i have a long standing theory that mosquitoes favor certain blood types. Looking into this while actually near the internet (instead of outside, with a cold beverage and a group of friends), turns out others have wondered this same thing. Looks like mosquitoes favor males with type O+ blood, who are athletic and slightly overweight. In the words of this article, " if you're a type O secretor, to a mosquito you look like caramel-covered crack ". So there you go. Also, apparently mosquitoes aren't very strong flyers.
From Ryan, a notice that the Vatican is granting indulgences to people following the Pope's twitter feed for a live account of World Youth Day in Brazil this year, and other events. (indulgences, in the Catholic tradition, is time taken off a person's time in purgatory, in exchange for performing certain actions or, in the case of the middle ages, money.) Curious, and requiring large amounts of clarification in that a person must basically be praying along. i don't know if i don't know if i covered it a while back, but Pope Francis gave a homily which included the statement, " The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! 'Father, the atheists?' Even the atheists. Everyone! And this Blood makes us children of God of the first class. We are created children in the likeness of God and the Blood of Christ has redeemed us all. And we all have a duty to do good. And this commandment for everyone to do good, I think, is a beautiful path towards peace. If we, each doing our own part, if we do good to others, if we meet there, doing good, and we go slowly, gently, little by little, we will make that culture of encounter: We need that so much. We must meet one another doing good. 'But I don't believe, Father, I am an atheist!' But do good: We will meet one another there ". This has raised a not few eyebrows, and various interpretations. i really enjoyed this article in which an atheist author positively reviews Pope Francis' actions.
A thing i have learned today is that the day of the week 'Tuesday' takes it's name from a Norse god, Tyr. Tyr has an interesting story, in that he was probably the head of the Norse pantheon at some point, most famous for lacking a hand. Apparently, a mythical wolf named Fenrir, of whom it was prophesied would eventually kill Odin and cause large amounts of trouble, was being bound and breaking free of however the gods tried to hold him. Thusly, " It appeared to be only a silken ribbon but was made of six wondrous ingredients: the sound of a cat's footfall, the beard of a woman, the roots of a mountain, bear's sinews (meaning nerves, sensibility), fish's breath and bird's spittle. The creation of (this ribbon) Gleipnir is said to be the reason why none of the above exist ", and required someone to put their hand in Fenrir's mouth while they tied the dwarves' ribbon. Tyr was the only one brave enough. Somewhere in the mix, his hand got bitten off. Tyr is also the Norse god of victory, and the athletic outfitter TYR is named for this.
In brief, got into a discussion with a friend the other day; neither of us could remember who was the Greek mythical figure that was sentenced to spend eternity pushing a rock up a hill, only to watch it it roll back down, then having to repeat the process (the reasons why are varied). (We were attempting to paddle across a bay, being pushed the opposite direction by a strong breeze). i could only remember Prometheus being chained to a rock, and Atlas holding up the Earth, so i eventually googled it and came up with Sisyphus. Sisyphus was an interesting character, apparently a king, a seducer, and a highwayman, and there is more than one account why he was so sentenced. i related this information via text:
Me: Anyway, the guy in Greek mythology who's forever rolling a rock up a hill was Sisyphus.
B: Oh yes, Syphilis. How could i forget that?
(Ah, clever; i nearly dropped the phone laughing.)
Another thing i learned today regards the word 'triage' (the definition of which i was double-checking while coming upon the information presented above). Triage typically refers to the prioritization of patient treatment in battle and other chaotic situations whereby the worst-off get treated first. The root word here is 'tri', related to the French for sorting or culling.Triage coffee (here, scroll down), on the other hand, refers to the lowest grade of coffee, containing fragments. rocks, and other debris (bullets?!). It's apparently not ideal for home roasting, as the fragments can get stuck in small roaster heating elements.
Coffee related: iced coffee is delicious and appropriate for when temperatures are over 90 degrees F and one doesn't have an air conditioner in one's apartment. i looked around for various iced coffee recipes, the gist of which seems to be 'place ground coffee in a container, pour cold water over the top, stir, let sit about 8 hours, filter out coffee grounds, and store (concentrated) coffee in the fridge; dilute before drinking with either water, ice, ice cream, milk or whatever'. i finally decided upon the ratio 1 part coffee to 6 parts water (using an 8 cup container) , and diluting one part coffee concentrate to one part water and one part milk directly before drinking. While there's a range of ways to filter, i tried using my french press. This didn't filter as well as hoped, and also paper filters absorb coffee oils; mine had a slight oil scum congealing on the top. These are the things one figures out as one goes along.
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