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Sweethearts: those little chalky heart candies you know so well -or do you? They’ve been in production for decades, but they weren’t always hearts. At one time, they came in the shapes of scallops, baseballs, and horseshoes. And they didn’t always have messages on top; those messages used to be printed on paper and were inside the candy!
More than eight billion (some 13 million pounds) of the little hearts are sold in the six weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day. Sweethearts make up 40 percent of the Valentine candy market, just behind chocolate, according to Aimee Scott, Necco’s marketing director.
One of America’s oldest candy companies, Necco was founded in 1847 in Boston by Englishman Oliver Chase, who got the business off to a good start by inventing devices that cut candy lozenges and pulverized sugar. Necco first sold confections similar to Sweethearts, but in the shape of scallop shells.
Sweethearts are still evolving every year. Smithsonian magazine has all kinds of interesting facts about Sweethearts. Link
(Image generated at Cryptogram)
Researchers at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center have built a machine that keeps a heart designated for transplantation active. Using this machine increases the amount of time that the organ can remain outside of a human body but still suitable for a transplant.
You can skip ahead to 1:10 in the video to see the super freaky cool scene of the heart beating in the life support machine.
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Heart-Kun is an adorable dog with a heart marking on his side. He’s a minor internet celebrity and was even featured on the post we recently linked to featuring animals with heart markings. His parents recently gave birth to a new litter, including little Love-Kun who also has a heart marking. Now that is one special family.
