Happy Mardi Gras!

Hi! 

I could (and would) have sworn that I posted again the day before yesterday, but oops. Sorry. But, I'm back again. 

So, today's going to be pretty short because I'm a bit tired after the business today, but I really wanted to post this today, because it's Mardi Gras. 

I'm actually going to skip finding sources here because there are a lot if you want to go looking, and I just want to share what I already know. 

Mardi Gras is also known as Fat Tuesday, or Shrove Tuesday. It's the day before Ash Wednesday, which is the start of Lent. 

For those that don't know it, Lent is the Christian practice of abstaining from something for the period of time that Jesus spent in the Desert. 40 days (minus Sundays). During that time, people are supposed to pick something to abstain from such as no soda, no fast food, or no sugar. In the past, it was a time of giving up red meat, leavening agents, desserts, and sometimes other things. This was meant to be a time of cleansing and being extra religious and whatnot. 

(It might also be a thing about spring being a bit sparse on some foods because the fall harvest is running out and the spring crops aren't ready yet, but that's just a theory from me, so ignore that.)

Mardi Gras was the last day of eating the good food or having a party before Lent, when you had to be good and eat bland foods. Since the start of it all, it's become a giant festival and a symbol of letting go. 

New Orleans has the largest festival and has gotten more than a bit of a reputation from it, but that all makes sense because they're a large, Catholic, city, and a tourist attraction. Because of the tourist aspect and a few other things, I'm not sure how much they still stick to the Lent part of things, and how much has changed because of the festival attracting people who just want to go wild for a bit. 

Today, at my church, my Mother, Brother, and I put together a Pancake Dinner with pancakes and sausages and bacon and fruit salad and all sorts of sugary toppings, to celebrate. Normally, it's not hard to make that as a dinner for my family, but in a different kitchen, making it for 30 people, it was rather chaotic and annoyingly harder. So, I'll make you do the work to look up anything you're curious about for Mardi Gras. 

Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow to tell you about Sea bunnies, because those things are seriously adorable and I can't wait to find out more to tell you about them. 

Hellbender

 As promised, Hellbender Salamanders. 

The picture here is from the link below for Marine Sanctuary. 

Also known as Snot Otters, Mudcats, and Devil Dogs. They spend most of their time hiding under large rocks, which is why the picture above. 

This is the largest species of Salamanders in North America, growing to over a foot long and weighing up to 5 pounds. Most of the salamanders I've encountered have been about the size of a finger, so this is a pretty large critter. Not the largest in the world, but I'll cover that one someday too. 

Interestingly, at least to me, these guys need the water they live in to be clear and clean because they breathe through their skin instead of through gills or their mouths or anything like that. Well, they have gills when they're younger, but they grow out of them. If they get covered in mud, like one of the nicknames suggests, or if the water has too much other stuff in it, then they suffocate. That's part of why they are entirely aquatic instead of being able to wander in and out, like a lot of other salamanders. 

You'd probably think that the tiny salamanders only live for a year or two, but they can live up to 10 sometimes. These guys specifically can live for 25 years in the wild, or longer in captivity. 

This picture comes from the Smithsonian link below. This is closer to the image that had me investigating hellbenders first, along with the name. 

Ok, so, this is one of those times where I have problems defending scientists, but please don't hate on them too much. They've done a lot of research into how salamanders, axolotls, and others can regrow toes and limbs and things, which has led to advancements that have helped in humans. These guys don't do that. They were tracked by cutting off toes to mark them. Please don't hate on scientists too much for this. 

Before you get too up-in-arms about them though, they do have teeth that can break through human skin. They also have a defense mechanism to excrete mucus when threatened. Which means, they can bite and are slippery. I'm actually not too surprised that attempts to tag them caused problems. 

One of the really cool things about them though, one that I adore finding out about, is that these guys are apparently the only species left on their particular branch of the Salamander Family Tree. There are fossils of these guys going back over 150 million years, and these are the guys that managed to survive it all. 

Please, Humanity, don't destroy this unique and weird creature. I like them. 

Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with something else. I don't know what yet. Any votes?

