Hi, all. Things got busy in life, and i'm no longer keeping up with blogging. Apologies.
Thanks for many years!
Sunday, November 26, 2017
Sunday, September 25, 2016
francs, many things confection-related, sonder
Swiss francs are denoted CHF, for Confoederatio Helvetica. Yes, that Helvetica. In greater detail: The origins of Switzerland have been memorably described to me as 'a bunch of cantons that basically agreed to not kill each other', (though i'm certain that description applies to pretty much every country). The 'Switzer' part of the name might be from "Suittes, ultimately perhaps related to suedan "to burn", referring to the area of forest that was burned and cleared to build " (reference here), but the current confederation calls itself after an early attempt to establish a central authority over this group of (formerly-self-ruling) cantons, the French-ruled Helvetic Republic. That name is historical, from the Helvetii tribe that covered that area during its first exploration by the Romans. My generation is familiar with the font Helvetica, created by Max Meidinger, a Swiss typeface designer.
American chocolate versus the rest of world (this is the phrase i've been using to remind myself to cover this topic, and i like it enough to keep it): American chocolate tastes are largely formed by Hershey's Chocolate, specifically the milk chocolate variety, which has a very specific, 'cheesy' soured note when compared to milk chocolate from other countries. It is speculated that this flavor is an artifact of conching (the process of refining chocolate via mixing/rolling, to incorporate cocoa butter and remove volatiles, discovered accidentally by Rodolphe Lindt when a mixer was left on overnight); in Hershey's milk chocolate, likely some butyric acid remains to impart this distinct flavor. My favorite part of that is a bit of a complementation assay: some companies specifically add butyric acid to their chocolate to increase marketability in the US (ugh). Something i didn't realize is that Hershey's chocolate is kosher.
Another distinction between American candy and its European counterparts is the difference in praline. In essence, praline is a mix of nuts, sugar and lipids/dairy; for European chocolate (prah-leen), this is an extremely fine paste, frequently used as a filling. For American pralines (pray-leen), this is more of a brittle, with chunky nuts (almost always pecans) bound in sugar and cream, probably due to French influences on local pecans in New Orleans.
Something else of note is Gianduja (the chocolate/hazelnut confection, not the archetypal Italian arts figure, whose hat the confection is shaped for). In order to stretch very expensive chocolate, folks in the Peidmont region of Italy began adding local hazelnuts to the mix. This was turned into a spread by chocolatier Michele Prochet. It is unclear (at least, fron the wikipedia page) as to how close the remarkably popular Nutella is to this regional product, but Pietro Ferrero, a baker from that region, whipped up a spread he called 'paste gianduja' in 1946, also to further stretch the chocolate supply limited at that time by WWII. This was later made into the current incarnation of a paste by the addition of palm oil, and renamed Nutella. Traditional gianduja has a 31% hazelnut ratio, while Nutella is 13%.
A recent visitor at work came to us from Sweden, and was kind enough to bring an huge bowl of Swedish candies to share. These were the Ahlgrens' Bilars (or, Ahlgrens' cars), a sort of foam/marshmallow candy with a vaguely minty, tangy flavor. Somewhat tongue-in-cheek, these are marketed as "Today, Ahlgrens bilar is the worlds’ top-selling car by far. And despite their somewhat low resale value, new generations are continuously discovering their beautifully timeless design, their tasteful profile and their position as the number one classic in the world of automotive sports " from the candy company's website. Ah ha, 'low resale value'...
Speaking of cola musical references, Kishi Bashi has a new album out, and the last song on it mentions drinking Coca Cola on a Sunday. The album is called Sonderlust; researching this word, it appears to be a recent invention, to mean " the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness—an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk ", from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows (itself a rather interesting tumblr account of embroidered word meanings). The word exists in French, meaning to probe (specifically, something's depths).
There was a time when the TattooLit website was no longer being updated, but it would appear that time is. Lovely stuff.
My coworker Rachel kept giggling while checking her phone the other day, and finally i asked her what the deal was. Apparently, she had been exchanging pick-up lines with her boyfriend, specifically, pick-up lines used by/based on the Big Bang Theory character Howard Wolowitz. These are terrible though funny; a lot of them have been floating around associated with science for years ("Girl, your name must be phylum, because you are above class."). That same site offers Game Of Thrones-themed pick up lines, and those are even MORE terrible. So. "Did it hurt... when you fell from the Moon Door? " Oh Noes!
American chocolate versus the rest of world (this is the phrase i've been using to remind myself to cover this topic, and i like it enough to keep it): American chocolate tastes are largely formed by Hershey's Chocolate, specifically the milk chocolate variety, which has a very specific, 'cheesy' soured note when compared to milk chocolate from other countries. It is speculated that this flavor is an artifact of conching (the process of refining chocolate via mixing/rolling, to incorporate cocoa butter and remove volatiles, discovered accidentally by Rodolphe Lindt when a mixer was left on overnight); in Hershey's milk chocolate, likely some butyric acid remains to impart this distinct flavor. My favorite part of that is a bit of a complementation assay: some companies specifically add butyric acid to their chocolate to increase marketability in the US (ugh). Something i didn't realize is that Hershey's chocolate is kosher.
Another distinction between American candy and its European counterparts is the difference in praline. In essence, praline is a mix of nuts, sugar and lipids/dairy; for European chocolate (prah-leen), this is an extremely fine paste, frequently used as a filling. For American pralines (pray-leen), this is more of a brittle, with chunky nuts (almost always pecans) bound in sugar and cream, probably due to French influences on local pecans in New Orleans.
Something else of note is Gianduja (the chocolate/hazelnut confection, not the archetypal Italian arts figure, whose hat the confection is shaped for). In order to stretch very expensive chocolate, folks in the Peidmont region of Italy began adding local hazelnuts to the mix. This was turned into a spread by chocolatier Michele Prochet. It is unclear (at least, fron the wikipedia page) as to how close the remarkably popular Nutella is to this regional product, but Pietro Ferrero, a baker from that region, whipped up a spread he called 'paste gianduja' in 1946, also to further stretch the chocolate supply limited at that time by WWII. This was later made into the current incarnation of a paste by the addition of palm oil, and renamed Nutella. Traditional gianduja has a 31% hazelnut ratio, while Nutella is 13%.
