Boscaresque

 Picturesque, scenically wooded. 

Depending on the source, it could mean a pretty picture with trees, or a pretty picture of trees. Two slightly different things, which the definitions of this really old word are iffy about. Since Phrontistery says that this word is used from 1734 to 1734, it's probably not something I'll ever be able to answer. 

I think these three are good examples of it though, and I hope you agree. I, personally, think I'm pretty blessed to be able to be around such awesome views. 

 

I took all three of these, so I'm the source. And apparently I'm going to have to make a social-media page to share pictures of my cats and other cool things because...I just am going to have to. I'll let you know what I end up with. 

Either way though, you have a new word to use to sound fancy. I know it doesn't quite fit the given definitions, but you could use it to describe a garden, or park with trees, or possibly even twist it to describe someone with a green thumb. It could be fun. 

Seeya soon. 

Sources;

Wordfoolery-- Boscaresque

Grandiloquent Word of the Day-- Boscaresque

Mandy Eve Barnett-- Lost Words

Phrontistery-- Lost Words A-E (I love this website for some awesome lost words. They're my go-to when I want a weird word to tell you about.)

Featherkile's Rule

Whatever you did, that's what you planned. 

So...me taking random breaks is for my mental health or something, not because life gets hectic. I totally planned those. 

To apologize for the totally planned breaks, here's an adorable kitten;

Make that two, just because. 

If you want to know more about Featherkile's Rule, you can find it pretty easily. I think it'll be fun to bring up in life later. Either way, have fun and I'll see you again soon. 

Sea Sapphires

Ok, I was debating a lot of things, then I saw a picture of these guys and figured that, since I'm going to investigate for me anyway, might as well tell you about them. 

Sea Sapphires. 

This picture is from the link below, Just the Sea. I know they're not blue like sapphires in this picture, but please bear with me and think about how awesome that very tiny creature is. 

These guys are part of a group of tiny shrimp like animals that are collectively known as Sea Rice because they're very common and very much at the bottom of the food chain. They're only a few millimeters long, so don't expect to find them in the wild unless you're looking really closely. 

Scientists were really interested in these guys because, depending on the angle of the light that hits the tiny shrimp, their color changes. Their entire body is covered in tiny crystal plates that catch and reflect light. Different species have different shades of colors, so they aren't all bright blue, but they're still called Sea Sapphires. If the light comes in at anything other than the right angle though, they're entirely transparent, so predators can't find them. 

Basically, it's like a piece of glass, where you can look through it unless you find the perfect angle, then it lights up. Considering the water and the amount of things in there, plus how active things are, it would probably be pretty hard to spot the single flash of light before the water tosses them around enough to make them stop sparkling.

One of the really cool parts of that though is that the crystals these tiny creatures use to reflect light are made from one of the four parts of DNA, Guanine. I know that's something that some people are using that as a supplement or something, but still. That's part of DNA, that they repurposed to be flashy and cool.  

Less cool is that, like a lot of things in nature, it's only the guys that sparkle. The girls are mostly eye so that they can find those sparkling bits, and live as parasites on creatures known as Salps, who are also on my list of things to tell you about, I just haven't gotten there yet. For now, just consider them jellyfish. The guys swim in spirals so they flash a bit, and the girls are supposed to find them to get together. 

So...making the girls do all the work, again. Rude. 

This pic came from iNaturalist below, and is most of the reason I included that link, since there isn't a lot of information there. 

Most of the links cover pretty much the same thing about these guys though, so while there is probably a lot more information about these guys that I didn't find, I was mostly focused on the cool crystal plates and sparkliness. 

I hope you like these shiny dudes, and I'll see you again soon. 

Sources:

The Helm Lab Blog-- The Most Beautiful Animal you've never seen

Just The Sea-- The Magic of Sea Sapphires

Scientific American-- How Do Sea Sapphires turn Invisible

iNaturalist-- Sea Sapphires

Real Monstrosities-- Sea Sapphires

Side note- I just want to giggle for a moment that Scientific American seems to really know their people because they said that Sea Sapphires are able to hide as well as a Klingon Bird-Of-Prey. Obviously, all science geeks know Star Trek. I can't complain about that though, because I'm a pretty good Trekky. 

Japanese Butt Breathing

I've been going through and trying to sort out several thousand bookmarks of recipes, science articles that sound interesting, and pages I found researching any of a hundred things that interest me. As you can tell here, I'm not picky about what's interesting to me. The problem here is that I'm finding 800 very interesting things that I want to investigate and tell you about...but I'm only doing one a day. Hopefully they'll still get here someday. 

I brought this up earlier with some friends though, and I got a lot of laughs because people thought I read it wrong or something, and because...just how are you supposed to take this seriously? 

Picture is from the Cincinnati Children's Hospital link below. 

