We are experiencing technical difficulties....

I apologize profusely that I have not kept up with regular blog posting. The internet connection at my home has gone curiously haywire. Perhaps the cats are conspiring against the electronics so the humans in the house will spend more time petting them?

Anyway, if you have any internet advice, I'd love to hear it. I'll be checking my email every time I go to a coffee shop (with isn't all that often). In the meantime, I guess we'll have to call the repair guy. I promise there will be many more fascinating posts once my connection gets back up and running! Thanks for being patient!

Happy Hanukkah

Today is the first day of Hanukkah! This Jewish holiday marks the anniversary of the reconsicration of the Temple in Jerusalem after it was desecrated by Antiochus IV and his troops. Reportedly, there was only enough oil to light the eternal flame temple for one day, but miraculously the oil lasted for eight days. By the time it ran out, more oil had been made. The event is commemorated by lighting candles, giving gifts, eating good food, and being festive in general, so HAPPY HANUKKAH!

How to Weasel Your Way Out of a Traffic Ticket

The best way to not have to pay a ticket, of course, is to drive perfectly. However, if you do make a mistake and get caught, here's a few tips courtesy of Lauren Z. Asher, traffic law specialist.

First, try to put the officer at ease as he/she approaches your car. For all he/she knows, you could be a homicidal maniac, so turn off your engine and put your hands on the steering wheel where they can be seen. Always play dumb when the officer asks you why you think you were pulled over, this maneuver may be a fishing expedition. Be very friendly and talk the officer up before he/she starts filling out the ticket, and it can't hurt to ask for just a warning. Don't argue if they write you a ticket anyway.

Skymining

A company called Skyonic has come up with the Skymine system. This novel process takes carbon dioxide out of industrial smokestacks and uses waste heat from factories to make ordinary pure baking soda. A pilot version has already been installed at the Big Brown Steam Electric Station in Fairfield, Texas (my grandpa worked there for years, by the way). If the Skymine system gains popularity, it could help to curb global warming by reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

Tammy Faye

Tammy Faye Messner was a woman best known for her garish makeup, but there was more to her than big blonde hair and a painted face. She was one of the few women televangelists, and the only to show tolerance to homosexuals. At a time when little was known and much feared about AIDs, she interviewed people with AIDs on her show and encouraged her followers to pray for them. After her second marraige to a thieving husband failed, her comeback was largely due to her gay following. She was especially popular with drag queens, perhaps because they had the false eyelashes in common?

Sadly, on July 20, 2007, Tammy Faye died of lung cancer after an 11-year battle with the disease. Her son, Jay Bakker, now preaches his own brand of punk gospel with the Revolution Church.

Ha Ha Ha

Whoever said "laughter is the best medicine" was onto something. Laughter is good for the blood vessels, the heart, and the immune system. It can lower blood sugar in diabetics. Laughter can reduce pain. It also works out the muscles of the torso and face. It is estimated that 100 laughs equals 10 minutes on a rowing machine.

Humans are not the only animals that laugh. Chimps, gorillas, orangatans, and bonobos have all been known to laugh. Rats laugh at a pitch higher than the human ear can hear. The hyena is well known for its laughing noises, and it's cousin the dog laughs, too. A dog's laugh sounds a lot like panting.

Space Cadet

For astronauts, space travel can be demanding both mentally and physically. The human body undergoes several changes in zero gravity. As you can imagine, a person's sense of balance would be the first thing to go. This combined with the lack of pressure on any of the muscles is disorienting. Because the muscles are not needed as much, the body atrophies. The bones get weaker, too. The legs in particular get thinner. The heart usually relies on gravity to help pump blood into the legs, and without gravity, the legs get less blood flow. The upper body and head get extra blood, making the face puffy and the veins bulge. Some astronauts get sinus congestion, or they get headaches. The spine lengthens since there is no weight to compress it. This decompression sometimes causes backaches.

Still, it would have to be pretty cool to go into outer space.

Continents

Every continent on Earth is wider to the north and narrower to the south (Antarctica might be excluded from this). Nobody is sure why.

The Butterfly Effect

In 1961, Edward Lorenz was trying to prove that a relatively new invention called the computer could be used to predict the weather. He set up a program with a very simplified representation of the atmosphere. This consisted of a few heat exchange equations that were iterative--input one number, get an output, the output is then input, and so on.