A recent visitor at work came to us from Sweden, and was kind enough to bring an huge bowl of Swedish candies to share. These were the Ahlgrens' Bilars (or, Ahlgrens' cars), a sort of foam/marshmallow candy with a vaguely minty, tangy flavor. Somewhat tongue-in-cheek, these are marketed as "Today, Ahlgrens bilar is the worlds’ top-selling car by far. And despite their somewhat low resale value, new generations are continuously discovering their beautifully timeless design, their tasteful profile and their position as the number one classic in the world of automotive sports " from the candy company's website. Ah ha, 'low resale value'...
Speaking of cola musical references, Kishi Bashi has a new album out, and the last song on it mentions drinking Coca Cola on a Sunday. The album is called Sonderlust; researching this word, it appears to be a recent invention, to mean " the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness—an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk ", from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows (itself a rather interesting tumblr account of embroidered word meanings). The word exists in French, meaning to probe (specifically, something's depths).
There was a time when the TattooLit website was no longer being updated, but it would appear that time is. Lovely stuff.
My coworker Rachel kept giggling while checking her phone the other day, and finally i asked her what the deal was. Apparently, she had been exchanging pick-up lines with her boyfriend, specifically, pick-up lines used by/based on the Big Bang Theory character Howard Wolowitz. These are terrible though funny; a lot of them have been floating around associated with science for years ("Girl, your name must be phylum, because you are above class."). That same site offers Game Of Thrones-themed pick up lines, and those are even MORE terrible. So. "Did it hurt... when you fell from the Moon Door? " Oh Noes!
Friday, September 2, 2016
cola in music, 404, Target, Dengue, Zika antibodies, brachiosarus vomit, bush leeches
Well.
Music first, regarding cola. I was listening to a live recording of the excellent Lake Shore Drive, and they covered the Kinks' Lola. Having not ever really listened to the lyrics of that song, i thought it was pretty forward for being written in 1970 (given that time period, i shouldn't have been surprised). Further research indicates that the song was a riff on an actual experience of the band members. From a nicely cited wiki article,
"It was a real experience in a club. I was asked to dance by somebody who was a fabulous looking woman. I said "no thank you." And she went in a cab with my manager straight afterwards. It's based on a personal experience. But not every word. – Ray Davies"though the article notes that alternate theories exist. Apparently the reference to cola caused some problems; the band originally wrote in Coca-cola, but had to change it to 'cherry cola' because it wouldn't air otherwise.
Another song referencing cola is Savage Garden's song I Want You, with the line 'chic-a-cherry cola'. The most plausible (though 404'd) reference is " During an interview Darren said that in Australia they don't have Doctor Pepper or Cherry Coke so the first time he came to America he was totally blown away by it. Rather than using a product name like "Cherry Coke" he made the word " chica-cherry cola " instead. ", from this online forum.
Speaking of 404 (and Coca Cola), it is the area code for greater Atlanta. i made the comment to my electrical engineer brother the other day that this area code always makes me smile, given that it is the HTTP standard response code for a dead/broken link. i don't know if i've covered this before on this blog, but area codes themselves were initially assigned based on city size. Cities with larger populations got smaller area codes, because when dialing on rotary phones/pulse dial phones (cutting edge then), it took less time for the rotary to come back around, so less people would be inconvenienced. The codes themselves were also non-sequential by location, to decrease mis-dialing of nearby cities.
I was in conversation with a friend the other day, and incorrectly stated that Target was not American-owned. Apologies, Alex, it is. Only tangentially related, one of the best things i read last week was this guy's documentation of moments from his first week of working at Target.
A colleague and i recently got into an argument over the number of known Dengue virus strains. There are 4 common ones, and a less-common fifth strain (as covered in this post). This is a problem, because while infection with a single strain of Dengue provides protection against that strain, infection with an addition, separate strain may trigger a severe immune response (Dengue Hemorrahgic fever/Dengue severe shock), probably because complement, and/or activation of a cytokine storm based on poor binding of antibodies against the other strains, and non-destruction by white blood cells after phagocytosis. Anyway, this situation makes development of a vaccine super difficult.
More on viruses and serotype; There are two types of Zika (African and Asian, with multiple strains), one of which is at the root of the recent epidemic. There was a recent, completely heartbreaking article in NPR's Goats and Soda on the damage done to fetal brains by Zika infections. Even for babies born without microencephaly, there is evidence of calcium deposits, which may indicate additional damage which will continue to have lifelong impact. A question is whether an infection/vaccine gives rise to protective antibodies (a tentative yes), and whether or not these antibodies would protect a fetus (as-of-yet-unknown but likely).
Finally, Kelly AT sent along, via twitter, this figure of the force generated by a brachiosarus projectile vomiting. i tracked it down, and turned out it's from a book by Anthony Martin, an Emory University ichnologist (someone who studies the traces of dinosaurs, like footprints, etc), and that looks like quite a read. This is somewhat non sequitur, though Kelly and i had a discussion regarding the speeds of T. Rex and velociraptors. A recent conversation with a colleague about the intelligence about velocirators revealed that pretty much my entire age cohort bases the majority of our knowledge on the classic movie Jurassic Park (regarding velociraptors, the relevant line is 'Clever girl'). A variety of sources (none of which are well cited) base velociraptor intelligence on brain case size; velociraptors are either about as smart as ostriches, or smarter than rabbits but not as smart as dogs/cats.
Another stellar link from Kelly AT this past week is this The Oatmeal post called 'How to be perfectly unhappy', as not being happy in precisely this manner is something we've discussed (though, as Brandon has mentioned, i'll leave the ultras to you, dear).