Sources
Fish and Wildlife-- Eastern Hellbender

Fish and Wildlife-- Hellbenders, Fantastic Beasts of Rivers and Streams

Fish and Wildlife-- Hellbenders, a Song

Marine Sanctuary-- Hellbenders

Smithsonian-- Hellbender

New York Department of Environmental Conservation-- Eastern Hellbender

Wildlife Facts-- Hellbender Salamander

PBS-- 12 facts about the Hellbender

Defenders of Wildlife-- Hellbender

Sorry Again and National Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk Day

 Sorry. I didn't mean to disappear for an entire month. Things just got hectic and I really didn't have the energy for this, so I kept saying I'd do it tomorrow. Then I had paperwork hell, but that's a different matter. 

In some ways though, I thought this would be the perfect day to come back because today is National Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk Day. So, I'm not going to cry over the days I didn't post or that my break took a lot longer than I had planned it to be. 

One fun thing about that phrase though, is that it's not limited to English. You can check at this blog here, who already wrote up about it. Most cultures have something similar to this phrase, a surprising number of them even include milk specifically instead of just water or juice or something. I seriously expected more variety from this phrase in other languages. 

Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow to tell you about Hellbender Salamanders. I haven't investigated them much because I'm bribing myself to get back to this with that, but there's got to be something interesting about them beyond their name and being the largest salamander in North America. And that they're the only member of their branch of the Salamander family tree. And that they're also known as Snot Otters. Or Lasagna Lizards. 

I'm just gonna sign off now before I start diving down that rabbit hole and tell you about them immediately. Tomorrow. Bribing myself with that. 

Sorry

 Sorry for disappearing. Things have been hectic and I've just been feeling pretty run-down overall, so I haven't had the energy to remember to do this most of the time. Sorry. 

I've got lots of plans moving forward and lots of ideas about things, but I don't know when I'll be able to do this. I'll try when I can, but no promises. I'm just tired and it's hard to do the things I really need to do, I don't have the energy to do more. Sorry.

World Record Cookie Swap

 Christmas takes a lot more everything than anyone actually plans for. It's annoying. Even more annoying is that my oven decided to die literally mid-cookie-bake. I had a pan of Hawaiian Butter Mochi in it, along with a tray of gluten-free almond sugar cookies, and the oven lost heat enough that neither actually finished baking. I had to get everything baked up in my tiny toaster oven, which I actually have the oven version of that because it's so much more useful than a pop-up toaster. It was annoying, but that was my option. 

Since that's been on my mind a lot recently, I've got two things for amusement here. Well, one recent story and what I think of it. 

The story first, is that there was a thing done in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, recently with 83,000 cookies put together in a cookie swap, to try to break a world record. I'm not entirely certain what record was attempted to be broken, or who with, but...well, it's a pretty big event. 83,427 cookies to be more exact, baked by 583 bakers in 67 teams from 14 states and New Zealand. They provided evidence for the Guinness book of world records in hopes that they could get the record for the largest cookies swap. 

This is...an interesting story. It involves a lot of people and moving parts and could be very impressive sounding. 

Except...well, I'm me. 

I'm not particularly religious, but I do have affiliations with a church that I've been going to at least twice a year for my entire life. It used to be a lot more, but lately, I can only guarantee two days that I'd be there, and now I'm not even sure about that. The first day was the Shrove Tuesday Pancake Feed that my family put together because my brother makes the best pancakes. The other was the Cookie Faire in December, but apparently the Health Department says that a bake-sale type thing is no longer allowed because there's too much risk that someone could get sick and blame the church or a baker. To keep this even vaguely child-friendly, I'm going to skip entirely over my opinion of that and those people. 

The Cookie Faire was something that my Church put together every December, for the community. We'd bake up all sorts of cookies and homemade candies and donate them, then people would come in and pick out their favorites from the selection to put in their personal boxes. We sold them by the pound, cookies 6 dollars a pound and candy 8, then we'd donate all the money to the local food bank. 

This is the part where I'm really not impressed by that 80,000 cookie count. 