After a the program had been running for a little while, Edward actually started to see a pattern in numbers. This was really exciting news! It meant that it was perhaps not impossible, as people had so far thought, to accurately predict the weather even a long time in advance! Imagine never getting rained out of a ball game ever again, or imagine knowing when a hurricane would strike New Orleans.

Then the computer crashed one day. Once it was back up and running, Edward took the last number from the paper readout of his program and input it back into the program. The mock weather patterns in the computer should have behaved just as predictably as they had before, but they went seemingly haywire after a few iterations and behaved entirely differently.

What happened? Surely with the input of the last output of numbers, the program should have resumed its familiar patterns. Actually, Edward soon realized that the paper output only printed the numbers to three decimal spaces in order to save space. The computer program itself recorded the numbers to six decimal spaces. Would a miniscule millionth of a unit really have an effect? Yes. Over time, that tiny fraction would multiply and make a bigger and bigger difference.

Thus, Edward Lorenz concluded that it would be impossible to accurately predict the weather in the real world because nobody could ever account for all of the tiny variations in air currents that would multiply to affect weather patterns. Put more eloquently, a butterfly flapping it's wings in Brazil could cause a tornado in Texas a month later.

This idea of little variations that make big differences came to be known as the Butterfly Effect.

Deus Ex Machina

The Ancient Greeks were famous for theater. One of the more famous tragedy writers, Euripides, had a knack for writing his characters into hopeless situations. Then one of the gods would sweep down from Mount Olympus and save the day. On stage, an actor playing the god would be lowered into the scene by a crane. This plot device came to be known by the Latin "deus ex machina"--literally, "god from a machine".

If you look, you can still find a deus ex machina or two in modern storylines. The term still applies when it is a person, thing, or nature that saves the day. When Fawkes the phoenix flew in to save Harry Potter in The Chamber of Secrets, that would be a deus ex machina. Another example is in War of the Worlds when the aliens that have been killing everybody die from a common virus.

Bless You

The ancient Greeks believed that sneezes were signs from the gods.

In Indian culture, sneezing right before the start of some type of work is a bad omen that the job will have some negative interruption. It is advised to wait a little while and then start the work without sneezes.

In Japan, a sneeze without an obvious cause means someone is talking about you behind your back. One sneeze means something good is being said about you, and two sneezes in a row mean something bad is being said about you.

In Medieval times, Europeans believed that a person's heart stops when they sneezed. Saying "God bless you" would make it start beating again.

I dub thee Sir Loin...

Legend has it that King Charles II loved a certain cut of steak so much that he dubbed it "Sir Loin", and that's how sirloin steaks got the name. Actually, sirloin comes from the Middle French word for the steak, surlong. Eventually surlong evolved into surloin, and in the eighteenth century emerged as sirloin.

Happy Black Friday

Today is the day after Thanksgiving, and that means it's the official first day of the Christmas shopping season. Black Friday is notorious as the biggest shopping day of the year, although the Saturday before Christmas is usually actually busier.

Perhaps Black Friday seems like the busiest day because people line up outside of stores or elbow their way through shops to snatch and grab at the best deals. PS3s are supposed to be the hottest item this year. The term "Black Friday" surfaced in the 1970s because retail and transportation workers hate to deal with all of the stressed-out shoppers the day brings out.

As for me, the deals certainly are not good enough to fight the crowds. Good luck if you go shopping this weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving!

In 1789, President George Washington declared November 26th to be Thanksgiving Day and issued a national Thanksgiving Proclamation for the country's having "been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed...." However, the holiday didn't really catch on at first. Over the next 30 years, only 6 Thanksgiving Proclamations were issued.

In a few years, though, a woman named Sarah Josepha Hale began lobbying for a national holiday of Thanksgiving on the last Thursday in November. She wrote editorials in the popular Godey's Lady's Book until President Abraham Lincoln made her wish come true. Since the establishment of the holiday in 1863, the Presidency has issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation every year.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Sunday Bloody Sunday is more than a U2 song. Bloody Sunday was an actual event that happened on November 21, 1920, in Dublin, Ireland. On that morning, 14 British agents in the Irish War for Independence were killed by the Irish Republican Army. That afternoon, British soldiers opened fire at a Gaelic football game, killing 15 civilians. There were other random shootings that day as well.