I guess that's why it won an Ig Nobel Prize last year though, because it makes you laugh, then you've got to think about it. 

So, this actually comes from Nature. There are a few animals and insects, such as a few (Australian, EEK) turtles that have this ability to draw air in through carefully placed gills, meaning they don't have to worry about chewing fast or something to get in more air.  There's also an eel-like fish that uses it's gills to breath straight air if the water it's in is too low in oxygen. This can't cover the entire air-requirement of a species, but it can help a lot. That's why this actually came up as a treatment for people who have issues with their lungs. 

Since they can't just blow air straight in, they created an oxygen-rich fluid (this is actually old tech) and inserted it...somewhere most people are a bit sensitive about things being inserted. This was, of course, first tested with some very surprised and concerned pigs, who showed good response to it so it was tried with humans. It helps some, but it's still being studied. 

Takanori Takebe got an Ig Nobel prize for this, which does come with a bit of a cash prize that I assume got put into this. Or possibly framed for giggles. It's something like 10 trillion Zimbabwean dollars, or about 40 cents. 

I look forward to when this becomes a more common practice and they have to figure out how to repackage this to make it more acceptable to the medical community and it's patients. I also look forward to the whole new round of hilarious idiocy people will do with this. 

There are articles below if you want to look into it more, or if you don't believe me for some reason (I wouldn't blame you). 

Seeya soon. 

Sources:

Cincinnati Children's Research Hospital-- Ig Nobel Prize Awarded for Butt Breathing Study

Med Page Today-- Butt Breathing Study

New York Post-- Butt Breathing Might Help People with Lung Diseases

Men's health-- Butt Breathing

India Today-- Yes, Butt Breathing is Real

University of Nebraska Medicine-- Clinicians Test Butt Breathing
IFL Science-- Ig Nobel Winning Butt Breathing Technique Tested

Sea Angels

Ok, when I reach 200 posts, I'm going to start a Patreon so that I can afford to subscribe to things like Smithsonian, National Geographic, and Live Science, and read as much as I want. I know it'll take me a forever to actually get the money to do so, but still. And now that I've told you, I'm going to forget it and go back to finding the free articles for everyone to read and find out about the ridiculous things I'm telling you about. I say ridiculous because if I'm going to tell you about Germany's Baby Derby, I can't call this a serious information blog, even if I'm being serious that I love these things and want you to know about them. 

In this particular post, I'm going to tell you about Sea Angels.

This particular picture comes from the Monterey Bay Aquarium link below, and demonstrates very well how they got this name. 

These guys are actually sea snails, though they don't have shells like their cousins, the sea butterflies, do. Please don't go googling them just yet, they're on my list to tell you about later and I really want to pull out a bunch of cool pictures then too. If you can't wait, please promise to be amazed later, because they're cool. 

One of the really cool and more-than-vaguely-terrifying things about them is that they're predators, and when they come across their food (which is actually, mostly, the aforementioned sea butterflies, meanies), they reach out with tentacles from their face, grab the thing, and use two hooklike arms to pull the thing out of it's shell and directly into the Angel's stomach. This can take somewhere between 2 and 45 minutes, apparently. 

Again, from Monterey Bay, but this one is terrifying somehow. Thankfully, these guys are only a few inches long, so not likely to attempt to eat me like I'm still strangely afraid they will. Why is this guy scarier than sharks? 

In other news, despite snails being really slow on land, these guys can actually swim pretty well. They use their wings to direct themselves and are pretty maneuverable. 

This one is from the Ocean link below. These guys are so pretty. Their transparent bodies help protect them from predators, of which they have many, but we can still see a few things of their organs, which makes them look very cool. The other thing that protects them is that they actually produce a chemical that makes them not-tasty, which gives them the distinction of being the first known mollusk to actually produce their own chemical deterrent instead of getting it from their food. 

Just thinking, but I probably should have done this post last month. Here's an innocent looking creature that has a hidden dark side of predatory tentacles, and I just missed turning it into a Halloween monster. Darn. I guess I'll have to start saving up for next Halloween though, because I'm going to need a list of fun things to tell you about next time, that no one else covers in detail too. 

Anyway, this was nice and I'm definitely not going to be having nightmares about these adorable little murder machines, and I'll see you again soon. 

Sources:

Monterey Bay Aquarium-- Sea Angel

Ocean, Smithsonian-- Angels of the Sea

Ocean Conservancy-- Sea Angels

University of Texas Marine Institute-- Sea Angels

Discover Wildlife-- Sea Angels

Nat Geo-- The Mating Dance of the Sea Angels

Texas Fat Squirrel Week

 Happy Halloween!

Inspired by Alaska's Fat Bear Week, which I thought was also in a few other places, Texas decided to do a Fat Squirrel Week. 

