFO sightings in British airspace. “The Ministry of Defence does not deny that there are strange things to see in the sky,” one internal memo explains, “but it certainly has no evidence that alien spacecraft have landed on this planet.” (Suuuure, guys.) You can check out the newly-released records here, the most hilarious bits of which, in our opinion, are the vigorous and exceedingly formal tiffs between various dukes, lords and viscounts in the British House of Lords regarding UFOs, like this one from 1982:

Viscount Long: My Lords, if the Noble Earl is suspicious that the Ministry of Defence is covering up in any way, I can assure him … the sole interest of the MoD in UFO reports is to establish whether they reveal anything of defence interest.
Lord Wynne-Jones: My Lords, does the Answer given mean that since there has been a Conservative Government the UFOs have done a U-turn and departed?
The Earl of Kimberley: My Lords, as my noble friend said that 600 UFOs had been officially reported or acknowledged by the MoD in 1984, may I ask him how many of those sightings still remain unidentified?
Viscount Long: My Lords, we do not have the figures. They disappeared into the unknown before we got them.
Lord Hill-Norton: My Lords, may I ask the noble Viscount whether or not it is true that all of the sighting reports received by the MoD before 1962 were destroyed because they were deemed “to be of no interest”? And if it is true, who was it who decided that they were of no interest?”
Viscount Long: My Lords, my reply to the noble and gallant Lord — I was wondering whether he was going to say the the Royal Navy had many times seen the Loch Ness monster — is that since 1967 all UFO reports have been preserved.

Conspiracy/comedy gold!

Second Look

Andréa Fernandes — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:00:53 +0000

With most of the artists I discuss in “Feel Art Again,” there are so many great works of art available that it’s hard to decide which painting to include in the post. I’ve rounded up 5 such artists who really deserve a second exhibition.

5. Cornelis Saftleven
The angry growl of “A Lion Snarling” is a stark contrast to the whimsical nature of “An Enchanted Cellar with Animals,” though both were drawn in chalk by this little-known Dutch painter.

4. Sir Edward Poynter
“Corner of a Villa” depicts a luxurious intimate indoor scene, while “Israel in Egypt” is a sweeping and graphic historical scene. In his day, Poynter was a well-respected authority in the art world, and he remains well-known today.

3. Gustave Moreau
Moreau believed only in what he did not say, and solely in what he felt; as a result, his artwork focused on mythological and Biblical scenes, such as “Young Moses,” and even his more historical scenes, such as “The Triumph of Alexander the Great,” are more mystical than realistic or accurate.

2. Henry Lerolle
“Femme à sa toilette” is softer, more intimate, and more colorful than “The Organ Rehearsal,” but Lerolle’s skill is quite clear in both.

1. Sir John Lavery
The Irish artist perhaps known more for his role in Anglo-Irish interactions produced both “The Glasgow Exhibition, 1888” and “Spring,” despite their markedly different color schemes and clarity of details.

For more art fun, check out Tuesday’s Best of ‘Feel Art Again’ and the ‘Feel Art Again’ quiz!

‘Feel Art Again’ appears every Tuesday and Thursday.

How the Bicycle Emancipated Women

the mag — Thu, 15 May 2008 12:58:48 +0000

The National Woman Suffrage Association was formed by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton 139 years ago today. To mark the anniversary, Chris Connolly is here to discuss the role of the bicycle in the women’s movement.
Susan B. Anthony once said, “I think [bicycling] has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world.” A woman on a bicycle, the equal rights champion observed, presents “the picture of free and untrammeled womanhood.”

Susan and her fellow 19th-century women had been severely trammeled their entire lives. Forget the glass ceiling; women in those days were trapped under the glass floor. Battles like “equal pay for equal work” were decades away. The Victorian woman’s cause was more along the lines of, “We’d like to leave the house, sometimes … please … if it isn’t too much trouble.”

The fashion for women at that time tended toward helplessness and frailty. Consider the image of a Victorian lady: She’s sickly and pale, relies on men for everything, and occasionally peeks out from behind an ornamental fan (usually before touching her wrist to her forehead and fainting). The frailty of a “lady” was such that preventing females from studying, working, voting and doing much of anything at all seemed a rational measure.