Texas is full of venomous animals and plants-covered-in-thorns (though, we call the cactus at focus of that article 'turkey pear'); i've made the statement that place trying to kill a body. However, Australia WILL kill a body. One of my favorite authors is Richard Preston, and his book Wild Trees has some of the best (practical) descriptions of tree climbing i've come across. My memory attributes to that book 'tree leeches', or leeches that fall onto prey from trees. Googling around about that, bush leeches are probably what i mean - these live on land, in moist areas, and grasp on to prey as it passes by, but don't seem to ever crawl up into trees (shudder).
And finally, 'i don't have a phone. Send a raven.'
Music first, regarding cola. I was listening to a live recording of the excellent Lake Shore Drive, and they covered the Kinks' Lola. Having not ever really listened to the lyrics of that song, i thought it was pretty forward for being written in 1970 (given that time period, i shouldn't have been surprised). Further research indicates that the song was a riff on an actual experience of the band members. From a nicely cited wiki article,
"It was a real experience in a club. I was asked to dance by somebody who was a fabulous looking woman. I said "no thank you." And she went in a cab with my manager straight afterwards. It's based on a personal experience. But not every word. – Ray Davies"though the article notes that alternate theories exist. Apparently the reference to cola caused some problems; the band originally wrote in Coca-cola, but had to change it to 'cherry cola' because it wouldn't air otherwise.
Another song referencing cola is Savage Garden's song I Want You, with the line 'chic-a-cherry cola'. The most plausible (though 404'd) reference is " During an interview Darren said that in Australia they don't have Doctor Pepper or Cherry Coke so the first time he came to America he was totally blown away by it. Rather than using a product name like "Cherry Coke" he made the word " chica-cherry cola " instead. ", from this online forum.
Speaking of 404 (and Coca Cola), it is the area code for greater Atlanta. i made the comment to my electrical engineer brother the other day that this area code always makes me smile, given that it is the HTTP standard response code for a dead/broken link. i don't know if i've covered this before on this blog, but area codes themselves were initially assigned based on city size. Cities with larger populations got smaller area codes, because when dialing on rotary phones/pulse dial phones (cutting edge then), it took less time for the rotary to come back around, so less people would be inconvenienced. The codes themselves were also non-sequential by location, to decrease mis-dialing of nearby cities.
I was in conversation with a friend the other day, and incorrectly stated that Target was not American-owned. Apologies, Alex, it is. Only tangentially related, one of the best things i read last week was this guy's documentation of moments from his first week of working at Target.
A colleague and i recently got into an argument over the number of known Dengue virus strains. There are 4 common ones, and a less-common fifth strain (as covered in this post). This is a problem, because while infection with a single strain of Dengue provides protection against that strain, infection with an addition, separate strain may trigger a severe immune response (Dengue Hemorrahgic fever/Dengue severe shock), probably because complement, and/or activation of a cytokine storm based on poor binding of antibodies against the other strains, and non-destruction by white blood cells after phagocytosis. Anyway, this situation makes development of a vaccine super difficult.
More on viruses and serotype; There are two types of Zika (African and Asian, with multiple strains), one of which is at the root of the recent epidemic. There was a recent, completely heartbreaking article in NPR's Goats and Soda on the damage done to fetal brains by Zika infections. Even for babies born without microencephaly, there is evidence of calcium deposits, which may indicate additional damage which will continue to have lifelong impact. A question is whether an infection/vaccine gives rise to protective antibodies (a tentative yes), and whether or not these antibodies would protect a fetus (as-of-yet-unknown but likely).
Finally, Kelly AT sent along, via twitter, this figure of the force generated by a brachiosarus projectile vomiting. i tracked it down, and turned out it's from a book by Anthony Martin, an Emory University ichnologist (someone who studies the traces of dinosaurs, like footprints, etc), and that looks like quite a read. This is somewhat non sequitur, though Kelly and i had a discussion regarding the speeds of T. Rex and velociraptors. A recent conversation with a colleague about the intelligence about velocirators revealed that pretty much my entire age cohort bases the majority of our knowledge on the classic movie Jurassic Park (regarding velociraptors, the relevant line is 'Clever girl'). A variety of sources (none of which are well cited) base velociraptor intelligence on brain case size; velociraptors are either about as smart as ostriches, or smarter than rabbits but not as smart as dogs/cats.
Another stellar link from Kelly AT this past week is this The Oatmeal post called 'How to be perfectly unhappy', as not being happy in precisely this manner is something we've discussed (though, as Brandon has mentioned, i'll leave the ultras to you, dear).
Texas is full of venomous animals and plants-covered-in-thorns (though, we call the cactus at focus of that article 'turkey pear'); i've made the statement that place trying to kill a body. However, Australia WILL kill a body. One of my favorite authors is Richard Preston, and his book Wild Trees has some of the best (practical) descriptions of tree climbing i've come across. My memory attributes to that book 'tree leeches', or leeches that fall onto prey from trees. Googling around about that, bush leeches are probably what i mean - these live on land, in moist areas, and grasp on to prey as it passes by, but don't seem to ever crawl up into trees (shudder).
And finally, 'i don't have a phone. Send a raven.'
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Savory Tea, Jolly Roger/Rancher, keloids, menstrual products, RHCP, Vocab size tests
Margarita trucks are a thing in SoCal, but lack legality in other places.
Also a thing are Savory teas. i was in the grocery store the other night and came across Numi's savory tea. They are literally decaffeinated black or green teas with dehydrated veggies and herbs added, and not too terrible (but, i have kept broths on hand to drink, so i suppose that i am firmly in their targeted demographic). Huff Post (of all places) has a review article that nicely outlines each flavor profile, and another can be found here.
