Center of the Universe

 So...try to remember that, sometimes at least, the burden of proof is on the other guys to prove you're wrong, instead of you to prove you're right. 

In this case, they say that you can't prove them wrong, so they can keep their claim to fame. Personally, I prefer to have evidence for something first, but I'll let it go for this one. 

Wallace, Idaho, at the crossing of Bank and 6th street, is the center of the universe. The picture above is the marker they put there, from the first Wallace link below. 

The declaration was made in 2004, by the then-mayor Ron Garitone, who said that he's allowed to say that until someone else can prove that he's wrong. It was made in part to get more attention to their tiny town, sporting less than 900 people, and he has succeeded in it. 

There's not a lot to the story, but I thought it was interesting enough. If you want to know more, there are links below with more information about it. If you decide to go, let me know if it lives up to the hype, such as it is. 

Sources:

Wallace Idaho, Center of the Universe

Visit North Idaho-- Center of the Universe

Visit Idaho, Wallace

Atlas Obscura-- Center of the Universe

Atlas Obscura-- The Self-Proclaimed Center of the Universe

Islands-- The City in Idaho that is called the Center of the Universe

City of Wallace, Center of the Universe

The Oldest Apple Pie recipe

 Ok, so I got this from an episode of QI, which I truly love because it's got all sorts of interesting and hilarious things that I can share here. In this case, it was about the oldest apple pie recipe ever. 

I kinda turned it into a game with my family and asked the three people I live with, my parents and my brother, about how old they think the oldest apple pie recipe is, and what the ingredients they thought were in there. I do have to preface this that I told them to not count the crust, since that wasn't part of the recipe. 

Their guesses for times were things along the lines of the 1700's, the 1800's, and at the earliest, 1500's. 

Their guesses on ingredients were apple and sugar/honey, but they couldn't come up with anything else. 

The recipe itself is from around 1380, in a book called 'The Forme of Cury'. 

Not labelling where I got this because it's all over the internet. 

(The following is just copied straight over from A Tale of Two Tarts, which is linked below. It's a straight copy over.)

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From The Forme of Cury: XXVII For to make Tartys in Applis.

Tak gode Applys and gode Spycis and Figys and reysons and Perys and wan they are wel ybrayed colourd with Safron wel and do yt in a cofyn and yt forth to bake wel. 

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So, Apples, spices, figs, raisins, pears, and color them with saffron, then put them in a 'coffin', which could be a pan with a lid or made of pastry or something else, and bake. 

Sandi Toksvig, the host of QI, also suggested that the baker might add salmon or haddock to the recipe. I haven't seen that in anything else yet, but that doesn't mean anything particular. It could just be them having a source I don't, or having gotten it by actually reading the book, which I haven't yet. 

Some people reworked the recipe a bit to create it in more modern times, so you can try them if you want, but I'll stick to Mom's recipe. Nobody from the 14th century will get their feelings hurt if I like hers more. I hope you found this as interesting as I did. 

Sources:

GodeCookery-A Tale of Two Tarts

GeekyCooker-- Apple Pie

What's Cooking America-- Apple Pie History

Uncultured Palate-- This Food in History

Daily Medieval- Apple Pie Recipe from 1380

Kiiking

 Everyone knows about the swings at the children's playground. This is the adult version. 

Most popular in Estonia, this form of swinging involves standing on a platform of a swing with solid arms, and swinging so hard you loop over the top of the swing. There are competitions for this, where everyone goes through and swings to the top, then the arms of the swing get lengthened and everyone goes through again. 

This is from the Atlas Obscura link below, and was subtitled 'Kiikers Gonna Kiik', which I kinda love. 

Kiik is Estonian for Swing, so that makes sense, and this is one of the sports that I fully expect will get big worldwide in not to long. If you want to know more, there are links below, and I hope you have fun with it. Please do not try to kiik with any swing not set up for it specifically, or try to make a swing to kiik with without expert advice. This can be very dangerous if you aren't careful. There are videos on youtube if you want to see more too, and I hope you have fun with it. I'll see you again soon. 

Sources:

Atlas Obscura-- Kiiking

Kiiking Official Website

PlayGroundology-- Kiiking

Visit Parnu-- Kiiking

Dehay's axiom

Simple jobs always get put off because there will be time later. 

Sources:

Murphy's Laws-- DeHay's Axiom 

I'll do the rest later. Sources and commentary and stuff. 

I was born with an unlucky sneeze

James Bond is a character that pretty much the entire world knows. Well, here's something that most probably don't know, unless you're really interested in James Bond Movies. (Not the books. They don't have any of the music I'm going to talk about, and they have different quirks I'll cover some other time.)

James Bond's famous theme song was originally a piece of music for a play that was written about a man who was born with an unlucky sneeze. 