Obviously, there must have been some inclination that at least part of this frailty was socially projected. A gentleman taking a trip to the market must have come across dozens of hardworking women from the lower classes. In fact, he may have employed one such woman to support the proper ladies at his home while they gossiped, blushed and passed out. But men didn’t see those hardworking females as proper ladies. A proper lady was seen as weak, defenseless and entirely dependent on men.

Seven Pounds of Underwear
Clearly, women haven’t undergone any fundamental alterations of their physiological makeup in the last hundred years, so what allows them to live the robust, fainting-free lifestyles they do today?

Foremost, the Victorian lady rarely exercised or engaged in physical activity, which left her poorly conditioned. Secondly, it was fashionable to be frail. Just as American women in the 1950s were expected to become June Cleaver and young girls today aspire to Gwen Stefani-like independence, the Victorian woman was expected to adopt certain behaviors.

The third contributing factor to the frailty of the Victorian lady was clothing. Their garments were typically thick and black, exaggerating the female form while concealing the flesh. Curves were accentuated by tightly laced corsets, which, when coupled with long and heavy underskirts, greatly limited women’s ability to move or even breathe. (Hence much of the fainting.)

This attire was not only intended to restrict women physically, but morally, too. In a society where the accidental exposure of an ankle took on the pornographic stature of a lap dance, such dress was required to protect a lady’s virtue. In fact, the term “loose” originated to describe a woman who went uncorseted, while “straight-laced” women obeyed societal dictates.

Eventually, some women began to take a stand, and, in 1888, a letter published by The Rational Dress Society—a group of women who argued for reasonable clothing—stated, “the maximum weight of under-clothing (without shoes) approved by The Rational Dress Society, does not exceed seven pounds.”

Seven pounds of underwear? An improvement? That’s more than any jog bra in the world. Clearly, women needed to change their underwear. And that’s where the bicycle came in.

The Gateway Garment
By the late 1880s, the bicycle’s popularity really took off. For instance, in 1880, a group of early cycling advocates called the League of American Wheelmen had a membership of 40; by 1898, its ranks had bloated to nearly 200,000. Cycling was so popular that in 1896 The New York Journal of Commerce estimated bicycling was costing theaters, restaurants and other businesses over 100 million dollars per year. Considering the way the bicycle was exploding in popularity, it was only natural that women should get in on the act.

Before bicycles came along, the horse was the best means of individual travel. Of course, women’s access to horses was limited. Horses were dangerous and difficult to control; conventional medical wisdom suggested that riding them could damage a woman’s genitals. Women were supposed to ride sidesaddle, with both legs hanging off one side. In that unnatural position, women were unable to ride for long distances and were forever sliding off their beasts, reinforcing the idea that they shouldn’t be riding at all.

Bicycles, by comparison, were easy to manipulate. There was no reason a woman couldn’t get on a bike and sedately pedal farther from her home than she’d ever been before. No reason, that is, other than her cumbersome attire and the convention that if she did so, she’d either have her virtue corrupted or die of exhaustion.

In order for women to take part in the new craze without becoming entangled in the bike’s chain, they needed to wear shorter skirts or even (gasp!) bifurcated garments called bloomers. It was also necessary that they leave the house and exert themselves physically—all activities previously considered unladylike.

The severity of the outcry against women participating in these activities is proof of their effectiveness. The brave women who donned rational dress were criticized, denied access to public places and widely mocked in the media. A satirical poem in one U.S. paper, for instance, suggested bloomers were a sort of “gateway garment,” the wearers of which might go on to participate in such dastardly pursuits as business or reading.

Female cyclists were often accosted verbally and physically as they rode. Emma Eades, one of the first women to ride a bike in London, was attacked with bricks and stones. Men and women alike demanded that she go home where she belonged and behave properly.