The British and Irish are pretty peaceful today, even in Northern Ireland where there has been conflict up until recent years. Bloody Sunday is being commemorated this year by Dublin and Tipperary in Clonmel with a Gaelic football rematch.

Somewhere Over the....

Perhaps the most famous legend about rainbows is that Leprechauns hide their gold at the end of the rainbow. This is impossible, of course, as rainbows are only an optical illusion and move with the viewer.

The Greeks believed that rainbows were streaks made by the messenger Iris as she traveled between heaven and earth. In fact, the Spanish word for rainbow is arcoiris.

Chinese mythology states that rainbows happen when the goddess Nüwa seals up a rip in the sky using five different colored stones. For Hindus, lightning is the thunder god's bow. In Christian lore, the rainbow was God's promise to Noah that he wouldn't need the ark anymore.

Wake Up!

Here's the caffeine content per serving of various drinks:

coffee 115 to 175 mg caffeine (per 7 oz.)
decaf coffee 5 mg (6 oz.)
espresso 100 mg (1.5-2 oz.)
black tea 70 mg (6 oz.)
green tea 35 mg (6 oz.)
Coca-Cola Classic 34 mg (12 oz.)
Diet Coke 45 mg (12 oz.)
Mountain Dew 55 mg (12 oz.)
Dr Pepper 41 mg (12 oz.)
Pepsi 38 mg (12 oz.)
Red Bull 80 mg (8.3 oz.)
Powershot 100 mg (1 oz.)

Something with a little bite...

I love spicy food. The chemical that causes your mouth to burn so is called capsaicin, and it is only found in chili peppers. Originally used to help preserve meat, capsaicin has other uses besides livening up your tacos. Capsaicin is the active ingredient in pepper spray, some arthritis medicines, and some garden pest sprays. Research suggests that capsaicin may also fight cancer.

Polly wanna cracker?

Possibly the smartest bird in the world is the African Grey Parrot. While many parrots can mimic human speech, African Greys can learn what the words mean. A woman named Aimee Morgana has an African Grey Parrot named N'kisi that speaks in sentences and knows around a thousand words. These birds' potential for language may be due to their behavior of feeding on the ground cooperatively in the wild of Central Africa. African Greys make incredibly cool but high-maintenance pets. They bond only with one person and require several hours outside the cage each day.

Pink Flamingos

There are more plastic flamingos in the United States than real flamingos. Plastic pink flamingos were first introduced as lawn ornaments by Union Products in the late 1950's. The original flamingos were designed by Don Featherstone. They had his signature on their bottoms, beaks of yellow and black, and were sold only in pairs. Because hot pink was in style in the 1950's, pink flamingos were fairly popular with the suburban crowd. Since then, pink flamingos have fluctuated in popularity while still retaining their nice, tacky kitsch.

In my not-so-humble opinion, pink flamingos will never be nearly as tacky as the 2-D "Granny Fanny" lawn ornaments.

Now, That's Service

When an engineer determines the size of the beams he's putting into a building, the deciding factor is not always the amount of weight put on the beam. A beam may be more than strong enough to carry the weight put on it, yet still bend a quite a bit with that weight. This bending, called deflection, is especially apparent in wood beams. Deflections of even an inch are very noticeable to humans. Furthermore, when people walk across a floor that deflects and bounces a bit with their footsteps, they tend to get a little freaked out, even if the floor is perfectly safe and in no danger of failing. Thus, engineers usually make their beams bigger than they need to be in order to decrease deflection and make the inhabitants of the building feel more comfortable. They call this serviceability.

"Milk's Favorite Cookie"

My favorite dunkin' cookie is undoubtedly the Oreo. Oreos have been in production for nearly a century, long enough for the origins of the name to be lost to time. There are, however, theories. "Oreos" means beautiful in Greek. Or perhaps the name was based on "Oros", the Greek word for mountain. The first Oreos were mound-shaped. Maybe "Or" was taken from the French word for gold, since Oreos were originally sold in gold tins with glass tops. Some think the name is some chopped up, sandwiched mishmash of the words "cream" and "chocolate". Still others think "Oreo" was chosen just because the word sounds cool.

