MIF/TIF

 Ok, you probably saw that and didn't know what you were getting into, but this is an extremely innocent but passionate debate that has been raging for years across the ocean in Britain. 

Milk in First or Tea in First? 

Or

That's been a giant debate, despite how ridiculous it might sound. There are reasons on both sides. 

Milk first can sometimes prevent the milk from clumping or scalding when the tea is added, protecting the proteins within. Milk first can also protect old tea-cups that would be stressed by the change in temperature. 

Tea first means you know how strong the tea is before you add milk, so you don't add too much, and it makes it alot easier when you're brewing one cup of tea with a bag. 

Part of the problem is that it got used as a social divide for a while. Those with the good china didn't need to worry about the temperature shift, so doing milk first was seen as a lower-class thing. 

Either way, the debate is probably the British equivalent of 'is a hotdog a sandwich?', and it should surprise no one that there was a 6 page paper written to give a scientific opinion of this in 1980, with a revision done in 2019. 

That paper got an Ig Nobel Award for Literature, alongside the physics winner who wrote a paper on the optimal method for dunking a cookie, and a sociology award to the guy who wrote a study about Canadian donut shops. I might be insane, but I think the Ig Nobel prize committee might have been hungry when making their choices. 

So, next time you want a cup of tea, take a moment to wonder why this is a debate and, depending on what tea you're drinking, wonder what it would taste like if your peppermint tea had milk in it, then cringe and move on. 

Since I've been talking about it so much, please let me know what kind of tea you're going to get now. I'm going for a fruit tea I really like called 'Blood Orange' that has orange peel, rosehip, and hibiscus that helps my with my citrus cravings right now. Have fun with your tea, and I'll see you again soon. 

Sources:

International Standards Organizations-- ISO 3103:2019, the revised paper

Past Ig Nobel Winners

Beyond those two, if you google the debate, you'll get lots of articles about preferences and the history of the debate. I'll let you pick which ones you like. 

A Twist on the Hotdog-Sandwich Debate

 Ok, I didn't mean to disappear this long again, but you can't get mad at me because you didn't finish saying the whole name of Bangkok, did you? So, all good. 

Now, I know everyone has faced the endless debate about if a hotdog is a sandwich. Personally, I tend to question a bit if hot dogs count as actual food, in some cases. Something that's never been debated is if burritos count as sandwiches...

According to New York, they are. Tax Bulletin ST-835 states that burritos (and hot dogs) count as sandwiches legally. As much as I love citing multiple sources, I think we can trust the New York Department of Taxes to know about New York Tax law, so I'll leave it at that. 

I'm somewhat curious what definition they're using for sandwiches here, because the long list makes me wonder about pizzas and calzones and where those would fall in this listing. Or the deconstructed sandwiches I've heard some people like. This could get complicated...and lead to the rabbit-hole that my family went down trying to figure out how to define sandwiches in such a way that it didn't involve a lot of usually-non-sandwich foods. Like ravioli. 

So, now that you're probably busy trying to figure out exactly what the definition of a sandwich is, I'll leave you alone and try to put that back into the little box in the back of my mind so I can avoid it for longer. 

Have fun with your thoughts. 

Bangkok's full Name

 Hi, sorry, didn't mean to disappear again. It's just been a bad week. 

So, just for ridiculousness, which I love, this post is about Bangkok. 

Bangkok is the most commonly known name for the capital of Thailand, but it has a longer ceremonial name:

Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit

Which translates to:

The city of angels, the great city, the eternal jewel city, the impregnable city of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukarma.

I've got sources below if you want to learn more about everything, but I'm going to leave it at this. I'll probably have another post up before you finish figuring out how to pronounce the whole name of the city. If you do manage that, let me know and I'll send you a special kitten picture just for you. Or something. 

See you soon. 

Sources:

Your Thai Guide-- The Real Name of Bangkok

Twisted Sifter-- Bangkok's Ceremonial Name

Language Log-- The Full Name of Bangkok

Into Asia-- Full Name of Bangkok

Rejected Fruit Flies Go For Booze

 I came across this study because of QI, and I thought it sounded interesting, but the hilarious part came when someone responded to the tweet with why this was a favorite of theirs. The opening paragraph of the study. 

I tried to find a link to the study for free, but was unable to do that. I was also similarly unable to find where I'd read the first paragraph of it, which is rather annoying. 

It's not quite the same, but here's the opening paragraph from the UCSF Archive link below. 

"Sexually deprived male fruit flies exhibit a pattern of behavior that seems ripped from the pages of a sad-sack Raymond Carver story: when female fruit flies reject their sexual advances, the males are driven to excessive alcohol consumption, drinking far more than comparable, sexually satisfied male flies."

That's basically the sum of it. There's some neuroscience to explain it if you're interested, but I didn't find anything in it worth worrying about. 

If you're interested, feel free to investigate further. If you're not, you can probably at least find this hilarious. 

Have fun, I'll be back soon. 