Normally, I'd skip something like this for a bit longer, but this time...I can't just ignore the puns. 

The winner of the Fat Squirrel Week Contest is Chunkosaurus Rex. 

Runner Ups include Chunk Norris, Stanley 'Texas Tank', and Nutella.

 Again, I'd normally pull out pictures for you, but I haven't found any worth pulling up. They're just fluffy squirrels. 

And lastly, I'd normally add sources, but if you Google 'Fat Squirrel Week', you'll get lots of information on your own. There are a lot of News sites covering it, and a lot of people talking about it and the votes. 

So...I'm being lazy today, but just pointing out the existence of a contest I really want to make sure I vote on next time. Seeya soon though. 

One Good Fact

 It's been a while since I told you about a cool source of things. So...here's a new one. 

Encyclopedia Britannica has a page here that they call 'One Good Fact', where they ask a daily question and give you the answers. I came across it recently because I've been working on starting a project I call 'Smile Cards', where I do a bit of artwork on one side of a 3x5 card and on the other side I write 'I hope this made you smile, but in case it didn't, maybe this will;' and a random fact. Some of the cards I've made have facts related to things I wrote about here. Others might lead to their own posts later. 

This particular page is pretty cool because some of the questions asked are...interesting. For examples...

What animal is often given beer as medicine?

Horses, apparently. It's unproven, but Vets apparently swear by it. 

What common food item was once legally required to be 16 ounces?

Bread, in Britain. 

When is it OK to throw cow dung at your neighbor?

I really wanted to know the answer to this one. Apparently, it's allowed in April in one village in Southern India, in celebration of a mythological marriage dispute ending. That's definitely going to come up again next April. 

Why do some postal workers in Vanuatu require scuba gear?

They apparently have an underwater post office that sells waterproof post cards. This might also come up again later. 

What rodent sometimes has red, orange, and purple fur?

Actually, I did write about this one. The Rainbow Squirrel, also known as the Malabar Giant Squirrel. 

Why did a California court rule that a bee is a fish?

This is for a legal loophole. Basically, insects aren't considered part of the whole 'animal' thing by law in California, but they needed to get some protections in there, so they made a case that a bee is just as much a 'fish' as a shrimp is, so they're all animals and therefore bees get protected. Yay? 

This might also get a post, just because it's hilarious. 

Why did the Texas state legislature once honor a serial killer?

This is going to be the last one, and I'm going to copy straight from their page because you need all of it. 

It also might get it's own post at some point. 

As an April Fools’ Day prank in 1971, Texas Representative Tom Moore submitted a bill that would honor Albert DeSalvo for his efforts in population control. Inattentive legislators unanimously passed the measure, evidently not realizing DeSalvo had been convicted four years earlier as the infamous “Boston Strangler.” 

Gotta love humans and the weird things we get up to. Please fight the urge to investigate serial killers to prank other though, because that's one of those pranks that makes everyone feel gross later, like when someone has to admit that the Nazis were right about something. (They hated people honking their horns, which I'll accept is valid. Everything else, no.)

I would suggest keeping this page around for some really fun little facts. I definitely will. I hope that you like it, and that you'll share if you find a really good one. Thanks for reading, I'll see you again soon. 

Cinderella

 Sorry, my brain has just not been cooperating today or yesterday. Yesterday, it was racing at 100 miles an hour trying to figure out how to set up a goat range to keep them safe and contained and what I needed for that, because my Mom wants goats and someone nearby apparently had some goats that they needed rehomed. Then they found a way to keep their goats, so I don't need that research, but my brain still wanted to run off and plan how much it would cost, immediate set up, monthly food, future costs, etc. 

Then today, I was trying to figure out something to tell you about that goes with Halloween coming up, since I haven't talked about any of that but it is Halloween soon. My brain didn't want to do that though, because instead it wanted to run around thinking of Cinderella, which is easily explained because I was gifted a painted pumpkin that looks like a Cinderella Carriage, so I've been making the frame, wheels, horse, and coachman to go along with it. It's all a lot less pretty than the pumpkin, but I'm having fun with it. 

So...I guess you get to hear about Cinderella today. 

The history of the story goes back...a lot further than you think. 

A lot of people know that Cinderella is older than Disney and goes back to the Brothers Grimm at least. Where, exactly, it starts is up for debate though. Some would say sixth century Greece, 6-8th century China, or 1st century Egypt. The point of all those stories is that a woman marries up because of a guy searching for the owner of a shoe. 

Considering shoe sizes and people, it would probably only take about 20 or 30 young women to find one that fits the shoe well enough, unless actual magic is involved, or the lovely damsel has extremely weird shaped feet, like tiny or giant or very narrow or wide. Considering the usual standards of beauty, I'd say tiny or narrow are more likely than wide or giant, but still. 