While in Florida over the Independence Day weekend, Jack asked why Jolly Roger (pirate) flags are so named; these have been around since the 1700s, and from wikipedia, as it gives the best documented explanation i can find, "Jolly Roger had been a generic term for a jovial, carefree man since at least the 17th century and the existing term seems to have been applied to the skeleton or grinning skull in these flags by the early 18th century. In 1703, a pirate named John Quelch was reported to have been flying the "Old Roger" off Brazil, "Old Roger" being a nickname for the devil.[7]It is sometimes claimed that the term derives from "Jolie Rouge" ("Pretty Red") in reference to a red flag used by French privateers. This hypothesis is considered a false etymology, as the phrase "Jolie Rouge" in reference to a pirate flag does not appear in any historical sources". These are not to be confused with Jolly Rancher candies, which were so named after the company that originally made them. This sweets shop in Golden, CO was called Jolly Rancher to evoke an "appealing and friendly Western company" (sourced here). Eventually, the shop came to focus on the hard candies which took on the name, and was eventually picked up by Hershey
Keloids are (basically) an overgrown scar. i was asked about vaccinations and keloids the other day, and the conversation evolved to whether there is a genetic component to them. Maybe?
This is an interesting, surprisingly in-depth article regarding menstrual cups and the history of feminine products. Recently, New York has started providing such products free of charge in schools, homeless shelters and prisons. This is really something (given both cost of those products as well as societal squeamishness), and it'll be interesting to see if other places adopt similar programs.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers have a new album out (produced by Danger Mouse!), and recently taped a half awesome, half absurd segment of James Corden's Carpool Karaoke. i will say it makes me super happy to hear their new single Dark Necessities on the radio, though an accurate description of the music video might be ''70s furniture, scraped up skater ladies, Flea in a sink?!'. Being a former female-on-a-skateboard, i wish the lady longboarders pictured were not quite so injured, but i guess the point was to show 'toughess'?
A vocabulary size test has been taking my fb feed by storm (not terribly surprising given that my friends are pretty literate and writers). Looking further into it, an adult native English speaker's vocab size is generally between 20,000-35,000 (reference here), ranging up toward 40,000 words. The vocabulary size test mentioned for that data is a different one, and seems somewhat more accurate to me.
An amazing scene from this year's Tour De France was last Friday, when yellow jersey-wearer Chris Froome was in a bike crash with a motorbike and two of the other top riders less than a kilometer from the stage finish. His bike was unridable, his spare on a car 5 minutes behind, and the competition getting away. So, he started running toward the finish, inspiring a host of memes. Race officials ended up giving all three riders involved in the crash the same time as the one who was able to finish, meaning Mr. Froome keeps his yellow jersey for that stage. Remarkable. (At time of posting, he remains about 2 and a half minutes ahead of the next cyclist.)
Also a thing are Savory teas. i was in the grocery store the other night and came across Numi's savory tea. They are literally decaffeinated black or green teas with dehydrated veggies and herbs added, and not too terrible (but, i have kept broths on hand to drink, so i suppose that i am firmly in their targeted demographic). Huff Post (of all places) has a review article that nicely outlines each flavor profile, and another can be found here.
While in Florida over the Independence Day weekend, Jack asked why Jolly Roger (pirate) flags are so named; these have been around since the 1700s, and from wikipedia, as it gives the best documented explanation i can find, "Jolly Roger had been a generic term for a jovial, carefree man since at least the 17th century and the existing term seems to have been applied to the skeleton or grinning skull in these flags by the early 18th century. In 1703, a pirate named John Quelch was reported to have been flying the "Old Roger" off Brazil, "Old Roger" being a nickname for the devil.[7]It is sometimes claimed that the term derives from "Jolie Rouge" ("Pretty Red") in reference to a red flag used by French privateers. This hypothesis is considered a false etymology, as the phrase "Jolie Rouge" in reference to a pirate flag does not appear in any historical sources". These are not to be confused with Jolly Rancher candies, which were so named after the company that originally made them. This sweets shop in Golden, CO was called Jolly Rancher to evoke an "appealing and friendly Western company" (sourced here). Eventually, the shop came to focus on the hard candies which took on the name, and was eventually picked up by Hershey
Keloids are (basically) an overgrown scar. i was asked about vaccinations and keloids the other day, and the conversation evolved to whether there is a genetic component to them. Maybe?
This is an interesting, surprisingly in-depth article regarding menstrual cups and the history of feminine products. Recently, New York has started providing such products free of charge in schools, homeless shelters and prisons. This is really something (given both cost of those products as well as societal squeamishness), and it'll be interesting to see if other places adopt similar programs.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers have a new album out (produced by Danger Mouse!), and recently taped a half awesome, half absurd segment of James Corden's Carpool Karaoke. i will say it makes me super happy to hear their new single Dark Necessities on the radio, though an accurate description of the music video might be ''70s furniture, scraped up skater ladies, Flea in a sink?!'. Being a former female-on-a-skateboard, i wish the lady longboarders pictured were not quite so injured, but i guess the point was to show 'toughess'?
A vocabulary size test has been taking my fb feed by storm (not terribly surprising given that my friends are pretty literate and writers). Looking further into it, an adult native English speaker's vocab size is generally between 20,000-35,000 (reference here), ranging up toward 40,000 words. The vocabulary size test mentioned for that data is a different one, and seems somewhat more accurate to me.
An amazing scene from this year's Tour De France was last Friday, when yellow jersey-wearer Chris Froome was in a bike crash with a motorbike and two of the other top riders less than a kilometer from the stage finish. His bike was unridable, his spare on a car 5 minutes behind, and the competition getting away. So, he started running toward the finish, inspiring a host of memes. Race officials ended up giving all three riders involved in the crash the same time as the one who was able to finish, meaning Mr. Froome keeps his yellow jersey for that stage. Remarkable. (At time of posting, he remains about 2 and a half minutes ahead of the next cyclist.)
Sunday, June 19, 2016
bacteriophage firsts, Sloopy Ohio, cold brewed coffee etc, cantaloupe, Southern Alligators and Crocodiles
My coworker does a WHOLE lot of deep (DNA) sequencing at work, and was tracking down a reference on Pubmed the other day when she came across the article "Is bacteriophage φX174 DNA a message from an extraterrestrial intelligence?". A TL:DR of the abstract indicates that no, it's not a message, "No significant patterns have been observed and other means of constructing pictorial arrays with other phage DNAs are planned". Bryan wisely inquired why the authors might have thought this about that phage. Well, apart from the '70s being a crazy time scientifically and otherwise, that particular phage was the first for a lot of things. It was the first DNA genome to be Sanger-sequenced, as well as the first thing/virus to the synthesized by purified enzymes in a test tube by Arthur Kornberg, and the first thing to be generated in vitro from completely synthesized materials by Craig Venter and company.
