Wednesday, February 29, 2012

sleepy legs with a mind of their own, no one said we were ready for naps.

I hated when in elementary school people told me to sit crisscross apple sauce, not only was the rhyming really annoying, that only meant one thing, my legs were gonna fall asleep and this lame ass rug was not big enough to stretch out my tiny lil legs out and this loser in front of me would complain if I did, believe it or not, I once got in trouble for not following this exact instruction. Screw you kinder TA I still remember you yelling at me….
In any case why do your limbs fall asleep when you sit or lay or position them in a certain fashion. Turns out the actual medical name for this sensation is “paresthesia” and its not because blood flow is being restricted to your limb but rather it’s a nerve that because of slight pressure stops functioning correctly. Seriously I always got scared because I thought blood was not coming into my little legs. Think of it like a water hose being stepped on, it stops the water from flowing, that’s kinda what happens to your nerves, the pressure stops flow of blood to specific nerves not the whole limb. Did you also know that excessive vibrations also cause limbs to sleep? Dirt bike riders often get this numb sensation in their arms.
So there you have it, mean TAs and water hoses. Now I know.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Even though i might look like a tiny cow while chewing it.

Chewing gum.
In my quest of learning something new daily, I seemed to have scanned over this these past 2 months. And its something I use literally every day. Here’s my confession, I love gum. Even when I was in sever toothy pain a few months ago I totally would still chew a piece even though it was only on one side.
It turns out that chewing gum has been around for a very long time. The first example of chewing gum comes from the Neolithic period, yea seriously that far back, where scientist found tooth marks in a wad of birch bark tar. There’s tons of other examples leading from the Greeks to the Aztecs whole produced “chicle” which is one of the closest examples to modern day gum. In fact “chicle” first arrived in the U.S. as a substitute for rubber, but when gum producing companies got a hold of it in 1848 they began to use it because it was a softer and held flavor better than resins and paraffin waxes that were being used before.
And so there you have it, from Neolithic folks to my Aztec brethren…gum, I love it!
want to know more: chewing gum

Monday, February 27, 2012

i feel like i should ring a triangle bell before typing this.

Oh dinner, my favorite meal of the day full of delicious salty proteins and carbs. You’re certainly tasty. But today I learned that the word dinner originally meant breakfast in French. “Disnar”, usually meant the largest  and first meal of the day which was usually eaten around noon, then people wouldn’t eat again until really late, which was called supper, eventually people kept adding meals before “disnar”, and so as not to change the name it just keep moving down the list until it became the late meal we know today! Fun facts :D
need to know more: dinner meant breakfast

Sunday, February 26, 2012

the scarriest cereal ever

Rice crispies.
Snap, crackle pop, never made sense. It sounds more like white noise. Which in fact would make it the worlds most frightening cereal ever, what else makes noise when you eat it, and frankly if it’s making noise still chance are I don’t want to eat it.
For breakfast I had a lil bowl of rice crispies and every time I eat them I wonder if they have t add an additive to make it make the crunchy pop sound. I know sometimes I’m that dumb, haha but it turns out that its much like the pop corn process. So today I learned why do rice crispies pop.
Turns out that rice can puff and pop much like popcorn does although not as much. When the rice “pops” it creates little spaces with sealed areas inside the rice as well and when cold milk is added. Bam the walls collapse and make the pop sound!
Fascinating!

Saturday, February 25, 2012

who doesnt like extra donuts!?

A baker’s dozen
Why are there 13 in a baker’s dozen. I unno but in honor of my bake and take today I found out. So I guess many old societies were super strict when it came to their bakers and whether or not they were cheating their customers. In ancient Egypt if you were a shady baker that tried to skimp on stuff they would have nailed your ear to the door of their bakery and in Babylon if a baker sold a light loaf, they would have their hand chopped off.
Even in Europe in the 13th century a bread and ale statue was enacted and so bakers who cheated their customers would be subject to severe punishment, so in order to go over and NOT under, bakers just started giving a lil extra item when 12 items were purchased.
Makes sense id rather give an extra donut than  to get my hand chopped off like wise I would also like to receive said extra donut instead of having to go and snitch on a baker.… J

Friday, February 24, 2012

gives new meaning to hungry hippos.