The wicked stepmother thing doesn't appear until the 17th century in Italy, but it does involve a rather horrible twist of the girl not wanting to marry the king but being forced to. Eek. 

Around the same time comes the 'glass' part of the slipper, possibly because it was misheard and someone wrote it down as verre instead of vair. Not a big difference in that language, but a big difference when you consider what would happen if you actually tried to walk in an actual glass slipper. If, for some reason, you're not convinced by the danger, there have been actual studies on it and how bad it would be, and how dangerous even breathing in those shoes could be. That's all assuming you can put them on and stand in them, which is very unlikely. 

All told, there are over 100 stories that could probably be recognized as a variant of Cinderella. A lot of them, especially the older ones, are a bit, ah, grimmer than you'd think. The sources below have some of those, but I'll leave that to you to investigate if you're actually worried. They also have a lot of the names of historic 'Cinderella's, if you're curious. 

I'm going to stop here though, because there's alot of information I could share and I'm starting to get a little lost in it, so I'll be back later with something else. I hope you learned something interesting from this though, and I'll see you again soon. 

Sources:

Radio Times-- The Science of Cinderella's Slippers

Metro Opera-- A Brief History of Cinderella

Vox-- A history of Cinderella

Pook Press- Cinderella's History

PNB--- Cinderella

NPR-- A Girl, A Shoe, A Prince; The Endlessly Evolving Story of Cinderella (This one talks about a 150 year old book with 345 variations on the Cinderella story.)

Book Riot-- History of Cinderella

Lit Reactor-- The Strange History of Cinderella

Eden Valley Enterprises-- Cinderella Around the World

University of Rochester-- Cinderella Bibliography (This is a compilation of everything Cinderella that the authors could find, including some things that are just paintings or something.)

Magnificent Frigatebird

 Got reminded of these recently because I was watching a late night talk show, the kind that does a bit of news and a bit of celebrity interview. I like them because they give me a bit of news without making me feel like the world is ending, so I can watch them without getting depressed or something. This particular time, the celebrity being interviewed was playing an ornithologist and they tested her knowledge about some birds. The first was a puffin, which was kinda 'duh' and I was disappointed she didn't get. This guy was second, then third was a cardinal, which was very 'duh', an Andean Cock-Of-The-Rock, which I know because it's part of my ongoing theory about ornithologists being massive trolls, then a white-breasted nuthatch, which I'm more than ok with the lady not getting because it's (sorry ornithologist) a very generic looking small white bird. 

Here's why you'll always remember what the Magnificent Frigate Bird looks like. 

Ocean Conservancy is the source for this picture, since it's a seabird. You can see why I told you it's memorable, can't you? 

Despite being a seabird, these guys actually aren't waterproof, which is a bit amusing. They're masters of soaring though, able to fly for weeks with no problems and having the smallest bird-to-wing ration. They have giant wings, about 7 and a half feet at full size, but they themselves only weigh about three pounds. For an example, something I'm dealing with right now, kittens can't receive most flea medications or collars until they're about 3-5 pounds. So, my 7 week old kitten weighs as much as them. Downside of that though is that the wind can throw them around a lot more than other birds with more weight or smaller wings. 

Because they aren't waterproof, these guys tend to steal food from other birds, or hunt in tidepools and shallow things like that. Their main strategy of stealing from others is actually a strategy called 'Kleptoparasitism', where they grab other birds and shake them until they regurgitate their food, and the frigatebird steals that. 

That giant red pouch you see above is something the males have to impress the ladies. Apparently, they inflate them to show off and can hum in a way that makes a drumming sound, which they accompany with shrieks. That's not the coolest thing about them-- the guys actually stick around for the first while, taking turns incubating the egg, then helping mom raise the baby for the first three months. The moms stick around for another 6 months, then the baby is mostly on their own. That makes them better fathers than alot of animals. 

As awesome as these guys are, I have something to say that might make you grumpy at them. One of the things listed as part of their diet, therefore something they eat enough to justify adding it here, is baby green turtles. Meanies.

This picture is from Fact Animal. It's of male and female frigate birds, so you can see the difference. 

These guys are interesting, I like that they're good fathers, the red balloon on the guys is hilarious and memorable...but they're also assholes, so never mind. But, you can have some fun showing off your new knowledge of these weird and ridiculous birds.

I hope you had fun learning about these guys, and that I'll see you again soon. 

Sources:

All About Birds--Magnificent Frigatebird ID pics

All About Birds-- Magnificent Frigatebird Information

Birds Don't Pee-- The Frigatebird Whisperer

Ocean Conservancy-- Meet the Magnificent Frigatebird

Galapagos Conservation-- Magnificent Frigatebird

Audubon-- Magnificent Frigatebird

Fact Animal-- 8 Magnificent Frigatebird Facts

Latin Roots Travel-- 15 Facts about Magnificent Frigatebirds

Halloween Pet Parade

 Ok, I'm being ridiculous here and it's not technically things you need to know, but things that I find absolutely awesome and want a record of anyway. 