See Appendix

The vermiform appendix is a wormy-looking structure tacked on to the large intestine where it meets the small intestine. Doctor's still aren't sure what the appendix is for. Many people have had appendectomies without any noticeable health complications, and a few people are even born without an appendix. The appendix is likely a vestigial organ, which means that whatever species we evolved from needed an appendix for something, and humans just haven't evolved past having one yet. Our evidence for this is that Old World Monkeys have a more developed appendix than we do. Some think that our primate ancestors used the appendix as an extra intestinal structure for digesting leaves.

Some doctors believe that the appendix still has some uses for humans. Endocrine cells have been found in fetal appendices, suggesting that the appendix is useful for development of biological control mechanisms. Adult appendices are usually full of lymphatic cells, and the appendix may help the immune system in some way. Duke University researchers have found that the appendix can be a hideout for useful bacteria when illness strikes the intestines. At the very least, an appendix can be transplanted to reconstruct an unhealthy bladder or sphincter muscle.

The Mad Hatter's Tale

The character of the Mad Hatter has been popularized by Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, but people were familiar with the Mad Hatter idea before Lewis ever put pen to paper. The phrase "mad as a hatter" likely had origins in the mercury that hatters used to use for softening whalebone for hat brims. Over time, exposure to the mercury would cause brain damage, slurred speech, and distorted eyesight. Advanced mercury poisoning causes psychotic symptoms and hallucinations. Since the process was so gradual, it was a while before people realized why their local hatters were going mad.

Eggs-actly

What may be the most crucial part of your morning eggs? The yolk? The whites? No, the air. All chicken eggs have a little pocket of air between the shell and the goo. This air pocket forms as the contents of the egg cool and contract right after the egg is laid. Eggs are graded based on the amount of air in them. A bright light is shined on one side of the egg, and the size of the air pocket is measured by the shadow on the other side of the egg. The smallest pockets earn the egg a Grade AA.

As an egg ages, the contents contract even more, and air seeps into the pocket through pores in the shell. When the egg goes bad, the pocket is big enough to make the egg float in plain water. Thus if you're worried that you have a spoiled egg, drop it into a glass of water. If the egg sinks, you can eat it.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today I'm turning 24 years old, so I'm sort of taking the day off.

Objects in Looking Glass are Larger than they Appear

Alice in Wonderland Syndrome (a.k.a. micropsia) is a disorder that causes the sufferer to perceive objects as smaller than they really are. These perceptions are sometimes called Lilliputian hallucinations after the little people in Gulliver's Travels.

Alice in Wonderland Syndrome may be caused by migraines, epilepsy, psychoactive drugs, or schizophrenia. The condition affects the brain, not the eyes or any other sense organ. In fact, an object that looks smaller to a person suffering from the syndrome feels smaller, too, even with eyes closed.

The Ultimate Eccentric

Arguably the older generation's Paris Hilton was the eccentric and intriguing Howard Hughes. This aviating record-setter, engineer, film producer and director, and businessman from Texas was one of the wealthiest people in the world. And of course, he had a dark side. Hughes suffered from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (he obsessed about such things as cleanliness, all things Texan, and finagling out of taxes), and he was addicted to codeine, valium, and a few other prescription drugs. The drug abuse left Hughes 's so ravaged that he was a scant 90 lbs. when he died from kidney failure at 70 years old.

Sawing Logs

Men really do snore more than women. Men tend to gain fat around their faces and necks, constricting the airway a bit and causing the structures in there to flap in the breeze. Women are more likely to deposit that fat on their hips and bellies. Furthermore, women tend to have a wider airway anyway.

Smoking and drinking can make people snore more. Also pregnance can swell the lining around the nose and throat, which would cause a woman to snore.

"war began in my dining room and ended in my parlor"

Consider the case of one Wilmer McLean. Wilmer was a simple grocer when the first shots of the American Civil War were fired in his back yard. The First Battle of Bull Run ensued. As you can imagine, Wilmer was uncomfortable, to say the least, with cannonballs taking out his dining room fireplace, so he moved to Appomattox Court House.