I was at a wedding a few weekends past (Congrats, Emily and Mike!) wherein a large number of guests hailed from Ohio. During the dancing portion of the evening, these guests requested the song 'Hang on Sloopy', and proceeded to yell O-H-I-O (with matching arm motions, a la the YMCA) during pauses in the chorus of this, all out there on the dance floor. Given this was in San Antonio, more than a few of us hadn't encountered this practice before, but apparently the song was adopted by Ohio State University, first being played in the football stadium in October of 1965, where it has now become a tradition to play between the 3rd and 4th quarters. Originally, the song was called 'My Girl Sloopy, and recorded by a group called the Vibrations, before going mainstream after being covered by the McCoys. Also, fun fact, until very recently, i thought it was 'Hang on, Snoopy', not Sloopy. It turns out, a snippet of the song with that substitution was used in the song parody 'Snoopy versus the Red Baron', but it was removed under threats related to copyright. Not the origin of my misheard lyric, but nice that someone else hears it, too.
The lovely Kate B. linked (via twitter) these 'virus trading cards' to me. They're really neat, but the whole trading card aspect invites a lot of 'gotta collect 'em all' puns that are a little concerning.
Cold brewed coffee (beans are steeped in cold water, versus iced coffee's hot-water-brewing-then-chill method) can be made in a number of ways. My former protocol (straining grounds which had soaked overnight though a coffee-filter lined mesh strainer) was a little messy/slow, so i went poking around for a new method, eventually settling on filling a nut bag (mesh bag used for making nut milk) with ground coffee, suspended in water in a glass lidded jar. This works okay, though i have to use a coarser grind or filter the whole thing again through a pour-over coffee set-up, which sort-of-defeats the purpose. Anyway, i bring this up because i came across some completely lovely and somewhat impractical/expensive methods of cold-brewing coffee, including this stand, which 'adds a touch of drama to your kitchen', and this crazy lovely Gothic version (all for slightly over $7000). (H/T here.) While we're on the subject, apparently Starbucks is taking up the Nitro tap train, by installing taps dispensing cold brewed coffee infused with nitrogen (kinda like carbonation). i've seen it in a bar or two, but this is an interesting development.
The term 'cultivar' refers to a strain of plant grown/selected/cultivated to have a specific characteristic, like heat tolerance or resistance to a specific pest. This general modification process is covered in a previous post (where i apparently also discussed bacteriophage).
Regarding classification of muskmelons: all cantaloupes are muskmelons, but not all muskmelons are cantaloupes - the 'European' version are green fleshed (including honeydew melons). Cantaloupes are named for the region, Cantalupo, where they are said to have originated, and the region name itself translated to 'singing wolf', for events said to occur as it was being established. Cantaloupes-the-melons are split in to two categories with mainly commercial distinction for the East and West coasts of the US, 'eastern' ( "Eastern cantaloupe varieties feature rounded 5- to 7-pound fruits with sutures, netting, and a large seed cavity" ) and 'western' ( "Western cantaloupe types are oval-shaped 3- to 5-pound fruits without sutures and have coarse netting" ), though each cultivar can be grown in both regions, as stated here. i picked up one specifically labeled at the market this past weekend, and was curious at the distinction, so did some research. The domestication of plants is a fascinating subject (with nod to Michael Pollan and company).
Made a bet with a friend this morning regarding alligators, with my position being that there ARE some in Atlanta. My reasoning was that there are alligators in Houston and San Antonio, albeit, ones that were probably released after growing too big to be cute little aquarium inhabitants (and full disclosure, i grew up running around the lake mentioned for San Antonio). Anyway, regarding the Atlanta alligators, some research indicates that one predicted to be about 8 years old was trapped on the Chattahoochie river in March 2016, and relocated south. The speculation about someone releasing a former-pet as a (pet) theory is applicable in this instance, too.
While we're on the subject of alligators... Here is a nice site regarding the phenotypic differences between American alligators and more southern American crocodiles. (Did you just picture a reptile wearing a flowered hat and speaking with a drawl, 'cause i sure did.) We can now add Nile crocodiles to the mix, which is an issue, because those are much larger, and not shy about eating anything.
Finally, for levity, did you know an easy way to tell the difference between an alligator and a crocodile? One will see you later, and the other will... see you in a while.
I was at a wedding a few weekends past (Congrats, Emily and Mike!) wherein a large number of guests hailed from Ohio. During the dancing portion of the evening, these guests requested the song 'Hang on Sloopy', and proceeded to yell O-H-I-O (with matching arm motions, a la the YMCA) during pauses in the chorus of this, all out there on the dance floor. Given this was in San Antonio, more than a few of us hadn't encountered this practice before, but apparently the song was adopted by Ohio State University, first being played in the football stadium in October of 1965, where it has now become a tradition to play between the 3rd and 4th quarters. Originally, the song was called 'My Girl Sloopy, and recorded by a group called the Vibrations, before going mainstream after being covered by the McCoys. Also, fun fact, until very recently, i thought it was 'Hang on, Snoopy', not Sloopy. It turns out, a snippet of the song with that substitution was used in the song parody 'Snoopy versus the Red Baron', but it was removed under threats related to copyright. Not the origin of my misheard lyric, but nice that someone else hears it, too.
The lovely Kate B. linked (via twitter) these 'virus trading cards' to me. They're really neat, but the whole trading card aspect invites a lot of 'gotta collect 'em all' puns that are a little concerning.