New York has a yearly Halloween Dog Parade. 

And people put a lot of effort into these costumes, so they deserve to be kept around. 

So cute! I know Audry II eats human flesh, but that wouldn't stop me from putting my hand in there to pet. 

Minions!

Whatever delivery service these guys are on, sign me up. That's an adorable deliveryman. 

If he gave me something he calls fried chicken, I'd eat it. Well, as long as he lets me cuddle some first. 

Can I have that cup of coffee? I'll pay. 

I'm not entirely certain what this is, but it's awesome. 

Those Curlers....

That's an adorable Winnie The Pooh

At least the owner is getting in on the torture. 

3 lb hot dog?

Your Pawcage has arrived!

I know some of these are pretty simple, but still. I know people have opinions about dogs in clothes, but my stance on it is basically that I object if the dog is just used as an accessory, I object if the dog really objects, but it's ok if the dog doesn't mind and gets lots of scritches and cuddles before/during/after this. Considering the smiles on some of these dogs' faces, I prefer to just be happy at seeing so many awesome puppers. 

I hope you enjoyed at least a few of these, and that your pupper is as agreeable should you decide to try to copy any of these or come up with your own creation. Seeya soon. 

Sources for all my pictures:

Hyperallergic-- The Goodest Boys of NYC

Newsweek-- The Best Canine Costumes

Reuters-- Halloween has Gone to the Dogs

Hummingbird chirps

 So, one of the things that I both adore and try to avoid is accidentally zoning out during science podcasts. I hate that I tend to miss information, but I can always replay them. The thing that makes it ok, to some degree, is that I sometimes start listening again with a very weird sentence, such as a question if wasps would be less angry if they weren't wearing corsets, or camels having beauty contests, or a dozen other things that I've randomly heard over the years. In this case, I was listening to a podcast and accidentally zoned out enough to be rather surprised to hear that hummingbirds chirp with their feathers. 

Sounds bogus, right? I seriously thought I was insane. But...Google supports it. There's science behind it. 

Hummingbirds chirp with their feathers. 

Well, more specifically, some male hummingbirds can chirp using special feathers in their tails. 

This lovely picture is from A-Z Animals, link below. 

To attract a lovely lady, certain male hummingbirds fan or furl their tail feathers to create their own unique song. There's a guy that's been studying those sounds for years, and you can even hear a few of them at the link below for Audubon. 

Another interesting thing about these lovely hummingbirds and how they make the sounds, is that they have similar but very different ways of doing it. Anna's Hummingbirds have the second from the outside feather that amplifies the sounds from the furthest outside. The Allen's hummingbird has two pairs of feathers that create slightly different notes, to make a two-toned song. The Calliope hummingbird apparently has a few feathers that strike against each other during their mating dive and make a stuttery sound. 

In another show of Scientists having their students do weird things, and the ridiculous sentences Science brings us, they actually captured several hummingbirds that they then plucked or trimmed the tails of, and either checked if those males could still make the sound, or took the feathers to an air tunnel to see if they could get the sound. While this isn't so bad, please remember the bunch of poor hummingbirds that can no longer do a mating dance because of this all. 

This isn't exactly the best studied of things though, so there's still a lot getting figured out. Some sources say that it's tail feathers, but there's also two saying wing feathers, which I don't have a lot of proof on. Like a lot of interesting science, it got it's moment in the sun, then the details of further investigation are hidden away until more research can be done. I'm sorry I can't provide a lot more information on this. 

I hope this is just as cool for you as it is to me, and that you have a lot of fun telling someone this some day. Personally, I'm looking forward to telling my dad, who really likes hummingbirds. And testing my brother, who likes doing trivia. 

Have a great day, I'll see you again soon. 

Summary:

Audubon-- Hummingbird tails make sounds

PerkyPet-- Hummingbird sounds with tails

Nat Geo-- Hummingbirds Dive to Sing

UC Berkley News Archive--Anna's Hummingbird Chirps with Tail

A-Z Animals-- Hummingbird Chirps

All About Birds-- Anna's Hummingbird Sounds 

Best Bagger Competition

 I mentioned this in my previous Sorry post, so here's the story. 

The Best Bagger Competition is put forth by the National Grocer's Association, and has been running for about 30 years. I was told that the winner got a gold-plated cash register, but unfortunately it's only 10,000 dollars. Darn. 

The first competition was in 1983, then it went national in 87, and in 89, the champion actually got on Letterman, which gave it a lot more respectability and celebrity. Since then, the champions have gone on TV every year. In 2010, they switched over to using reusable grocery bags because of them becoming more common use. A few years later, 2013, PepsiCo actually started sponsoring it, which is kinda cool of them. 