A House For Mr. Biswas was an award winning novel by V. S. Naipaul, about a very unlucky person who was born with an unlucky sneeze and bad luck. It was turned into a VHS musical, but was not successful, so not much is known about it. 

I hope this made you smile. The links below have more of the story, which is apparently a bit muddled by history and whatnot, but the first has both clips of the original and the Bond Theme that is being referred to here, in case you don't know it. Have fun, and I bet you can't listen to the ending song without thinking of sneezing lyrics.  

Sources:

The City Voice- From Unlucky Sneeze to Spy Masterpiece (This has the video links to hear both versions of the song)

Digital Spy-- James Bond Theme Song

James Bond Fandom-- Theme Song

MI6HQ-- Bond Theme History

The New Criterion-- Birth of a Theme Song

NPR-- Monty Norman, creator of the James Bond Theme Song

Blue Grouse

 Since I brought up Birds yesterday, I was reminded of a fact I learned a while ago-- The Blue Grouse has the shortest migration route of any bird. About 300 meters. 

Meet a male Dusky Grouse, which is one of two species that were lumped in as Blue Grouse. This picture is from iNaturalist, below. 

The Dusky Grouse and the Sooty Grouse are now separated into two different species, but they can have hybrid children, so they're very closely related. 

Other than their short migration, the only two things I found about them that are particularly interesting are that they're the second largest grouse species, and that their scientific name is Dendragapus Obscurus, which sounds like a fun one. 

If you want to know more about them, there are links below, but the thing I found most interesting was that their extremely short migration pattern. They just go downhill a bit, then back up when the weather changes. I find things like this rather amusing, so I thought I'd share. See you again soon. 

Sources:

Guinness World Record-- Shortest Migration

Why Evolution is True-- Shortest Migration

iNaturalist- Dusky Grouse

Animal Diversity Web-- Blue Grouse

All About Birds-- Dusky Grouse

BioKids-- Dusky Grouse

Audubon Field Guide-- Dusky Grouse

Birbs

 Today, I want to take a moment to tell you of the awesomeness of the Audubon Society. While a lot of scientists are objecting to the term 'Snek' for adorable snakes, Audubon has broken down a listing for when a bird is a 'Birb', 'Borb', and 'Floof'. 

Also, if you get a good bird book, you can learn all about things that make young boys giggle, like tits and boobies and so on. They're birds. They're all birds. That is why I find ornithology to be awesome, hilarious, and a good place to find a laugh. 

Sorry if that offends anyone, I don't mean it to, but I say this because I'm still immature enough to laugh when I read about the Bearded Tit, or Cock-Of-The-Rock. They're gorgeous, and make me laugh. 

For reference: 

The Bearded Tit, from the Audubon Society page about Borbs and Floofs. 

Cock-Of-The-Rock, from the American Bird Conservancy link below. Audubon doesn't have an article about them. 

Now that you know about the existence of that fun, let's get back to birbs. 

To start, this is an internet thing that grew from a meme. It's an absurdity of humanity, and I kinda love it. Audubon defined birbs by four rules, any of which can apply to call something a birb. Not following one doesn't disqualify a birb, but not following any, does. 

Rule 1; Birbs are small. Not always, but often. This can apply to baby-big-birds, but anything larger than a turkey is considered non-birb by this rule. I would have set the bar lower, but what do I know. 

Rule 2; Birbs are round. If you've ever seen those adorable, tiny, round birds, you know what I'm talking about. The fluffier and rounder, the more birb. 

Rule 3; Birbs are cute. This is subjective, but so is most of the rulings you could make. 

Rule 4; This is sorta the wildcard rule. If it looks like a Muppet, it's a birb. 

So, by those rules, here are some birbs from the Audubon articles that you might like seeing. 

Meet the Dark Eyed Junko. It's small, round, and adorable. 

And here's the American Robin, also very round and cute. 

This is a Variegated Fairy Wren from Australia, which I'm pretty sure wants to kill me but I think is adorable anyway. 

Back to Audubon is the Shoebill, above, which is a Birb because of it's Muppet qualities. 

This is a Potoo, from the American Bird Conservancy link below. It's a birb because it's Muppet-like. It makes me laugh to see it and it's somehow cute because of it. 

Beyond Birbs, there are also Borbs and Floofs. Borbs are fat and round. The roundness is not incidental, it's the point. For examples, see the round birds above. 

Floofs are fluffed up birds. Birds whose feathers are fluffed up for some reason. The picture below is a Mountain Bluebird, taken from the Nature Anywhere link that is further below. It's not the best example of floof I could find, but I think it works. It's definitely a birb. 