Cold brewed coffee (beans are steeped in cold water, versus iced coffee's hot-water-brewing-then-chill method) can be made in a number of ways. My former protocol (straining grounds which had soaked overnight though a coffee-filter lined mesh strainer) was a little messy/slow, so i went poking around for a new method, eventually settling on filling a nut bag (mesh bag used for making nut milk) with ground coffee, suspended in water in a glass lidded jar. This works okay, though i have to use a coarser grind or filter the whole thing again through a pour-over coffee set-up, which sort-of-defeats the purpose. Anyway, i bring this up because i came across some completely lovely and somewhat impractical/expensive methods of cold-brewing coffee, including this stand, which 'adds a touch of drama to your kitchen', and this crazy lovely Gothic version (all for slightly over $7000). (H/T here.) While we're on the subject, apparently Starbucks is taking up the Nitro tap train, by installing taps dispensing cold brewed coffee infused with nitrogen (kinda like carbonation). i've seen it in a bar or two, but this is an interesting development.
The term 'cultivar' refers to a strain of plant grown/selected/cultivated to have a specific characteristic, like heat tolerance or resistance to a specific pest. This general modification process is covered in a previous post (where i apparently also discussed bacteriophage).
Regarding classification of muskmelons: all cantaloupes are muskmelons, but not all muskmelons are cantaloupes - the 'European' version are green fleshed (including honeydew melons). Cantaloupes are named for the region, Cantalupo, where they are said to have originated, and the region name itself translated to 'singing wolf', for events said to occur as it was being established. Cantaloupes-the-melons are split in to two categories with mainly commercial distinction for the East and West coasts of the US, 'eastern' ( "Eastern cantaloupe varieties feature rounded 5- to 7-pound fruits with sutures, netting, and a large seed cavity" ) and 'western' ( "Western cantaloupe types are oval-shaped 3- to 5-pound fruits without sutures and have coarse netting" ), though each cultivar can be grown in both regions, as stated here. i picked up one specifically labeled at the market this past weekend, and was curious at the distinction, so did some research. The domestication of plants is a fascinating subject (with nod to Michael Pollan and company).
Made a bet with a friend this morning regarding alligators, with my position being that there ARE some in Atlanta. My reasoning was that there are alligators in Houston and San Antonio, albeit, ones that were probably released after growing too big to be cute little aquarium inhabitants (and full disclosure, i grew up running around the lake mentioned for San Antonio). Anyway, regarding the Atlanta alligators, some research indicates that one predicted to be about 8 years old was trapped on the Chattahoochie river in March 2016, and relocated south. The speculation about someone releasing a former-pet as a (pet) theory is applicable in this instance, too.
While we're on the subject of alligators... Here is a nice site regarding the phenotypic differences between American alligators and more southern American crocodiles. (Did you just picture a reptile wearing a flowered hat and speaking with a drawl, 'cause i sure did.) We can now add Nile crocodiles to the mix, which is an issue, because those are much larger, and not shy about eating anything.
Finally, for levity, did you know an easy way to tell the difference between an alligator and a crocodile? One will see you later, and the other will... see you in a while.
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
musical organs, Lusitana, Nata de coco, quantum and teleportation, Yankee geological products, pergola.
A while back, Nate B. kindly sent along this fascinating clip of M.J.'s song Smooth Criminal played on a barrel (grinder) organ. Anyhow, this song gets a strange amount of play on ATL radio stations (in the normal, non-organ form) as i hear it at least once a week. Barrel organs are distinct from steam organs (calliopes), as the former is a bellows driven primarily by a crank, and the latter by, of course, steam going through whistles, though both instruments can be played by musical rolls. Conversely, a hurdy-gurdy is essentially a fiddle with a crank-driven wheel substituted for the bow, explained/played here. Okay?
Woke up the other day with Stromae's terrific Ave Cesarina in my head, which is a song about Cesarina Evora, a singer from Cape Verde (known also for performing barefoot). Cape Verde, because shamefully i had to look this up, is off the coast of Senegal, and was settled by the Portuguese, which makes a lusophone country. 'Luso-', in this case, is derived from Lusitania, "Hispania Lusitana was an ancient Iberian Roman province including approximately all of modern Portugal south of the Douro river and part of modern Spain", to reference wikipedia. Curiously, the Portuguese Empire is considered the first global empire, stimulated in large part by the efforts of the Portuguese duke aptly named Henry the Navigator and the control of ports in South America and Africa.
Nata de coco is a product made from the fermentation of coconut water with Acetobacter xylinum, resulting in a translucent, chewy/stringy mass that is actually tastier than it sounds (as is the case with most fermented products). It is frequently served sweetened as a dessert, and is apparently high in dietary fiber.
A recent discussion with a co-worker began innocently enough with the question, "Why isn't teleportation a thing yet?" This became philosophical fast, with the breakdown of teleportation basically consisting of being scanned down to the atomic level, then recreated elsewhere (from this, "Samuel Braunstein made this point quite clear when he noted that if teleportation were possible today, the transmission of information about an entire human being would take about 100 million centuries, about the age of the universe. ‘It would be faster to walk,’ he said"), leading to the question regarding the 'divine spark' of human consciousness - things evolved into a discussion of quantum entanglement ("An entangled system is defined to be one whose quantum state cannot be factored as a product of states of its local constituents, that is to say, they are not individual particles but are an inseparable whole. If entangled, one constituent cannot be fully described without considering the other(s). Note that the state of a composite system is always expressible as a sum, or superposition, of products of states of local constituents; it is entangled if this sum necessarily has more than one term", thanks wikipedia), and the idea that to be teleported, one has to essentially die to re-appear elsewhere, or potentially exist in a duplicated state, referencing this interesting discussion. This arced over to another discussion of the situation illustrated by the Ship the Theseus, essentially, how much of something can be replaced before it is another thing entirely? Personally, i've wished before that there was more than one of me (that would share a brain), so i could be in multiple places at once, but acknowledge that this would get pretty confusing after a while. Also, shout out to the Calvin and Hobbes duplicator.