Each competition has the baggers trying to bag 30-38 identical items in their bags within 2 minutes. They're judged on their speed, bag building technique, weight distribution of their bags, style, attitude, and appearance. If you're particularly curious for some reason, there's a link to their handbook at the bottom. 

If you're particularly interested, there might be a competition near you, or you might have fun using the guidelines from the handbook below to set up your own competition. It might be fun to do, if you have time and enthusiasm. 

This is the winner of the national competition from 2024, Madison Ireland from Utah. Picture is from the NGA competition page and is here both as proof and because she should be lauded for her skill, no matter how little most people think of it. 

I hope you enjoyed learning about this, and I'll see you again soon. 

Sources:

Washington Food-- Best Bagger Competitions

NGA Best Bagger Handbook

National Grocer's Association Best Bagger Competition Page

Pocket Shark

 Ok, I have to say, I'm getting a little bit annoyed by how many awesome things out there that I hear about and I can't tell you a lot about because there's a pocket shark that is absolutely adorable weird and wonderful and I want to tell you about, but there have only been a few specimens found, so we don't know their range, population, or a lot else.

I'm not going to let that stop me though, because you really need to hear about this shark. 

This picture comes from IFL Science, below, but it's pretty much the same as in three other links and it's also basically the only one that I can find of these tiny sharks. 

Ok, so, we don't know a lot because only two have ever been found and they were proved to be separate species in their own little family group, but the part that is really, really, really, cool is why they got named 'Pocket' sharks. 

It isn't because they're small enough to put in your pockets. They are, with the specimens found being about 5 inches long. So, smaller than an index card, but definitely thicker. 

These guys got named Pocket Sharks because right behind their pectoral fins, basically in their armpits, are a pair of glands that scientists think might release bioluminescent fluid that they'd squeeze out to distract predators. 

You might be wondering about shark predators, but keep in mind that these guys are bite size to plenty of critters. 

As a predator, in the dark ocean about a thousand feet down, having a brightly lit stream of liquid is probably a lot easier to spot and try to follow than a dark little shark darting the other way. 

To boil it down a bit, these sharks have pockets!! Isn't that awesome? 

Either way, I'll see you again soon, and I hope you got a smile out of this at least. Thanks for you time, have a great day. 

Sources:

Encyclopedia Britannica-- Pocket Sharks

NOAA-- Tiny Shark that Glows in the Dark

Ocean Conservancy-- Pocket Sharks
Tulane University-- New Species of Pocket Shark  

IFL Science-- Pocket Sharks

Mongabay-- Pocket Shark

I'm Back! And National Dictionary Day

 Hi. 

I'm Back. 

Or at least going to try to be. I've been dealing with a few extra health issues and I'm actually really busy lately, which is weird. Hopefully I'll be able to do this again and keep at it, but I'm trying to be nice to me so it's still ok if I don't. 

To that end, today is National Dictionary Day, so I want to share a site that I kinda love for trying to find really old and, by today's standards, ridiculous words. 

Phrontistery is a website with a lot of weird and old words that have been found by a linguistic anthropologist, which makes me like them a bit automatically. They have a lot of interesting things that you might like, if you want a laugh. (These are actually my comments on their words.)

Examples:

Flosculation; an embellishment or ornament in speech. (Do you think this has something in common with floccinaucinihilipilification, which is the action of estimating something as worthless? They start similarly and have common points in their meanings.)

Gelicide; A frost. (This makes sense in a lot of ways because it's the death of plants by ice, so frost, gelu, and '-icide')

Icasm; Figurative Expression. (This might be part of the root for Sarcasm.) 

Mowburnt: Crops killed by heat. Sunburnt crops. 

So...I might like linguistics. I don't know if I ever admitted it, but I do. I like how languages or cultures have crossover or similarities even if we don't think they would, like some of the mythical creatures around the world being similar or how most languages have similar words for Mother starting with M because that's what the babies babble first. I like learning how things change over time or how they change. One of my favorite examples is actually Gay, which went from meaning happy to homosexual males, and now they happily own the word to describe themselves. 

Either way, I hope you have fun and hopefully I'll be back tomorrow to tell you about something else. Thanks for reading. 

More Sorry

 So....Guess what that computer did right after I posted my last apology? It kinda died. Now, I'm using my brother's old computer. I really don't like it though, for reasons I'm not actually entirely sure about. Something about it just feels off, and I don't trust it. 

Either way though, I'm probably going to be on hiatus for a bit longer. I have so many things I want to tell you about, like the fire-breathing shrimp and the grocery packing contest that America apparently does that has a prize of a gold plated cash register. Or robot bees and sea angels. Or the 'ghost' sharks that have teeth on their foreheads that are making the evolution scientists go wild. 