The last time we were able to put that on before the Health Department got too upset about it, I baked about 15,000 cookies for it, of 60 different types. I also made about two dozen different kinds of candy. In my home kitchen, over the course of a month, a few hours a day most days. They'd get made, then put into a freezer until the day of. The list of planned bakes for me was three pages long, single space, over 100 planned cookie types. Most of them I made about 200 of. 

So, if I want to challenge that, I just need about 6-7 people as enthused about it as me, and a lot of people to come eat them. The number of people they had there, they could have just baked 100 apiece and gotten there pretty easily. I can do that in less than two hours, if you don't count frosting them. 67 teams, yeah, one days work for each of them and all's good. 

This boils down to: Very impressive act. 

Hold My Beer.

Sources:

Go look it up yourself. Pittsburgh, 80,000 cookies, world record. 

P.S. Might not actually try to break their record, just giving it some serious consideration to try. 

HAPPY NATIONAL CAT HERDER'S DAY!!!!

 As above, Happy National Cat Herder's Day. 

You might know that the phrase 'it's like herding cats' means that it's a chaotic and impossible task. I've also heard a similar phrase of 'nailing jello to a tree', which I find hilarious in so many ways. Today is the day that we celebrate those that have to do impossible tasks, or somehow succeed at controlling the chaos. Cats are not required, but they're always welcome. 

In case you're curious, I have tried herding cats and it's actually kinda workable as long as you're inside a house and using a squirt bottle to do the herding. Kinda. Maybe. I mean, I got them out of the area I didn't want them in, and I count that as enough of a win. 

Today is the day to celebrate the people that do the impossible. People like project managers that have to get everyone to work together on a project with deadlines and possible interpersonal conflicts. People like office managers (or assistants, receptionists, whoever the miracle worker is in the office) that make sure paperwork is done on time and correctly, and things run smoothly. People like caretakers that help their clients make sense of what can be a pretty big mess in their lives. People like parents and teachers who have to somehow manage to herd actual kids for years on end. People who manage to tame the chaos and keep lives on track. Those people are not just worthy of appreciating, but worth having their own day to thank them and make sure they know that you appreciate the herculean tasks they manage to perform every day. 

It's been suggested that you might celebrate this day by using your favorite cat meme or video to draw attention to it and spread word so that, in the future, more people will know the holiday, along with trying to make your own cat herders feel appreciated. 

Naturally, I like this day just for the job of herding cats because, as you know, I have a few of them. For a random fun thing though, here's a video of my silly kittens. The bigger one, Emu, doesn't like sharing her can of wet food, but little Pan would like some too. I just find Emu's reaction hilarious. 

Sources:

National Day Calendar-- Cat Herders Day

National Today-- Cat Herders Day

Days of the Year-- National Cat Herders Day

A Curious Nature-- National Cat Herders day

Silbo Gomero

 This is a really weird language, but also very interesting. Buusuu apparently has a course in it if you really need to try to learn it. 

So, here's how it's weird. 

Silbo Gomero is a whistle-language, where the speakers 'whistle in Spanish' so that they can be heard across canyons and stuff on the Canary Island that this language originates from. 

If you know Spanish, you can kinda figure it out, but it is still very weird. The one time I heard it, admittedly on an episode of QI, it sounded a bit like a cringy high voice was speaking through a napkin, for lack of a better comparison. 

Considering that it's all done in whistles, they did have to break down the language to only a few sounds so that it can survive distortion from the surroundings better, turning the entire language into two sounds for vowels and five for consonants, give or take. The interesting thing is that the language used to have a basis in another language, but it got adopted into Spanish when the conquistadors came around 

Even with phones and whatnot, there are a lot of people working to keep around the only whistled language in the world, which I totally support. If I were better at whistling, I might try to learn it myself. 

I don't know how to put the sounds here, so I'm adding a few Youtube sources that you can listen to and learn more. I just got reminded of this and thought it was something really cool to share. I hope you enjoyed learning and I hope that I'll be back soon, despite my recent issues with things. 