Many people feared that the unprecedented mobility the bicycle allowed women would corrupt them morally. In fact, a business called The Cyclist’s Chaperon Association provided “gentlewomen of good social position to conduct ladies on bicycle excursions and tours.” These gentlewomen had to satisfy strict criteria to qualify as guardians of virtue. They were married ladies, widows or unmarried ladies over 30. They needed three personal references, two from ladies of unquestionable social position, and another from a clergyman of the church—all this to protect women from becoming morally debased by their bikes.

Even in the face of this overwhelming social condemnation, cycling groups persevered and eventually wrought fundamental changes in society’s view. Women did get out on their bikes and, to everyone’s surprise, didn’t faint or commit egregious moral atrocities. In fact, they discovered what everyone who rides a bike learns: It makes you more fit, more relaxed, and more aware. Women gained increased self-sufficiency, better physical conditioning, and, as a bonus, won some freedom from their restrictive clothing and its attendant social bonds.

The Vehicle of Women’s Lib
The 1900 United States Census Report, released more than 20 years after the introduction of the bicycle, said, “Few articles ever used by man have created so great a revolution in social conditions as the bicycle.” For women, this held especially true.

The bicycle continues to endear itself to free thinkers. Even today, it’s the centerpiece of many reform movements. Jacquie Phelan (pictured), for instance, is a feminist mountain biker who founded WOMBATS, the Women’s Mountain Bike and Tea Society. A three-time world champion voted one of the 10 best mountain bikers of all time, Phelan is a tireless warrior in the fight for equality. She advocates two prices for bikes based on the 59 cents women make to every dollar earned by a man. (She was inspired to take action when she finished sixth in a race and was mistakenly given the $400 dollar men’s prize instead of the $42 allotted to the female finisher.)

As the bicycle continues to lend itself to causes of all kinds, it is important to remember its first battle. Liberating is a word easily associated with cycling. Flying down a tree-lined road with the wind in your face is certainly a liberating experience, but for early female cyclists, a simple bike ride was liberating in a much more significant way.

This article originally appeared in mental_floss magazine, available wherever brilliant (or lots of) magazines are sold.

Brain Game: The Brain Brothers?

Sandy — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:30:54 +0000

I’ve always been fascinated with the psychology of twins and their relationships. Today’s Brain Game is a “related” riddle (pun intended) that we hope you’ll enjoy:

Jon and Don were born to the same parents
on the same date of the same year
at the same hospital, but they’re not twins.

How is this possible?

Click here for the answer.

Animal Prosthetics: A Leg Up on a Bad Break

Miss Cellania — Thu, 15 May 2008 10:28:42 +0000

Amputee animals have a hard life. In the last few years, more and more disabled creatures of different species are being helped by modern technology, and by the researchers and volunteers who go the extra mile.

Fuji’s Rubber Tail

Fuji is a dolphin who lives in an aquarium in Okinawa. A mysterious illness in 2002 caused her tail to rot, and it was amputated to stop the spread of the disease. Without a tail, a dolphin can’t swim. Engineers from Bridgestone Tire Company worked to design a new rubber tail for Fuji. The first designs did not work properly or had some other drawback. Finally, Fuji accepted the third tail design, made of silicon rubber with a foam padding, and was able to swim almost as well as an intact dolphin.

Uzonka and Beauty and their New Beaks

When a bird’s beak is damaged, it may not be able to eat, drink, or hunt properly and could die as a result. Uzonka the stork had her bill damaged by human assault. She received a prosthetic beak after five preparatory operations and is in the care of an animal hospital in Uzon, Romania.

Beauty is an Alaskan bald eagle whose beak was shot off several years ago. She was found in 2005, unable to properly hunt or eat. She was taken to a refuge, but her beak did not grow back. Beauty will receive a nylon-composite beak next month. A new beak attached with screws would enable her to hunt, but the animal experts in charge of the surgery decided against it, because the screws would have to be dangerously close to her eyes and brain. Instead, her prosthetic beak will be attached with glue. Beauty must stay in human custody, where she will be fed and protected.