As it stands, I might have to wait a bit to tell you. Sorry. I hope to see you again soon though.

Sorry

I want to write here, but I've been having a few issues with things. Firstly, the day after my last post, my computer died. DIED. The screen said something about Bitlocker Recovery and getting a 48 digit passcode, which couldn't be found anywhere except in the computer itself. I spent a few days trying to get it to work and trading out the battery when I found that the lithium ion battery was twice as tall as it should have been. 

When I finally gave up on that, I got a new computer, which I've had now for almost two weeks. I'm trying to get everything set up on it, so that's taking time, and I'm trying to get used to the new everything. 

That time is currently being interrupted with me having to run around a lot between doc appointments and physical therapy and volunteering at my local Community Art Studio, so I'm been down a lot of the free time and energy that I used to have. 

Beyond that, I kinda hit a slump in my depression because I'm finding it really hard to care about things, so when I think about this, I want to do it, but not enough to actually do it. I'm working on it and will be back to it very soon. 

Hopefully, I'll be back either tonight or tomorrow. Hopefully. If I don't, sorry. 

Welsh Rarebit

 Also known as Welsh Rabbit. 

Today is National Welsh Rarebit day, so...why not. 

Disclaimer: No Rabbits were harmed in the making of this post, or the dish. 

Welsh Rarebit is toast with fondue-cheese on it. Unlike what you're probably thinking, this is shredded Chedder cheese that gets added to heated beer/ale, with the possible additions of mustard or Worcestershire sauce, and sometimes spices, which gets poured over the cheese when it's ready. 

This picture is from the Cheese Professor link below. 

This can be considered one of the Welsh National dishes, but it isn't actually Welsh, according to some beliefs. Either way, they've taken it and run, so it's theirs now. 

The first time anyone knows about Welsh Rabbit being a thing, is from the 1700's, when it showed up in a few cookbooks. 

There are a few theories about why Welsh, and why Rabbit, but most of them are unkind, so please note that I like Welsh people and I can't hold anything against them for as long as the town of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch stands. 

At the time that the recipe started popping up, it could have been labelled as Welsh (or sometimes Scotch) because of the cheese, which was a lot more common in Wales than London, leading to those cultures being known for their cheesiness. It could also have been called Welsh because it's a cheap substitute for the real Rabbit. 

It was labelled as Rabbit first, then Rarebit, because it was eaten as a replacement to rabbit in their meals. Some theories have it starting early in actual Wales as a poor-man's replacement for actual rabbit, or as an insult because people couldn't afford rabbit, or even an option that they were insulting the Welsh for being too stupid to eat Rabbit instead. 

This dish has had a lot of interest over the years because it doesn't have Rabbit and that's weird. It's certainly not the weirdest food, but it's one that has several times been called surprisingly tasty, and unusual. It feels like a step to the left from a grilled cheese to me, but that's not a bad thing. 

Either way, I hope you found this interesting, and I hope that you've just tied your tongue up a few times trying to pronounce that town name. I'll see you again soon with something new. 

Sources:

Borough Market-- Edible History-- Welsh Food

History In the Making--Welsh Rarebit

Real Girl's Wobble-- A Brief History of Welsh Rarebit

BBC-- Did Welsh Rarebit start as an English Joke?

Cheese Professor-- Everything you need to know about Welsh Rarebit

Gymnasium

So, I need to preface this by saying that I have entered a gym several times in my life, but not often and I am the opposite of a gym rat. My information here is limited to the history of the gym and the etymology of the word. This post is unlikely to convince anyone to go to a gym, unless they want to go there with popcorn and giggle. As much as I'd like to convince everyone to be healthy, this isn't going to be like that. It's a different kind of post about gyms. Why?

Because the root of the word and the original rules of the gymnasium is that it's the place you go to do exercise while naked. 

This isn't about sex. That was an entirely different thing. The Gymnasium was the place where athletes came to train, naked, for their sports, which were often preformed naked. 

Greeks had no problems with being naked, or any reservations about walking around naked, so this isn't exactly a surprise, but it's fun to imagine the response of the gym rats of today if they were asked to do things like the Greeks did in the original gyms. How popular do you think Gyms would be with those rules? 

Gymnasiums were also schools. They taught classes, held lectures, and were the main school for children, as much as they had one. They were created near schools and considered a place of learning for the body as much as the minds. Because of this side of things, the word is the root for schools in some European countries, mainly Germany still. (Considering their feelings towards nudity, they might include some of both definitions, but don't quote me on that.) 

This picture is a free download from Classroom Clip Art. 

Now that you know about the history of gyms, how likely are you to walk into one without laughing? I'm blaming this for why I don't go into gyms. Please don't try to spoil that by pointing out that it's also because I find working out incredibly boring and annoying. 