Sources;

Language Museum-- Silbo Gomero

BBC- Silbo Gomero

Buusuu-- Learn Silbo Gomero

Unesco-- Intangible Heritage-- Silbo Gomero

Youtube--Euromaxx-- The Ancient Whistle Language of Silbo Gomero

Youtube-- Unesco-- Whistled Language of the Canary Islands

Youtube--ENTR-- How the Whistle Language worlds

Green Birdflower

 Oops? I could have sworn I posted something just yesterday, but I guess I just thought about it. 

Ok, so, this is going to be another short one, but it's going to revisit an old...topic that I stay aware of for purely scientific reasons. Australia. 

Picture from Florida Seeds, link below.

That's a Green Birdflower plant that grows Hummingbirds. It's gorgeous and awesome and I totally want one and am simultaneously terrified of what way it'll kill me if I actually get the seeds to try to grow it inside. It's Australian, it obviously wants to kill me somehow. 

But it's still so cool. Tell me this isn't awesome:

Picture is from Audubon, linked below. 

There is a lot of debate around why this plant grew in this particular way, including a suggestion that it's just humans seeing things,  so it's still up for debate, but what isn't is that that is a bunch of hummingbirds on a stick. The general consensus is that it's just coincidence because the flower is in the right proportions for it's pollinators, and that just happens to look like a hummingbird. 

Unfortunately, this is another one of those times where I have to say...there's not a lot of research about it. It's been getting a lot of attention over the last few years, so it will soon, but it's sap has been used by Aboriginals to treat eye infections, so there's probably some kind of medicinal value that will be figured out later, when it's become more common and more studied. 

This picture is from Florida Seeds, seen below. 

The Latin name for this lovely bird-flower is Crotalaria cunninghamii, named after the Australian Botanist Alan Cunningham who first described this flower somewhere between 1816 and 1839.  It's a legume, like a bean, but still very different from the green beans you get in the store. 

This pic is from Hobby Farms, link below. 

As someone who has an enduring love of the zippy birds from times when I've been buzzed by them for walking outside, who has planted countless flowers in an attempt to get their attention, and who has actually held a hummingbird nest and egg shell, I tend to get really excited about things like this even if it's in Australia, so I kinda want to try growing some (I probably could, theoretically), but Australia...

Well, we'll see. And hopefully I'll be back soon. 

Sources:

Audubon- Did this plant evolve to look like Birds?

iNaturalist-- Birdflower

Hobby Farms- A different Kind of Hummingbird Plant

Florida Seeds- Green Birdflower-- Mostly this for the pictures, it's got some fun ones. 

Australian Natural Plant Society-- Green Birdflower

Mangelwurzel

 Sorry. Life is kinda chaos right now, and I'm trying to figure out Christmas presents for my family, who all have no idea what they want for Christmas so I'm having to come up with ideas they don't have, and trying to share the ideas so we don't end up just exchanging gift cards for the holiday, and trying to find a few other ideas just in case. Plus cleaning up my house from the mess of several kittens and to prepare for the holidays, and volunteering with CASS, which is my local community art studio, more because of holiday events, and juggling everything that comes with normal life still. 

Back to the fun facts though:

Mangelwurzel

Picture here from the Independent link below. I'm not sure how much I  want to eat this, but maybe it's more appealing when cooked? 

Frankly, the only thing really cool about this is the name that sounds like something made up but isn't. it's a type of beet, also called a fodder beet because it was often grown to feed to cattle. It was often seen as peasant food and only really eaten when there wasn't anything else to eat, so it never really got the attention it deserved, but the name makes it worth growing now. 

The only other really interesting thing about them is that they're one of the beets/turnips that was an original Jack o' Lantern, before pumpkins. 

I know they aren't as interesting as a lot of what I bring in, but...you're definitely going to have fun talking about it with people. It's a really fun word to say. And if it gets you to eat more veggies to have you try it, this time is well spent. Have fun, I'll see you again soon I hope. 

 

Sources:

Slow Food Foundation-- Mangelwurzel

Medium-- Roots Refined; Mangelwurzel

She Grows Veg-- Mangelwurzels

The Independent; What is a Mangelwurzel

Permies; Mangelwurzels

George Washington's Garden; Mangelwurzel

Ocellated Turkey

 Now that you've all eaten your traditional turkey, if you're in America at least, let me tell you about it's cousin. I recently found out about these guys because I was painting a little turkey statue and Google told me about them. Ocellated Turkeys. 