Fast forward to 1865, and we get the Battle of Appomattox Court House. The Civil War followed Wilmer McLean right into his parlor, where General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ullyses S. Grant.

In fact, when the surrender document was signed, the Union soldiers started pocketing all of Wilmer's belongings as souvenirs. George Custer got the table upon which the surrender was signed. Wilmer protested this theivery of course, but the soldiers merely gave him cash as they walked out his door.

Hear Me Roar...

Why do classic lion tamers carry a chair around with them in the ring?

Lions' brains work so that they can really only focus their attention on one thing at a time. If a lion starts getting a little too interested in a tamer, the tamer will put a chair between himself and the lion, legs pointed out toward the lion's face. The legs of the chair present to the lion four points of interest. This move confuses the lion a little bit as he is faced with the choice of which leg to focus on, and more importantly, it diverts the lion's attention away from the tamer.

Daylight Saving Time

Daylight Saving Time (not Daylight Savings Time, officially) is when our clocks are shifted one hour later for the summer months in order to have more sunlight in the summer evening hours. The time springs forward one hour in the Spring and falls back into place in the Fall. This hour difference in the summer and winter allows for similar dawn hours for the whole year. Studies show that the practice saves an average of 1% annual energy. Other studies have shown that Daylight Saving Time reduces traffic accidents because the streets are better lit for longer into the evening.

Daylight Saving Time is practiced variably around the world. In the U.S., Daylight Saving Time starts at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March and ends at 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday in November. The entire European Union changes at 1:00 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time on the last Sunday in March and the last Sunday in October. Areas near the equator do not observe Daylight Saving Time because the daylight hours don't shift as much or even at all during the year. Some nations and a couple of U.S. states choose not to practice Daylight Saving Time. While some people enjoy the extra evening light, others think it unwise to toy with time.

qwertyuiop

The first typewriters had keys laid out in alphabetical order. Unfortunately, fast typists would get adjacent keys tangled when typing them in rapid succession. Seeking to separate common adjacent letters, Christopher Sholes devised the modern QWERTY layout.

Some people think that the QWERTY layout slows typists down, further ensuring that the keys won't get stuck. Arguably the arrangement would help in the two-fingered typing technique.

Midnight Ride and Subsequent Walk

Most American children hear of Paul Revere's midnight ride on April 18, 1775, to warn colonists of the British invasion. Few hear that Revere never actually completed his ride.

The Sons of Liberty had been watching the movements of the British army. When a battle seemed eminent, Dr. Joseph Warren instructed both Revere and William Dawes to ride to Lexington, Massachusets, to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams. Then they were supposed to ride on to Concord where the militia's weapons were stored.

Revere successfully made it to Lexington, making sure two lanterns were placed in the tower of the Old North Church, warning the revolutionaries that the army was advancing "by sea" across the nearby Charles River. At Lexington, Revere met back up with Dawes, who had come by a different route. The two headed to Concord along with Samuel Prescott, but were stopped on the way by British soldiers. Paul Revere was captured, his horse was confiscated, and he was forced to walk back toward Lexington at gunpoint. Dawes escaped, but soon fell off his horse and never made it to Concord. Samuel Prescott got away by jumping his horse over a wall and successfully reached Concord before the battle began.

Some forty years after Paul Revere's death, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow penned his highly famous yet highly romanticized version of Revere's ride:

Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere....

I guess it's too hard to rhyme with "Prescott".

The World's Largest Flower

The world's largest flower is called rafflesia arnoldi. The flower was named after Sir Stamford Raffles, a naturalist who founded the British colony of Singapore. Its petals can be a yard in diameter, and it can weigh up to 15 pounds! The flower only exists in the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra. The flower is much like a fungi, in that it has no stems, leaves, or roots. Rafflesia arnoldi is a parasite that attaches itself directly to Tetrastigma vines.

The common name for the world's largest flower is "corpse flower". The plant is pollinated by flies, so the flower emits the pungent aroma of rotting flesh in order to attract them. Corpse flowers are rare, and extinction may be eminent for these beauties as their natural habitiat continues to be destroyed.