Two things about the curious geological products of the US' upper Northeast. One, Herkimer diamonds are water-clear, faceted, doubly terminated (read, "pointy on both ends") pieces of quartz that are nearly as hard as diamonds, and first found near Herkimer County in New York (and later found in places like Arizona, Afganistan and Tibet). These formed in cavities in dolostones, which accounts for their nice shape. Two, Goshen stone is a varibly-colored mica schist (sheets of stone used for pavers) found primarily in New England. A notable story associated with this is the discovery of 24 million tons on land belonging to former Dodgers' pitcher Matt White. It's a heartwarming story; "in 2003, White purchased 50 acres (200,000 m2) of mountain real estate in Cummington, Massachusetts from his aunt for $50,000, giving her the money she needed to enter a nursing home. His original intention was to build his home, but he found the land to be too hard. When he called a surveyor out to inspect the land, the surveyor found that the land was solid Goshen stone, a type of mica schist estimated to be about 400 million years old. Estimates have placed the low estimate of the find at 24 million tons. At current prices (he has been selling the stone for over $100/ton), it is estimated to be worth around $2.5 billion, minus extraction costs". Way to help out your aunt there, Mr. White.
Finally, my brother and sister-in-law are building a pergola in their backyard. Growing up in South Texas, i was unfamiliar with the term 'pergola' (as is the rest of my family apart from my sibs), and various discussions about the nouns 'pergola' versus 'arbor' ensued. Finally, i took to google. The difference between these two is that an arbor is typically a smaller tunnel, while a pergola is a larger structure incorporating a porch with a roof (not to be confused with a trellis, which can form a wall/top to the other two, but mostly is just a structure on which to support growing plant vines).
Woke up the other day with Stromae's terrific Ave Cesarina in my head, which is a song about Cesarina Evora, a singer from Cape Verde (known also for performing barefoot). Cape Verde, because shamefully i had to look this up, is off the coast of Senegal, and was settled by the Portuguese, which makes a lusophone country. 'Luso-', in this case, is derived from Lusitania, "Hispania Lusitana was an ancient Iberian Roman province including approximately all of modern Portugal south of the Douro river and part of modern Spain", to reference wikipedia. Curiously, the Portuguese Empire is considered the first global empire, stimulated in large part by the efforts of the Portuguese duke aptly named Henry the Navigator and the control of ports in South America and Africa.
Nata de coco is a product made from the fermentation of coconut water with Acetobacter xylinum, resulting in a translucent, chewy/stringy mass that is actually tastier than it sounds (as is the case with most fermented products). It is frequently served sweetened as a dessert, and is apparently high in dietary fiber.
A recent discussion with a co-worker began innocently enough with the question, "Why isn't teleportation a thing yet?" This became philosophical fast, with the breakdown of teleportation basically consisting of being scanned down to the atomic level, then recreated elsewhere (from this, "Samuel Braunstein made this point quite clear when he noted that if teleportation were possible today, the transmission of information about an entire human being would take about 100 million centuries, about the age of the universe. ‘It would be faster to walk,’ he said"), leading to the question regarding the 'divine spark' of human consciousness - things evolved into a discussion of quantum entanglement ("An entangled system is defined to be one whose quantum state cannot be factored as a product of states of its local constituents, that is to say, they are not individual particles but are an inseparable whole. If entangled, one constituent cannot be fully described without considering the other(s). Note that the state of a composite system is always expressible as a sum, or superposition, of products of states of local constituents; it is entangled if this sum necessarily has more than one term", thanks wikipedia), and the idea that to be teleported, one has to essentially die to re-appear elsewhere, or potentially exist in a duplicated state, referencing this interesting discussion. This arced over to another discussion of the situation illustrated by the Ship the Theseus, essentially, how much of something can be replaced before it is another thing entirely? Personally, i've wished before that there was more than one of me (that would share a brain), so i could be in multiple places at once, but acknowledge that this would get pretty confusing after a while. Also, shout out to the Calvin and Hobbes duplicator.
Two things about the curious geological products of the US' upper Northeast. One, Herkimer diamonds are water-clear, faceted, doubly terminated (read, "pointy on both ends") pieces of quartz that are nearly as hard as diamonds, and first found near Herkimer County in New York (and later found in places like Arizona, Afganistan and Tibet). These formed in cavities in dolostones, which accounts for their nice shape. Two, Goshen stone is a varibly-colored mica schist (sheets of stone used for pavers) found primarily in New England. A notable story associated with this is the discovery of 24 million tons on land belonging to former Dodgers' pitcher Matt White. It's a heartwarming story; "in 2003, White purchased 50 acres (200,000 m2) of mountain real estate in Cummington, Massachusetts from his aunt for $50,000, giving her the money she needed to enter a nursing home. His original intention was to build his home, but he found the land to be too hard. When he called a surveyor out to inspect the land, the surveyor found that the land was solid Goshen stone, a type of mica schist estimated to be about 400 million years old. Estimates have placed the low estimate of the find at 24 million tons. At current prices (he has been selling the stone for over $100/ton), it is estimated to be worth around $2.5 billion, minus extraction costs". Way to help out your aunt there, Mr. White.
Finally, my brother and sister-in-law are building a pergola in their backyard. Growing up in South Texas, i was unfamiliar with the term 'pergola' (as is the rest of my family apart from my sibs), and various discussions about the nouns 'pergola' versus 'arbor' ensued. Finally, i took to google. The difference between these two is that an arbor is typically a smaller tunnel, while a pergola is a larger structure incorporating a porch with a roof (not to be confused with a trellis, which can form a wall/top to the other two, but mostly is just a structure on which to support growing plant vines).
Thursday, March 10, 2016
music machines, peanuts and cola, bleach, birthstones, Homestar Runner, Ship of Theseus
Because i am a sucker for complicated music-making systems [reference my favorite OkGo music video (side tangent, how awesome would it be to have to take a stunt driving course for a music video?!) or pretty much any OkGo music video], this awesome, marble-utilizing music machine is fascinating to me (hat tip to NPR for the link). The band behind this is Wintergatan (the 'Milky way'), listed in wikipedia as in the 'folktronica' genre, and a few of their songs have that 'plinky' music box sound. (KellyAT and James, here is track called 'Biking Is Better.')