They're only found in a small part of Mexico, but I'm still a bit surprised that I didn't know about this bird that looks like a cross between a turkey and a peacock. Seriously. The picture below is from ABC birds, link at the bottom, and should show why I called them that and why I expected more people to know about this fabulous bird. Should I bring him up next year at Pride? Because he's colorful enough to fit their rainbow, almost. 

Now try to tell me that doesn't look like a pea-turkey. 

The term Ocellated, used to describe this turkey, refers to it having 'eye spots' on it's feathers. The orange and blue, supposedly, but I don't really see it unless the tail is spread, in which case...maybe. The orange part kinda kills it for me, but what do I know?  

According to some people, Ancient Mayans revered this colorful turkey and would trade for it's domesticated cousins to raise and eat, but these guys were seen as a badge of honor or something, to have them live around you or to be compared to them. I'm not sure about this entirely, but it sounds like one Mayan got the title of 'Great Turkey' inscribed on his tombstone, and it might be something like the way we sometimes call people the 'Big Dog'. I can think of worse critters to be compared to...

For the most part, they're just like the 'Wild' Turkey we all know and love to eat, but they're also rather different. They mostly share a diet, neither one migrates, and they have the same build, but they are very different for coloration, Ocellated Turkeys have a smaller range, and the well known 'Gobble' of Wild Turkeys is replaced by a drumming sound from their southern cousins. Just like any family tree, we've all got the weirdo who likes sparkly things and acts snooty, and we just have to deal with them. 

The Wild Turkeys might have it easier because they don't have to deal with said snooty cousin at the Holidays. 

Which, I hope you had an awesome Thanksgiving, and I look forward to figuring out what I want to do about Christmas, if I'm going to make it a theme for things at all. 

Seeya again soon, I hope. If not, blame the internet company that I'm giving serious considerations to trying a voodoo hex or wicca curse on. If I do, I'll let you know my research that led me to those choices and how it goes. 

Sources:

ABC Birds-- Ocellated Turkey

ADW-- Ocellated Turkey

Rainforest Alliance-- Ocellated Turkey

Reconnect with Nature-- Turkey's Wild Cousins

Data Zone- Ocellated Turkeys

Tortitude

 So, if I disappear entirely, it's probably because I'm in jail for doing something entirely justified to my internet provider. Or rather, lack of provider. Technically, they're not breaking any rules because I technically have access, but the fact that I couldn't load this site well enough to actually post anything means that I'm not going to say I actually had access. 

This is a short one, because I want to get it done before my internet disappears again, which could be any second now. 

Tortitude. It's the attitude that tortoiseshell cats have. Their 'diva' personalities. 

Torties are generally female, only males about 1 in 3,000, give or take, so there are some interesting beliefs about the males. I only got that from one site, the Ingrid King link below, so I'll just copy/paste it over here and you can investigate if you want. 

Tortoiseshell cats have a mythical folklore in many cultures, much of it centered around the rare male tortoiseshell. The Celts considered it a good omen if a male tortoiseshell stayed in their home.  English folklore has it that warts could be healed if rubbed by the tail of a male tortoiseshell’s tail during the month of May.  Japanese fishermen believed that male tortoiseshells protected their ships from storms and ghosts. A Khmer legend in South East Asia has it that the first tortoiseshell arose from the menstrual blood of a goddess born of a lotus flower.

Torties are thought to bring good luck in many cultures. They are sometimes referred to as the money cat.

Tortoiseshell cats were believed to have psychic abilities and see into the future. It is said that those who dream of a tortoiseshell cat will be lucky in love.

For those that aren't sure about it, Tortoiseshell patterning is a mix of black and brown, or some other color, with little to no white. They range from large patches to speckles mixed in, but both are awesome and adorable. 

What got me choosing this word for now is that I've actually broke down and finally created a social media page to post all my kitten pictures. Lots of pictures. Not all the pictures, because I'm up at around 15,000 of them, but the cute ones...or at least the ones I think are cute or fun. I'm on Bluesky, with the handle of CrazySkaKittens. I planned to link that also, but it's being mean to me right now. Hopefully I can add it later. 