The World's Smallest Country

In the North Sea, just outside England's territorial waters, Fort Roughs perches atop two massive concrete caissons. The 1800-square-foot platform was used as an artillery base during World War II, then abandoned. In 1968, Paddy Roy Bates seized the structure and dubbed it the Principality of Sealand. He named himself Prince and his wife Princess, and soon produced a constitution, a flag, a national anthem, stamps, money, and passports.

Sealand is the world's smallest nation, and it's sovereignty was upheld by a British court in 1968. The micronation even won a mini-war with the Netherlands and Germany in 1978.

Today Roy of Sealand lives in Spain because of his heath, and Roy's son, Prince Michael, has succeeded him to the Sealand throne. The fort houses an internet provider called HavenCo.

See Sealand's Official Site for more info.

White Elephants

Just about everybody has been to a white elephant party around Christmas time. You know, where everyone exchanges gag gifts. So where does the "white elephant" come in?

In Southeast Asia, white elephants were, and still are, considered sacred. On the eve of giving birth, Buddha's mother saw a white elephant in a dream. Supposedly the more white elephants a monarch possesses, the more blessed the kingdom will be. However, in the times when elephants were used as beasts of burden, white elephants were strictly prohibited from labor. If a monarch bestowed upon you the gift of a white elephant, it was a priceless present yet costly in upkeep and virtually useless for all practical purposes.

Toilet Lake

Lake Peigneur was an 11-foot-deep, 1300-acre lake near New Iberia, Louisiana. Then on November 21, 1980, an oil rig that was drilling in the middle of the lake hit a little snag. The drill seized up at 1230 feet, and when the workers tried to free the drill, they suddenly heard some popping noises, and the whole rig started tilting over. The men evacuated the rig, which soon turned completely over and vanished into the supposedly shallow water! In minutes, the water was spinning in a whirlpool like a giant toilet! Trees, structures, docks, a parking lot, 11 barges from a nearby canal, and a tug boat were flushed away!

What happened? Somebody on the oil rig miscalculated and accidently drilled into Diamond Crystal salt mine deep underground. What began as a 14-inch-wide hole was ripped wider and wider as the lake water melted away the salt. Soon the mine shafts started to collapse. It was perhaps a miracle that all 50 miners evacuated safely.

Lake Peigneur was completely drained of freshwater in 3 hours and soon began filling up with saltwater from the nearby canal. Nine of the sunken barges popped back up from the depths like coffins in a flood, but most of the property that was sucked into the salt mine was never seen again. Today Lake Peigneur is a 1300-foot-deep saltwater lake.

Brush Up

Toothpaste has been around at least since the 4th century A.D. Archeologists found a recipe for it in Egypt consisting of salt, pepper, iris flowers, and mint leaves. Later, the Romans used toothpaste with human urine in it. Why they would want to do something so utterly disgusting, I cannot say. Some 18th century toothpaste recipes have involved burnt bread, cinnamon, alum, charcoal, and dragon's blood (which is a type of resin). Modern toothpaste contains baking soda, calcium, enzymes, flouride, vitamns, herbs, and a few other ingredients.

Flavors of toothpaste are commonly mint, anise, apricot, bubblegum, ginger, vanilla, fennel, cinnamon, lemon, orange, pine, or fennel. Some of the worst flavors that manufacturers have tried to sell are whiskey, iced tea, and peanut butter.

When Lightning Strikes...

I'm told that southern Africa has an unusually high number of lightning strikes. In October 1998, an entire soccer team was killed by lighting in a village in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. When the lightning bolt struck, all 11 members of the Bena Tshadi team were killed instantly, and 30 spectators sustained burns. The team had been tied 1-1 with their opponents from nearby Basanga. None of the Basanga team members were scathed in the least.

Local superstition states that lighting is cause by witchcraft.

Pesky 'Skeeters

Mosquitos are primarily nectar feeders. Male mosquitos are unable to suck blood. Female mosquitos do suck animal blood in order to gain enough protein to lay eggs. The largest species of mosquito, Toxorhynchities, never sucks blood but eats other mosquito larvae.

Female mosquitos are attracted to their potential carnivorous snacks by the carbon dioxide they exhale, by their body heat, and by various body odors. Scientists still aren't sure why mosquitos are more attracted to some people than others. Home remedies for mosquito bites include calamine lotion, baking soda, rubbing alcohol, vinegar, saliva, and heat.