George Bailey’s Implanted Leg

A cat named George Bailey was born with only stumps for hind legs. He got around by dragging his rear end. Veterinarians and engineers from North Carolina State University tackled the problem in a new way. Instead of attaching a limb over a stump, they attached an artificial limb to his bones. The hope was that the existing bone tissue would grow around the prosthetic, a process called osseointegration. Using a cat scan of the cat, they created a model of George’s pelvis and leg bones and designed a lower leg and foot. In 2005, the team implanted a titanium post into George’s stump, to which the prosthetic leg could be attached. George was soon running and jumping on his new leg. Animals that normally walk on four legs usually get along just fine with three. George took great advantage of his new mobility, and was so rambunctious that in two months, he broke the titanium nails that were holding his leg in place. The prosthetic limb had to be removed.

Storm’s Carbon Fiber Paw

A Belgium shepherd named Storm had a similar surgery performed in England in 2007. Storm had lost a front paw due to a tumor. A titanium rod was implanted in the dog’s radius, and a carbon fiber paw was later plugged into the rod.

Stumpy the Kangaroo

Stumpy the red kangaroo lives in Ohio, at the International Kangaroo Society’s sanctuary. She only has one leg. Veterinarians at Ohio State University created an artificial limb for her. Dr. David E. Anderson, Associate Professor of Surgery, Food Animal, of the College of Veterinary Medicine and Richard Nitsch, a licensed prosthesis orthotist for American Orthopedics, made sure it included a spring to replicate the natural movement of a kangaroo.

Allison the Triple Amputee Sea Turtle

Allison is a three-year-old Atlantic Green sea turtle. She was found in south Texas with only one fin, bleeding from where the other three should be. She was taken to Sea Turtle Inc, a turtle conservation facility, where she healed up against the odds. Allison can swim with just one fin, but only in circles. In February, medical and veterinary volunteers announced they would fit her with a prosthetic flipper on her left rear, where she has enough one to support one. There have been no updates, so the procedure probably hasn’t taken place yet.

George the Pegleg Parrot

George the African Gray parrot lost a leg 18 months ago when he was attacked by an unidentified wild animal. Since then, he’s had a hard time getting any sleep, as he tries to balance on one foot. It even drove him to swearing! But Dr. Glyn Heath of the University of Salford’s School of Health Care Professions designed an artificial leg for George. Although Dr. Heath has made many false limbs for animals, this was his first prosthetic for a bird. This particular leg wasn’t fitted on George himself, but attached to his perch. The idea was that George could sit on it and balance himself enough to get some sleep. However, George wasn’t impressed with his prosthetic. In fact, he ate it.

Tahi the Kiwi

Kiwi birds do not fly; they walk on two legs. So when Tahi lost a leg in a trap, he could do nothing but hop. The New Zealand zoo where the kiwi lived turned to the Wellington Artificial Limb Board and Weta Workshop, the team responsible for the special effects in the Lord of the Rings movies. The Weta crew made a mold of the bird’s stump, and the Limb Board made an articulated (bendable) limb, the smallest they’ve ever made. Tahi can now stand, and is learning to run with his new leg.

Motala and Mocha Survive Land Mines

Motala the elephant stepped on a land mine near the Thai-Burma border in 1999. Veterinarians were able to repair her front leg, but it was left much shorter than the others. At Friends of the Asian Elephant’s hospital in Thailand, Motala began using a prosthetic leg in 2005. The prosthesis is a bag filled with wood shavings, which makes her damaged leg as long as the others. She accepted the attachment, and is still using the same kind of prosthetic leg. You can follow Motala’s life in pictures at her webpage.

A very young elephant named Mocha found herself in the much the same situation after an encounter with a land mine near the border with Burma. Mocha was fitted with a new leg earlier this year, also from the Friends of the Asian Elephant organization in Thailand.

Artificial limbs have been fitted on horses, llamas, and cows, and probably plenty of other animals.

Other prosthetics are available, too. A group of students are opening a business to produce dentures for cats. But the strangest prosthetics are Neuticles, which are implanted testicles for dogs who has been neutered. It’s purely for cosmetic reasons.

It may seem extravagant to fit prosthetics on animals that have a relatively short life span, but it makes a big difference in the quality of life for that particular animal. It also enhances the quality of life for the animal’s owner. The experience of fitting artificial limbs to animals leads to innovations in human prosthetics. And after all, most of these animals are missing their natural parts because of humans.