Sorry for disappearing for a week, and I hope to see you soon but I can't guarantee that if I can't manage to load up this page again for days. I'll be back if I can though. 

Sources:

Purrs of Wisdom with Ingrid King-- Tortitude

Cats.Com-- Tortitude

Seattle Times-- Study; Tortie Cats' Attitude is real

Meowingtons-- Tortitude

Flamingo Babies

 I'll probably do a post about Flamingoes later, but I wanted to do this one for reasons that are absolutely unrelated to a video I saw recently on Youtube that I'm going to link repeatedly. 

What got me to the video in the first place is that Flamingoes don't have backwards knees, they have knees up against their body and ankles halfway down...and baby flamingoes are adorable, but especially when they're first learning to walk. There's also this one that is about them trying to learn to stand on one leg, which is hilarious also. I really like it that the larger baby just gave up and sat down a few times. 

This comes from the Birdfact link below. 

To continue the absolute adorableness of all things, these tiny adorables are often called chicks, but sometimes also flaminglets. That sounds both adorable and awkward, like them. They're often single children, with one large white egg that gets incubated for a bit less than a month, then the babies stay in the nest for a week as they get stronger, then they join the other flock babies because these birdies are social. More social than me at least. 

It'll probably surprise you, but Flamingo parents actually feed their babies 'milk' that is very similar to mammal mother's milk, and is very red because it's got the proteins the little gray babies need to turn pink. It does mean that the mama turns a bit paler for a while, but being a parent drains everyone for a while anyway. As a kitten-mama, I'm allowed to say that. It takes a while for the babies to change colors though, so no bright-pink babies. 

Another interesting thing is that everyone knows that Flamingoes have hooked beaks, but the babies have straight beaks. They start curving as they get older and less adorable, starting at about 11 weeks old. The picture below is also from the Fort Worth link below. 

I hope this provides you with some of your daily requirement for cute and that you will follow the youtube links to see the adorable baby flamingoes trying to walk or stand on one leg. They certainly made me smile. 

Hopefully I'll see you soon, though probably not with something quite this adorable again. 

Sources:

YOUTUBE-- Baby Flamingo Learning to Walk

YOUTUBE-- Baby Flamingo Trying to Stand on One Leg

A-Z Animals-- Baby Flamingo Facts

Seaworld-- All About Flamingo Babies

BirdFact-- Baby Flamingoes

Animal Corner-- The Adorable Side of Flamingoes

Fort Worth Zoo-- Baby Flamingoes Born

National Philanthropy Day And Citizen Science

 Hi. Life's been a bit annoying lately, so I'm sorry that I'm a bit scattered. I'm still trying to post at least every other day, but....well, life. 

Today is National Philanthropy Day, which I would normally ignore, but I thought it might be a good time to introduce Citizen Science, in case anyone doesn't know about it and has the time to be interested. 

In short, Citizen Science is what it's called when part of a research project gets done by the normal people of the world instead of relying only on what the scientists know. This can be anything from bird watchers tracking what birds are in an area or when they migrate around, how many of a certain insect are around, or helping go through a bunch of scanned papers/letters/historical data to put it into text like this. It's mostly busy-work that's easy to do but takes time, or human eyes instead of computer analysis. 

One particular example is that the National Archives are looking for people who can read cursive so that they can help translate old documents for easy references. (Here's a link to the article about it.)

NASA also has several programs that include volunteer options, if you want to look into them-- here. 

Otherwise, you can check out the Zooniverse for possible crowd-science options, or The Association For Advancing Participatory Sciences, which used to be called The Citizen Science Association.  

For proof that this does good stuff, there is an Academic (ish) journal that talks about the research done by the citizen science groups and what they have accomplished, called Citizen Science: Theory and Practice. 

So, you might not have a lot of money to offer, but anyone can help somehow, and this is one way you could if you want. Hopefully these lists have somewhere you can volunteer some time to help Science and do something really cool. Please let me know if you do.  

I'll see you again soon. 

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.