In Japanese culture, it is sometimes believed that people who commit atrocities in their lives will be reincarnated as mosquitos.

Barbie and the Bratz

Barbie is most famous doll in history. Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts, named after the creator's daughter. Ken was named after the creator's son, Kenneth. If Barbie were the size of a real person, she would have a 39" bust, 18" waist, and 33" hips. (For comparison, Marilyn Monroe's measurements were 37"-24"-36".) The first Barbie doll sold for $3.00 in 1959, although one of the original dolls sold on eBay for $3552.50 in 2004!

In recent years, the plastic princess's reign has been threatened. MGA Entertainment came out with the Bratz dolls in 2001. By 2004 the Bratz dolls were outselling Barbies in the United Kingdom, and Barbie sales in the US have decreased by 30%.

Maybe the next Toy Story movie will be a Bratz coup d'etat with plastic explosives and fake hair and trendy accessories and oddly-proportioned body parts flying everywhere. Or that might make a decent YouTube video....

Filthy Greenbacks

Until the 1860's, Americans used gold and silver coins as currency. But after the Civil War broke out, the government was hard pressed to stretch its money as far as it could go. In 1861, Congress authorized the US Treasury to issue paper money. Well, actually, dollar bills weren't and still aren't made from typical paper. Dollar bills are made out of cotton, which lasts longer than wood pulp. Unfortunately the Union usually got its cotton from the southern states, and they were at war with each other. As you can imagine, it didn't help the conflict when the Union blockaded the Confederate States and took some of their cotton.

By the end of the Civil War, the whole country was nearly bankrupt. A dollar bill was only really worth 39 cents. Furthermore, an estimated 33% to 50% of bills were counterfeit. This prompted Congress in 1865 to create a new government organization to curb the counterfeiting--the United States Secret Service.

Lake Vostok

In the early 1990s, Russain scientists at Vostok Research Station had already spent decades drilling cores in the layer of thick glacier covering Antarctica. The deeper they went, the older were the specimens frozen in the ice, giving a sort of timeline of the earth. Yet at about two miles below the surface of the ice, the scientists encountered a thick layer of ice that was relatively much cleaner than the layers above it. When satellite altimetry and radar surveyed the area, the scientists were ordered to stop drilling at once. Below 2.5 miles of Antarctic ice is a liquid body of water the size of Lake Ontario! The water in this lake is about -3ºC, but under such pressure that it is kept in a liquid state and supersaturated with oxygen. If the scientists had tapped into the lake, the water would have burst to the surface with 4 times the force of a champaigne cork!

Furthermore, this body of water has been completely sealed off from the rest of the earth for thousands and perhaps millions of years. Nobody knows if there are any living organisms down there, but if the scientists had drilled into the liquid, they would have introduced surface bacteria and chemicals that could have obliterated any existing ecosystem. Many scientists think that the lake must be sterile due to the lack of sunlight, the freezing temperature, and the toxic levels of oxygen in the water. Other scientists believe that the lake must have life in it since a completely lifeless body of water has never been found on Earth. The ice above the lake has some very weird microbial fossils in it. Scientists are still debating how to explore the lake without contaminating it.

State and Country

There are two U.S. states that have been their own countries in the past. One of them is Texas, which became the Republic of Texas after it won its independence from Mexico in 1836. Sam Houston was the first president of the republic, and the city of Houston served as the capitol until the seat of government moved to Austin in 1839. Texas became a state in 1845 when it was annexed to the United States.

The other state that used to be its own country is Hawaii. Once upon a time, Hawaii was ruled by several chiefs. In 1795, King Kamehameha the Great consolidated all of the Hawaiian islands together under his rule. This kingdom prevailed under several rulers until Queen Liliuokalani was overthrown in 1893. Hawaii became a republic until it was annexed by the U.S. in 1898. However, it was just a territory for about 60 years. Hawaii didn't become a state until 1959. Iolani Palace in Honolulu was used as the state capitol building for a while and is a National Historic Landmark today. The palace remains the only royal palace in the U.S. that has been used as an official residence by a reigning monarch.