Thingamajig Thursday: Aglets

David K. Israel — Thu, 15 May 2008 08:44:49 +0000

Today I’m reviving a long-lost feature scant few of you might remember: Thingamajig Thursday. The basic concept used to be that every thursday (give or take), I’d take a close look at some interesting thingamajig - or thingamabob, if you prefer – and let you know the real name of it so you could appear a tad smarter than the next guy, who’s still foolishly calling the thingamajig a thingamajig.

I’ll spend some time reviving a few of my favorites from the blog’s incipient summer days of 2006, and then start with a whole bunch of new ones. This time around, however, I’d love it if you all would join me in trying to rename the thingamajig in question. Most of these have rather lame sounding names. I know you guys love to show off your creative sides, so have at it! I’ll pick one or two of my favorites and post them the following thursday for the whole world to see. Who knows? Maybe you’ll even succeed at coining a new thingamajig word.

So let’s start with the aglet or aiglet, as it’s sometimes spelled. An aglet is that funny plastic or metal cap thingamajig at the end of your shoelace, which is supposed to keep the lace from unraveling. (Though try telling that to my 9-month-old Jack.) The word itself, which can be traced back to the Latin, acus, or needle, is pronounced AG-let, with the accent on the first syllable, not ag-LET. Were the accent on the second syllable, it might be fun to substitute the word into that Frank Sinatra song and sing, “Aglets, I’ve had a few….”

Now: if you’ve got a heck of a lot of free time on your hands, you might want to learn how to repair broken aglets here, at Fieggen.com.

And I’ll leave you with Wiki, who has some additional interesting info on the little aglet, as well:

Before the invention of buttons, [aglets] were used on the ends of ribbons to fasten clothing together. Sometimes they would be formed into small figures. Shakespeare calls this type of figure an “aglet baby” in The Taming of the Shrew.

So, had I invented this thingamajig I’d have called it a fraynot. How about you guys?

Morning Cup of Links: The Web’s Strangest Collections

Miss Cellania — Thu, 15 May 2008 07:29:11 +0000

25 of the Strangest Collections on the Web. Yes, there is someone out there who collects anything you can think of, even belly-button lint.
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A history of the eugenics movement. Thousands of “undesirables” were sterilized in the US, decades before (and after) the Nazis endorsed the idea.
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Portion Size, Then and Now. Large quantities of cheap food have distorted our perceptions of what a typical meal is supposed to look like. Even our plates are larger than they used to be!
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The first telephone switchboard operators were teenage boys, which was a disaster. So telephone companies hired women, who were more pleasant and patient, would work under draconian conditions, and could be paid as little as $7 a week.
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Familiarity Breeds Contempt. Contrary to intuition, we like other people less the more we know about them. This explains the rarity of the second date.
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15 Infamous Top Secret Bases & Compounds From Around The World. Looks like they aren’t secret any more!
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Greensburg, Kansas was destroyed by a tornado a year ago. They are rebuilding as the first entirely green town in the US.
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Drinking Games of Yore. Who knew drinking games had such a long and sozzled history?

Quiz: Seinfeld’s Guest Stars

Jason English — Thu, 15 May 2008 04:32:47 +0000

Ten years ago this week, 76 million viewers tuned in to watch Seinfeld say goodbye. (Most of them immediately started complaining about the finale.) But the show didn’t really go anywhere—a quick check of my local listings turned up over 50 different episodes on in the next week. That syndicated ubiquity should help you here.

Since the last episode, many guest stars have gone on to enjoy rather impressive careers of their own. Inspired by Pete McEntegart’s SI.com story on this topic and with a major assist from IMDb, our quiz asks you to match the actor to the Seinfeld character he or she portrayed.

Take the Quiz: Seinfeld’s Guest Stars

Dietribes: A Little Cherry History

Allison Keene — Wed, 14 May 2008 20:18:15 +0000

Cherries are everywhere in our cultural landscape—from Cherry Coke to Chekhov’s famous “The Cherry Orchard” to Mary Poppins, where the Banks family lived on Cherry Tree Lane. And who can forget about old George Washington and that whole chopping thing? (Whether it’s true or not, we all remember!) Cherries are everywhere, so let’s find out a little bit more about this fragrant fruit.