So, now you know what a birb, borb, and floof are. I hope this new knowledge, and these adorable pictures, will serve to make you smile in the future. If you want to know more, there are links below. If you want more pictures, google 'colorful birds' and you can find lists made by people of their favorite colorful birds. Those are always worth looking into. Have fun, and I'll be back with something else soon. 

Sources:

ABC-- Cock Of The Rock

ABC-- Potoos

Audubon- What's a Birb

Audubon- Borbs and Floofs

Australian Geographic-- Fairy Wrens

Nature Anywhere, Cute Birds

Alexithymia

 Sorry again for disappearing. I got a lovely cold+ear-ache that meant my brain didn't like working for me for a while. Plus, it's not fun trying to read anything when you're coughing every paragraph and half the time is spent trying to remember where on the page you were. 

I'm back though, and I'm going to try to stick around again. 

Today, we're going to talk about Alexithymia. It's a new concept/word that I came across recently and I think people can all understand and empathize with. 

Alexithymia=not having a word for an emotion. It's also not being able to figure out your emotions, and it is a medical term for those who have trouble recognizing emotions. (I will throw myself in there. I'm a bit autistic, so I've several times been told that I'm reacting with an emotion when I don't recognize having that emotion, such as that I'm angry when I didn't notice it. It's annoying.)

It's often used as a medical/mental health term for those with autism, depression, brain damage, or who otherwise need it, but I think it's more than that and should be considered another option for when you're trying to figure out your emotions. It's from the Greek for 'no word for emotion', so I think it applies whenever you don't have a word for what you're feeling. 

It's something I think we all experience to some degree, and we all know kids have, since they don't always know the difference between angry and frustrated, or excited and happy, or something like that. It's a good word to have in your wheelhouse, so wanted to pass it on to you. 

Keep it in mind and use it next time you need it, or next time you want to appear smart. 

I'll see you again tomorrow. Have fun. 

Sources:

Healthline-- Alexithymia 

Medical News Today-- Alexithymia

Charlie Health--Alexithmyia

Autistica-- Alexithymia

Science Direct-- A scientific Study of Alexithymia

National Library of Medicine-- Alexithymia

National Pizza Day

Sorry to disappear for a bit. Things got busy and I just didn't have the energy to do this right now. I've got a really bad cold that's making my brain feel like molasses right now. 

But, today is national pizza day. So, I'll tell you a few things about Pizza. 

If you don't know what Pizza is, I'm curious what your life is like and how you managed to avoid such a prevalent thing. But, the basic facts-- Pizza is bread covered in sauce, cheese, and your choice of toppings. 

Pizza originates in Italy in 1889, where a guy decided to make a dish with white bread, red sauce, and green basil to symbolize the Italian flag. There were a dish called Pizza that was around before, but that was just cheese and bread and arguably doesn't count as pizza by today's standards. 

In 1954, Pizza became a truly international dish with the creation of the Hawaiian Pizza, by a Greek Immigrant, in Canada. 

In Japan, common toppings for pizza include mayonnaise, sweet corn, potato, bitter melon, and seaweed. 

Sources:

Gozney Blog-- Pineapple Pizza

Streets of New York--History of Pizza

Deniro Pizza-- Trivia

Pizza Today-- Fun Facts

Preformation Theory

WARNING-- Mentions sex. If you're a kid and don't want to know about it or an adult who doesn't want to risk getting caught reading about it, vague as I may be, please leave now. 

This one is another idea from the past that I can't help but find terribly amusing. It's basically that, from the moment of conception, humans have all their parts in the right places and just have to make everything bigger. That either the Sperm or the Egg is a tiny human shape that just grows in the mother's womb. This is actually one of the possibilities for where the term Homunculus comes from, since it means 'tiny human' and could refer to the non-living tiny humans that are in egg or sperm. Pop culture has taken that term and turned it into something evil or puppet-like, so that might make things weird, but expelling the evil from the baby after birth would probably explain some of the bio-chemical warfare that is baby diapers, and there are a few other hormonal teen things that could be explained by monthly evils...so this theory might be a bit more possible than I thought...But back to the theory. 

In the words of a podcaster that I listened to, this theory sounds like it was put together by someone that has never had sex, and is nerdy enough that they probably never had sex.  

One of the reasons that they brought up to support this idea is that eggs hatch with babies that look like they just need to get larger, and everyone knew that babies grow in their  mothers, so it was assumed that they started the same shape as they came out. (I keep imagining it as tiny dolls that are waiting for the other half to flip the switch to make them grow, but that feels creepy.) 

With today's science, this idea is hilarious to me. With the science they had then, I can kinda understand why they might think that. I find the idea silly, but I know it isn't because they were stupid-- it's because they didn't know as much as we do now. Try to remember that when you read about the past. They made the best guesses they could with the information they had. It just doesn't always age well. 