The World's Best Joke

The LaughLab project set out to find the world's funniest joke. For a year, people around the world sent their best jokes to the LaughLab website and/or rated their favorites. In 2002 the project scientists announced the results. So here is what has been deemed the world's funniest joke:

Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps, "My friend is dead! What can I do?". The operator says "Calm down. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead." There is a silence, then a shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says "OK, now what?"

To check out the LaughLab website, go to www.laughlab.co.uk

The only thing to fear...

At birth, human babies are afraid of only two things: loud noises and falling. All other fears and phobias are learned.

Hemp and History

I read an artical on cnn.com yesterday about a couple of farmers who are suing the US government to be allowed to grow hemp. Now, make no mistake, hemp is not marijuana. Although hemp looks a lot like its potent cousin, marijuana, hemp lacks the ingredient that makes a person "high".

When America was still forming, hemp was a very important cash crop, more important even than tobacco. Virginians were required to grow it. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were written on hemp paper. Betsy Ross's flag was made with hemp cloth. The US navy used hemp rope and sails on its ships for years (canvas is the Dutch word for cannabis), and America's production of hemp has helped our country to win wars. Even George Washington grew hemp at Mt. Vernon. One acre of hemp can produce as much paper as four acres of trees. Besides paper and cloth, hemp can be used to make food, beauty products, plastics, and fuels. In fact, the first Model T was built to run on hemp gasoline!

The United States still imports hemp, but it became illegal to grow it in 1937. Why? Some sources think that the giant Hearst Paper Manufacturing Company (with its acres and acres of forests) and Dupont (the company that patented the process of making plastic from petroleum) had something to do with it. The 1930s produced "Reefer Madness" and other propoganda, which touted the violence and insanity-producing effects of the plant soon to be known by the Mexican slang word, "marijuana". Sometime after 1937, all references to hemp were removed from our history textbooks.

The Nelson Touch

Vice-Admiral and 1st Viscount Horatio Nelson was a great British military figure during the Napoleonic wars. He so brought out the best in his officers and seamen that his inspiration gained the name, "The Nelson Touch". When Nelson died at the Battle of Trafalgar, his body was preserved in a barrel of brandy for the voyage back to Britain. When the ship reached port, the crew removed their leader's body and celebrated his achievements by drinking the brandy!

Charm, Murder, Leap, Shiver, and Crash

A group of frogs is called an army.
A group of geese is called a gaggle.
A group of crows is called a murder.
A group of leopards is called a leap.
A group of turtles is called a bale.
A group of mallards is called a flush.
A group of moles is called a labor.
A group of woodpeckers is called a descent.
A group of hummingbirds is called a charm.
A group of toads is called a knot.
A group of hippopotamuses is called a bloat.
A group of rhinos is called a crash.
A group of owls is called a parliament.
A group of sharks is called a shiver.
A group of kangaroos is called a mob.
A group of tigers is called a streak.

The Curse of Tippecanoe

In 1811, future president William Henry Harrison defeated Tecumseh at the battle of Tippecanoe. It is said that Tecumseh's brother, known as "The Prophet"
placed a curse on Harrison and the US presidency. In 1840, William Henry Harrison was elected president. He caught pneumonia during his inaugural speech and died a few months later.

1860: Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in his second term.
1880: James Garfield was assassinated in his first year of office.
1900: William McKinley was assassinated, too.
1920: Warren G. Harding died of a stroke during his first term.
1940: Franklin Delano Roosevelt died in his third term of a brain hemorrhage.
1960: Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in his first term.
1980: Ronald Reagan was shot in the lung, missing his heart by less than an inch!
2000: George W. Bush was not elected by popular vote, but was elected by the electorial college.

Did the curse wear off? Was it thwarted by advances in the medical field, in Reagan's case? Is Bush in mortal peril? Or was there ever really a curse at all?

This is my first post!

As it turns out, the World Wide Web and the Internet are not quite the same thing, even though people use the terms interchangeably.



The World Wide Web is a network of documents. These documents (such as this blog) are lynked together with hyperlinks--those underlined words you use to surf around. The Web was first created in 1989 in Geneva, Switzerland.



The Internet, on the other hand, has been around much longer. The term Internet generally refers to the massive network of hardware--hard wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless connections, and so on--which makes it possible to access the World Wide Web.