Today I learned something very simple but it was totally interesting. Im a big soup lover I can drink most any soup by the gallon, and I love tasting odd meats, I know I know, but I still have an odd fascination with wanting to eat horse and bear, yea I know.
So today I learned that the first soup ever was made of hippopotamus
The earliest archeological evidence for the consumption of soup dates back to 6000 BC, and it was hippopotamus soup! How awesome is that, if only they would let me eat one now, I would totally be all over it!.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

to curl

Eyelash curler
It took me a long time to discover the awesomeness that is an eyelash curler. I was not blessed with doe like eyes and my lashes are miniscule. I can still clearly remember when I used this crazy contraption for the first time and saw the results I was flabbergasted, yay finally long lashes without having to glue something to my face…I was in love. So today as I used it, I wondered when did it fist show up in American beauty products?
Turns out that the patent for the first eyelash curler was made in 1931 by William McDonnell and Charles Stickel. It was called “kurlash” and sold in stores for a dollar. Originally it did not contain the little gummy pads that today’s modern curler lash and instead it had a slightly harder rubber piece and instructed woman to slightly heat the metal portions for a better curled look.
Simple enough. still one of my favorite products to use. Even though it looks like some super mega torture device.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

carrots again, seriously?

I recently posted n my first carrot juice experience, that was tasty and I’ve actually bought a pint for myself the other day, so I wondered how many other fun carrot facts I could learn, yea I’m seriously that lame that I wonder about carrots to myself.
Did you know that before the 16th century all carrots were purple and gross!? It’s true it wasn’t until Dutch growers took mutated carrot versions like yellow and white skinny ones that produced the orange carrot similar to the one we know today.  A plump juicy orangey deliciousness snack.
Thank you Dutch! Your awesomeness never ceases to amaze me.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

the scariest fire of all.

Spontaneous human combustion.
I blame unsolved mysteries for most of my unfounded fears. I remember watching it with my brother and sister when I was little. That dudes voice was scary. One episode I will never forget talked about spontaneous human combustion. I thought omg I could just catch fire randomly and die. This fear haunted me for like ever. Then yesterday as I was falling asleep for some strange reason this episode jumped into my head, why I don’t know. But I was scared and so to overcome my fear today I will learn facts about why people do or do not just catch on fire.
Classic signs of SHC are when only the person their clothing, the floor and celing above just them and the object they are sitting or laying on catches fire. Not the rest of the room, nothing else. Just them.
First theres the crazies that think that the fire was cause by a spirit or demon, scary and clearly I don’t want to even remotely imagine that this is true for fear of repetitive nightmares. Secondly, turns out that most proponents of SHC claim that people catch fire because of some static electricity charge that catches the persons clothing on fire, but most scientists say this is almost impossible because while static electricity can cause a spark, its less than a joule, which I’m guessing is super low. However I found that most people who “spontaneously combust” are old or immobile people who cannot move. And these fires usually happen when they are by themselves, and low and behold the majority are smokers. Now I don’t know about you but this seems like a recipe for disaster.  Okay now my fears are calmed. Seems like its pretty much an issue of neglected folks who cant move once on fire from an outside source. Sad and scary in a non-paranormal way.
wanna know more: Spontaneous human combustion

Monday, February 20, 2012

the artist formerly known as small cakes.

Cookies.
Cookies are my friends. I love them. I love making them, I love sharing them, and I love reading recipes for them when I’m super bored and even worse in moments of complete bliss I find myself coming up with new recipes of my own for them. Yea I’m a little obsessed. So today as I was lost in recipe thought I realized I have no idea where the word cookie cake from.
The word “cookie” comes from the Dutch “koekjes” which came from the Dutch “koek”, meaning “cake”;  cookie was introduced to English in the very early 18th century.  It is thought this term caught on more in the United States due to the strong Dutch heritage in early America.  The British prefer to call cookies “small cakes, seed biscuits, or tea cakes”.
I love the term tea cakes though, fascinating! J

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Bread twist ties will blow your mind!

By now I’m sure we all know that I love bread. I snack on it. Sweet or French breads I love them all. And while it has been a fear of mine to bake with yeast, one day soon I will, all for the love of the deliciously fresh pillowy awesomeness that is bread…okay okay so today I learned something that will forever change the way I purchase bread.
You know those lil twisty things or plastic squares that keep the store bought loaves closed? Well did you know they had a meaning? In fact each color stands for a different day of the week. Well it turns out that they do it so that it makes restocking in stores easier that way when the bread restocker guy is looking for old loaves he doesn’t have to check each one for a date; all he has to do is scan for a color. Not all bread companies however use the same color for each day, so if you’d really like to know make sure you look up your bread company online and most of them have the information publically available. This will help you always buy the freshest fluffiest bread J hurrays! my life is changed...