Sources:

UCSF-- Archive-- Jilted Flies Drink More Alcohol

National institute for Whole Health-- Scorned Male Fruit Flies Turn to Alcohol

Science-- Rejected Flies turn to Alcohol

Happy Easter!

 Happy Easter! 

But I'd rather talk about Easter Island if you don't mind. 

Particularly the Moai, the giant statues everyone knows them for. Most people probably wouldn't know Easter Island for anything beyond that, but there is a lot more than that to know about them. In case you don't know what they are, here's a picture from the Easter Island Travel link below to remind you. 

One part is that another name for the Easter Islands is Rapa Nui. 

The Moai, those statues you've probably heard of, are made of three parts, which is something you probably didn't know. They've got one giant piece of rock that is the head and body of the statue, then a second piece for a red hairpiece/topknot, and white for their eyes. A picture of all three parts together is below, from the Travel Chile Link below. 

These Moai kept watch over the island with their backs to the sea, and were decorated with red and white designs. Over the course of a few hundred years, over 800 Moai were created and moved around the island to keep guard over the people, starting with softer stone and ending with more detailed basalt figures. 

Before you get too hung up on the word, yes, they moved the Moai around despite them being one piece of stone that probably weighed as much as a bus. How? They used ropes to pull one side, then the other, until they managed to walk it to it's station. You've probably done that with a large box, lifting one corner and turning it forward, then the other. 

Is this enough fun stuff to convince you that these statues are cool, that this island is cool, and that you'll have something fun to say next time someone brings up Easter Island, the least of which could be that the island is also known as Rapa Nui. 

I'll see you again soon, I hope you liked this, and I hope you had a great day. 

Sources:

Easter Island Travel-- Moai (I will note for this one, it's got alot of information, and I trust it to know what it's talking about mostly. If you're curious, this is the first one I'd suggest for most questions. 

Smart History-- Easter Island Moai

BBC-- How Giant Easter Island Heads walked

Travel Chile-- Five Fun Facts about the Moai

Easter Island Travel-- Rapa Nui: 10 Fascinating Facts

Wolf Peach

 There isn't a lot for me to say on this one, but I find it too hilarious to skip. 

The Latin Name for Tomatoes can translate to Wolf Peach. 

This comes from the fact that they come from the Nightshade family, which is notoriously poisonous. To try to warn people off of them, they got called Wolf Peaches. It was later discovered that they aren't poisonous, but the name stuck. 

There is some link between these 'wolf peaches' and German Werewolves, but I haven't been able to find specifics on it. I also haven't been able to figure out what they supposedly did with Witches and Black Magic. 

Interestingly, the French called them 'Love Apples' because they thought it was an aphrodisiac, but it wasn't until the 1800's that people started thinking it was something safe to eat, not just a nice ornamental plant. 

Tomatoes themselves are still in contention because of their classification as fruit or vegetables. Tomatoes count as fruits, since they contain seeds, but they're treated as vegetables by most. Botanically, fruit. Culinarily, vegetable. This actually got to the supreme court in 1893, and was ruled to be a vegetable as far as taxes are concerned at least, and because they are commonly used for savory dishes. 

That's why you get to see those shirts saying that 'Knowledge is knowing Tomato is a Fruit, Wisdom is knowing not to put it in Fruit Salad'. There have also been jokes about Ketchup being a fruit smoothie, but the thought of drinking a cup of it makes me nauseous. 

I'll leave this at that. There's a rich and saucy history to the tomato that I didn't cover, so you might look into that if you're interested. The first link below is really good for that if you want more information. Either way though, please keep this in mind next time you want some 'Wolf Peach Sauce' or something. 

Summary:

Richard Niesenbaum-- Wolf Peach or Love Apple, Our Complicated History with the Tomato

Times leader-- Tomato once called Wolf Peach

New Historian-- Taming the Tomato

North Carolina Extension Gardener-- Tomatoes

Image Sources:

Wolf Peach from Instagram

Tomatoes Picture from iStock

April Fools Day!

 I've been holding onto this story for a bit. It's one of those April Fools' Day pranks that...well, it didn't work like it should have because the people being pranked didn't realist they were being pranked in time. 

In 1971, Texas Representative Tom Moore sent in a bill to have the Texas House of Representatives honor Albert DeSalvo, from Massachussetts, honored for his work in 'Population Control' and 'Applied Psychology'. 

This was both meant as a prank, and to prove that no one was reading the proposals well enough. Unfortunately, it kinda backfired because it got passed. 

So...Texas honored a serial killer, known as the Boston Strangler. 

Oops? 

Thankfully, I think he pulled it before it became official. 

So, lesson learned. Make sure you'll be ok with it if the prank goes unnoticed. Or maybe make sure it's flashy enough to get noticed. 

Either way, I hope you had fun and pranked someone somehow today, and basically just that you had a good day. Hopefully I'll see you again soon. 

Sources:

Snopes-- The Texas Legislature Honored a Serial Killer

KUT- Austin News-- A look back at Texas' Unfunniest April Fools Jokes

Encyclopedia Britannica-- One Good Fact about Legislative Pranks