Either way, I hope that made someone laugh. If you want to know more about the theory and when/where it came from, there are links below that can tell you more. If not, maybe bring this up next time you meet up with a friend who has kids or wants them. They might get a laugh out of it too. 

Sources:

Arizona State University on Preformation Theory

Science Direct-- Preformation Theory

University of Missouri-- Theories of Generation

Rainbow Bearded Thornbill

 I introduced you to something ugly last time, so here's something awesome and pretty. 

Meet the Rainbow Bearded Thornbill-- this picture is from the ABC birds site below. 

Isn't that face just precious? And I hope it made you smile at least. Before you think that it's this bird's only color thought...more from the same link. 

Colorful little ones, aren't they? They live at higher altitudes in South America, particularly Columbia, Ecuador, and Peru. Unlike most hummingbirds, this type also eats insects if there aren't enough flowers. They're also on the short list of hummingbirds that basically hibernates at night since it gets so cold.

This bird is far from the smallest of the hummingbirds, since it's about 5-6 inches tall and weighs about 6 grams. 

The picture above is from Animalia, and below is from Birds of the World. If you look, there are a lot more fun pictures of these colorful guys and gals. They're worth looking at and sharing around. 

Usually I pick these animals because there is something interesting about them, like the long nose of the Goblin Shark last time or weirdness of the Takin, but this time, it's just because this guy is colorful and pretty. Even if there isn't a lot unique about these guys to tell you about, they're still worth bringing up, so I hope you don't mind it. There are links below if you want to see more about them, or you can do a google image search for them and just see all the awesome pictures. Either way, I hope you had fun and I'll see you again soon. 

Sources:

ABC Birds--Rainbow Bearded Thornbill

Ebird-- Rainbow Bearded Thornbill-- Pics mostly

Data Zone-- Rainbow Bearded Thornbill

Oiseaux-Birds-- Rainbow Bearded Thornbill

iNaturalist-- Rainbow Bearded Thornbill

Animalia-- Rainbow Bearded Thornbill

Birds of the World-- Rainbow Bearded Thornbill

Goblin Shark

 We now go from an ancient fossil to a more modern fossil, by which I mean a very old species that is still around and looks like it should have gone the way of the dinosaur a while ago. Part of the reason for that is because it's the only living member of it's family, Mitsukurinidae, which goes back 125 million years. It's rather well adapted for it's life, which is why it survived, but that doesn't mean it's not ugly and weird by today's standards. 

Here's a picture, from the Smithsonian link below, that you can use to tell me if you disagree:

I can't be sure (unless someone comments otherwise), but I think most people would agree that that isn't a pretty sight. Then again, these guys are deep-sea predators, so no one really needs to see them, and anyone that argues can be renamed lunch if the Goblin Shark so decides. I'd say you don't have to worry about them coming after you because they are normally in the deep water, but they have been known to come to the surface sometimes for some reason, so...maybe don't insult them unless you're on land. 

Their giant nose is actually full of sensing organs so they can find prey, and their jaws can extend to almost as long as their nose to grab the prey once it's been found, if needed, so there's a reason for their ugliness...but they're still pretty gnarly. Also, since they're deep water, they tend to be pretty mellow and swim slowly, aside from the moment before they munch, then they move fast. It's because of how cold the water is and how hard it is to move around in such cold, heavy, water. 

Unfortunately (maybe), we don't know a lot about these guys. They pop up fairly rarely, mostly as accidental catches by fishermen, and have been found in southern Asia, around Africa, and both United States coastlines so far, so we know they're all over the place. Since they aren't found often, attempts to study them are limited to their dead bodies when found, and guesswork. 

While I doubt that many people find them beautiful aside from the author of the article from the Ocean's Conservancy site that is linked below and provided this picture, which is alot nicer than the previous, I can almost guarantee that there are a lot of people that would describe them as fascinating and would love to study them if they can, so we'll know more in time. 

If you want to know more immediately, there are links below and Google is an awesome friend. I just wanted to share this because they're interesting, and I came across them again recently when I was looking into something else that proved less interesting than I thought it would. Oh well, that's life. Thanks for reading, I hope you had as much fun reading this as I did writing it. 

(Just for fun, I came across a stuffed animal goblin shark while I was looking for a better picture, so they can be made cute(ish) if someone tries.)

Sources:

Smithsonian-Ocean's section--Goblin Shark

Oceana-- Goblin Shark

Animal Diversity Web- Goblin Shark

Australian Museum-- Goblin Shark

Fish and Wildlife-- Goblin Shark

Florida Museum-- Goblin Shark

Marine Bio-- Goblin Shark

Ocean Conservancy-- Goblin Shark (This article was written by someone that called the Goblin Shark gorgeous, so...it takes all kinds.)

Goblin Shark Plush animal on Amazon