Sources:

Useless Etymology-- the Naked Truth about Gyms

Encyclopedia Britannica-- Gymnasium

Etymology Online-- Gymnasium

World History Encyclopedia-- Gymnasium

Greek Reporter-- Gymnasium

Marshmallow

 Today is National Toasted Marshmallow Day, so I figured I'd I'd go into a quick history of the sticky-sweet treat. 

First thing though-- when I found out about the mallow plant, I thought marshmallows came from that, but...well, I've made marshmallows and there's nothing natural about those fluffy and super-sweet things. Ok, so most of it comes from plants via a lot of processing, but still. 

The first thing in the history of Marshmallows is actually from Ancient Egypt. 4,000 years ago, ancient Egyptians were mixing honey and Mallow sap and sometimes things like nuts and fruit got added. These were reserved for the pharaohs and gods though, so please remember that next time you eat the strangely addictive gelatinous sugar puffs. 

In the 1800's, the French came up with something else and whipped up the sap, then put it into molds. The candy makers couldn't keep up with demand. And probably had arm muscles of steel for being able to do that. My stand mixer considered rioting when I tried the second round of marshmallows. 

Until then, Marshmallows were sweet lozenge type candies. Here, they mixed it up with egg whites and sugar to create the fluffy treat we know now. They also added the corn starch to the molds because they needed to get things out fast, since they were so popular. The treats were harder than what we know now, more meringue like than the gelatin you know, and considered to be a medication for a sore throat. I don't know about you, but I'd really hate to suck on a marshmallow for long. 

This is where the Girl Scouts come in. 1927, they released recipes using this treat and chocolate. The first possible iteration of S'Mores. 

During the 1950s, America came up with the extrusion process to make marshmallows. Everything got whipped up and sent through tubes to get cut into pieces and packaged. Alex Doumak did that and started a company that still exists...I think. Before you grumble about me posting that even though I haven't looked it up, I did. I read their website and they say they're made to order only, and I'm not sure they are actually still around, or if they've faded into the ether. 

Somewhere in the midst of everything, they went from using egg whites to using gelatin to make the fluff. They also traded out the actual Mallow for more gelatin and sugar. Which is now corn syrup, but that's a whole 'nother problem. 

Technically, I could go into the story about Peeps, but I'm leaving that one out too. Weird sugar-coated monstrosities that are now coming in different flavors, they're going to wait until I have to grumble about a new flavor before I tell you about them. 

After all of that, it's the treat you know and love, so I'm going to finish there. 

If you want to try making your own marshmallows, you're welcome to try. It's actually not nearly as hard as you think, and adding your own flavors is awesome. Making peppermint marshmallows to go on your hot chocolate, or chocolate marshmallows to add flavor to coffee, or anything else. 

And if you're a truly awful person, you could make these and not tell anyone what flavor they are until they try them first. Do not tell me if you make those abominations, do not tell me if you like those abominations, and do not ask me any questions about them. 

I'll see you again soon. Have fun, and don't feel too sick at the thought of those abominations above. 

Sources: 

National Forests-- From Medicine to Camping Classics

Mental Floss-- History of the Marshmallow

Redstone Foods-- History of the Marshmallow

S'More'a'licious-- History of the Marshmallow

 Candy USA-- Marshmallows

Marshmallow USA-- About Marshmallows

Delaware Historical and Cultural Affairs-- A Snack by Any Other Name-- A history of the Marshmallow

Campfire USA-- History of the Marshmallow

Gyascutus

 This is a mythical critter I heard about that I find absolutely hilarious. 

The Gyascutus has legs that are longer on one side than the other so that they can walk on hills. Only one way, of course. If they somehow get turned around, they have some real troubles and probably fall to the bottom of the hill, where they have even more troubles. 

It's an American creature, part of the whole American Mythos around Paul Bunyon and others like him. Interestingly, this guy was probably created as something of a joke by lumberjacks, to see what they can convince the greenhorns of. 

There's also a beetle named after them now, which might be fun. I might look into that next time. 

I'm just going to leave this one here because I don't know what I can add, and I want you to take a few moments imagining this creature yourself. The legs are the only real description I could get. One imaginary picture was of something canine, while another was more of a scaled gorilla. What are you imagining? Feel like telling me, or drawing me a picture? Either way, I think you'll have more fun if I'm not more specific. 

Sources:

Encyclopedia Britannica-- Gyascutus

Merriam Webster-- Gyascutus

New England Historical Society-- Before BigFoot, the Mysterious Gyascutus

Gods and Monsters-- Gyascutus--this one is a bit darker than the others, so it could be more accurate or less. I don't know. 

There are also a few twitter pages and Wikipedia, but I'm not going to add those here.