• Cherries share their genus, Prunus, with almonds, peaches, plums and apricots, and can grow in nearly every climate and condition in the world (including, apparently, the tundra). Edible cherry varieties originated primarily in Europe and western Asia. Although around 75 percent of world production originates in Europe, the United States also produces a number of species, with which you can acquaint yourself here.

• My personal introduction to cherries came with the Maraschino, probably the most fake-but-still-edible “fruit” to exist, or as this article puts it, “the artificially flavored brine cherry, survivor of red dye cancer scares, that sits at the bottom of a Manhattan cocktail or at the summit of an ice cream sundae.” Maraschino cherries were developed at Oregon State University in the 1920s, and the school still offers a course in the matter: Food Science and Technology 102—the Maraschino Cherry. Food for thought!

• You may have seen the link I posted Saturday of a time-lapse video documenting cherry blossoms in Brooklyn. This type of tree came from one of several varieties originally given as a gift from Tokyo to the United States as a symbol of friendship. In fact, the Japanese also sent cherry trees to the State of Utah after WWII. The cherry was selected as the state fruit of Utah in 1997.

• Bing cherries are the most popular variety in the US, with trees producing large, sweet fruit and wonderfully fragrant white flowers. The exact details of Bing’s origin are not clear, but it was named in honor of a nursery foreman (and possible cultivator) by the name of Ah Bing. The first tree came from the seed of another new variety, Republican, in 1875. Today there are over 1000 varieties of sweet cherries, but Bing still tops the list both in popularity and production.

• Cherries are not only tasty but also may have some incredible health benefits. Studies at the University of Michigan suggest that tart cherries can alter factors linked to heart disease and diabetes. Another study suggests tart cherries fight jet lag, and possibly arthritis.

• Cherries are not without their myths. According to some accounts, President Zachary Taylor died July 9, 1850, after getting sick from eating cherries and milk at a July 4 celebration. It’s been long believed cholera was the cause, but that still has not stopped generations of maternal warnings against the deadly cherries-and-milk combination (just like Pop Rocks and soda, your stomach will obviously explode). You have been warned!

• For more fun with cherries, check out the Spoonbridge and Cherry sculpture—a landmark at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden by husband and wife team Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. The cherry alone weighs 1,200 pounds. Learn more about how it was made here. Also try your hand at the International Spitting Competition. The current World Record stands at around 100 feet.

• Reward yourself after a long day and snuggle up to an easy-to-make natural heating pad filled with cherry pits. Dried cherry pits retain heat and can be used to make heating pads or bed warmers.

So what’s your favorite way to eat a cherry? Any delectable recipes to share?

Hungry for more? Venture into the Dietribes archive.

‘Dietribes’ appears every Wednesday. Food photos taken by Johanna Beyenbach. You might remember that name from our post about her colorful diet.

The Quick 10: The 10 Top-Selling Video Game Franchises

Stacy Conradt — Wed, 14 May 2008 19:37:55 +0000

I’ve been obsessed with playing Mario Kart on the Wii lately, so you’re going to have to forgive my preoccupation in making today’s list. Guess which lovable plumber is #1? I prefer Waluigi when I’m racing, though…

The 10 Top-Selling Video Game Franchises by Number of Units

1. Mario, with sales of more than 200 million since 1981.
2. Pokemon - sales of 175 million since 1996.
3. The Sims, in a distant third place with 100 million since 2000
4. Final Fantasy, 80 million since 1987.
5. Grand Theft Auto - 70 million since 1997.
6. Madden NFL - 70 million since 1988.
7. Tetris - 70 million since 1985.
8. FIFA - 65 million since 1993.
9. The Legend of Zelda - 52 million since 1986.
10. Tom Clancy, including Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon - 52 million since 1998.

Not far behind are Nickelodeon (with SpongeBob games), Gran Turismo, Donkey Kong and Sonic the Hedgehog with 50, 50, 48 and 45 million respectively.