The city that i currently inhabit does not do well with frozen precipitation (unlike my former residence), as was illustrated when recent snow storm prompted echos of this classic SNL sketch (my favorite part? Dixie champagne, which is totally going in my lexicon). Regarding Coca Cola, last week i realized that my evening snack consisted of the old-fashioned favorite coke and peanuts, though i have no idea how this got to be quite as popular as it did. Googling around, i came across the shortest recipe ever, Coke and Peanuts, with an expected-though-probably-overstated prep time of 2 minutes. And regarding the reasoning, it is apparently considered a nascent fast food - easy to consume when your hands are otherwise occupied.
i came across the term 'eau de javel' the other day while reading. It refers potassium hypochlorite, a precursor to good old "bleach" (the common name for sodium hypochlorite), the very strongly oxidizing reagent. Eau de javel was initially prepared with chlorine gas and potash lye in the French town of Javel (now a part of Paris). This was followed by the cheaper preparation of sodium hypochlorite from soda lye instead of potash lye, but the process wasn't really streamlined until the Hooker process in the late 1800s. (Clorox is a portmanteau of chlorine and Sodium Hydroxide, the starting materials.) From the wikipedia article, " Skin contact will produce caustic irritation or burns due to defatting and saponification of skin oils and destruction of tissue. The slippery feel of bleach on skin is due to this process. ".
It came to my attention that my coworkers hadn't heard of the early-to-mid 2000s' online cartoon Homestar Runner (nor the more popular Strongbad emails). i used the quote "No two people are not on fire" in conversation, was met with blank stares, and so had to link the corresponding SBE clip. i feel like it's a pretty good example of the cartoon type. Honorable mention goes to 'Dragon', better known as Trogdor. (And, that's how i spent undergrad. Reference early blog posts here and there. i forget that i've been doing this blog a really long time.)
Little known fact about birthstones that i came across last week include their origins in religion, as being 'the founding stones of the New Jerusalem', and as such, appropriate for Christians to have all 12 and wear one every month. The practice of wearing the stone associated with a particular month (that of one's birth) started in either Poland in the 1700s, or Germany in the 1860s. To standardize the stones associated with each month, efforts were made by various jewelers, including this poem published by Tiffany and Co. in 1870. Reading it, it's interesting the contrast in modern birthstones (bloodstone v/s aquamarine, sardonyx v/s peridot, agate v/s pearls).
A recent, sad-though-informative BBC article is titled "Japan's ninjas heading for extinction", noting that this is a very traditional family apprenticeship. But, that's what they WANT us to think.
The excellent @sunrisescience linked to a Brainpickings article featuring the Ship of Theseus, as mentioned by Plutarch; essentially, how much of something can be changed before it becomes something else? This gets philosophical fast when applied to human personalities. A modern update of this is handled in Daryl Gregory's Raising Stony Mayhall, a zombie novel that directly illustrates this point by having the zombies replace bits of themselves with, for instance wooden prosthetic. Sorry this got weird fast, but it's a fascinating concept to consider: human psyches have infinite capacity for (admittedly usually gradual) growth and adaptation. Particularly interesting to consider this in an election year...
That's probably enough for today.
The city that i currently inhabit does not do well with frozen precipitation (unlike my former residence), as was illustrated when recent snow storm prompted echos of this classic SNL sketch (my favorite part? Dixie champagne, which is totally going in my lexicon). Regarding Coca Cola, last week i realized that my evening snack consisted of the old-fashioned favorite coke and peanuts, though i have no idea how this got to be quite as popular as it did. Googling around, i came across the shortest recipe ever, Coke and Peanuts, with an expected-though-probably-overstated prep time of 2 minutes. And regarding the reasoning, it is apparently considered a nascent fast food - easy to consume when your hands are otherwise occupied.
i came across the term 'eau de javel' the other day while reading. It refers potassium hypochlorite, a precursor to good old "bleach" (the common name for sodium hypochlorite), the very strongly oxidizing reagent. Eau de javel was initially prepared with chlorine gas and potash lye in the French town of Javel (now a part of Paris). This was followed by the cheaper preparation of sodium hypochlorite from soda lye instead of potash lye, but the process wasn't really streamlined until the Hooker process in the late 1800s. (Clorox is a portmanteau of chlorine and Sodium Hydroxide, the starting materials.) From the wikipedia article, " Skin contact will produce caustic irritation or burns due to defatting and saponification of skin oils and destruction of tissue. The slippery feel of bleach on skin is due to this process. ".
It came to my attention that my coworkers hadn't heard of the early-to-mid 2000s' online cartoon Homestar Runner (nor the more popular Strongbad emails). i used the quote "No two people are not on fire" in conversation, was met with blank stares, and so had to link the corresponding SBE clip. i feel like it's a pretty good example of the cartoon type. Honorable mention goes to 'Dragon', better known as Trogdor. (And, that's how i spent undergrad. Reference early blog posts here and there. i forget that i've been doing this blog a really long time.)
Little known fact about birthstones that i came across last week include their origins in religion, as being 'the founding stones of the New Jerusalem', and as such, appropriate for Christians to have all 12 and wear one every month. The practice of wearing the stone associated with a particular month (that of one's birth) started in either Poland in the 1700s, or Germany in the 1860s. To standardize the stones associated with each month, efforts were made by various jewelers, including this poem published by Tiffany and Co. in 1870. Reading it, it's interesting the contrast in modern birthstones (bloodstone v/s aquamarine, sardonyx v/s peridot, agate v/s pearls).
A recent, sad-though-informative BBC article is titled "Japan's ninjas heading for extinction", noting that this is a very traditional family apprenticeship. But, that's what they WANT us to think.
The excellent @sunrisescience linked to a Brainpickings article featuring the Ship of Theseus, as mentioned by Plutarch; essentially, how much of something can be changed before it becomes something else? This gets philosophical fast when applied to human personalities. A modern update of this is handled in Daryl Gregory's Raising Stony Mayhall, a zombie novel that directly illustrates this point by having the zombies replace bits of themselves with, for instance wooden prosthetic. Sorry this got weird fast, but it's a fascinating concept to consider: human psyches have infinite capacity for (admittedly usually gradual) growth and adaptation. Particularly interesting to consider this in an election year...
That's probably enough for today.
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