Saturday, February 18, 2012

theres a mallow in your marsh, and its delicious.

Marshmallows
Marshmallows, I snack on them constantly. Any kind, chocolate flavored, strawberry flavored, and the more gourmet ones the better, you’ve never had a true marshmallow until you have it cut out of a pan sprinkled with coarse sugar. Simply amazing.
I knew marshmallows were a plant, but I didn’t think that actually marshmallows were made from them. In ancient Egyptian times, they would mix the sap of the plant with honey to create a remedy for sore throats. Eventually they realized it was just delicious so just started eating it as a candy. The French also use the plant to make a candy but took the piths of the roots and mixed them with sugar syrup to form a spongy treat which most resembles the marshmallows we know today. Eventually taking the roots from the plant became to labor intensive and so French confectioners developed a way to get around using the plant, by using egg whites and gelatin…This is pretty much what a marshmallow is today.
Here’s a little recipe if you want to try your hand at it.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Going Dutch

I never really knew why splitting a bill was called going Dutch. I never really thought about it either until today as I was leafing through my latest real simple magazine I noticed that they had a small article on the meaning. Hurrays!
So going Dutch is pretty much when you want to split a bill half ways with someone. What I didn’t know is that it’s an old English slur against poor old Netherlands. In the early 17th and 18th centuries the English and Dutch totally hated each other. They had like 4 wars. Anyhoo the English started referring to bad things as “Dutch” like alcohol was referred to as “Dutch courage” a “Dutch treat” was when you asked someone out for a snack then asked them to pay for it. And so going Dutch to split your bill pretty much means you’re cheap. But oh well times are tough.
Next time you use this saying, make sure you arent around any dutch folks f they will totally punch you in the face. and there you have it, Angry Englishmen and cheapskates, and even though I’m neither, I love going Dutchm super efficient.. :D

Thursday, February 16, 2012

carrots! friend or foe.

Carrot juice.
I somehow in my 27 years of life have avoided carrot juice. I am a firm believer that vegetables should not be juiced. that can only produce something gross and overall not tasty. I would never buy it because well its carrots and someone took the time to squeeze them into a watery mess that was by no means appealing. So I’d buy other stuff instead, watermelon juice, yes, cucumber juice yes, juice, juice, juice. I actually am a BIG juice drinker. So today, finally when offered a glass of carrot juice. I accepted for the sole purpose of this blog. I did it for you, well more for me.
Okay, okay, here’s the thing I thought I was gonna hate it. I didn’t, it was actually really good, I like carrots, I don’t know why I would assume that the juice would be gross. It’s like ketchup or raisins. If you like grapes or tomatoes chances are you’ll like their distant cousins. Now would I go out and buy a gallon, probably not, but if someone gave me some for free I would take it, where before I would probably just throw it in the trash! So today’s new learned yet obvious fact, don’t say you don’t like something without trying it. And always try something new when offered the opportunity. So thanks Ed Rodriguez, your carrot juice offer could have quite possibly changed my life, maybe.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

stop it!

Stop signs.
Why are they octagons. Simple as that seriously why? Out of all the shapes why that one? I know it doesn’t drive most people crazy but ive kinda always wondered but never really bothered to look for why.
Turns out that the first U.S. stop sign was created and posted in Michigan in 1915. American association of state highway officials decided on the octagonal shape because it was easily identifiable from behind so drivers coming the opposite way wouldn’t get it confused. Originally they were white with black lettering, but since the universal color for stop is red, and the color red is easier to see they changed them.
Not all that exciting. But there you have it, easier to see and functional. Not the wacky story I was expecting but interesting none the less.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

fishy fishes!

Beta fish.
The pretty tail fish to me. So I’ve been pondering the idea of pets for a while. I’ve had fish before but it was a large aquarium tank with three super adorable gold fish and a tiny coy.
I felt like I was ready so I asked for one in today’s secret valentine gift exchange. And low and beheld I got one! Thanks to Ms. Libby Richter. So I present to you, Samuel and three fun facts about betas that I did not know and learned today.

1.       The males raise the children and build bubble nests in their tanks when they are happy.
2.       Beta fish are one of the only fish in existence known to breathe air. They have something called a labyrinth organ which allows them to breathe in air or else they drown.
3.       Betas are some of the longest living fish with a lifespan of up to 9 years in good conditions.
Yay!... I’m gonna love my little beta! He seems extra happy in his lil home, gonna go get some colorful rocks soon to help him make his little habitat happier. J

Monday, February 13, 2012

where lazy and delicious become friends.

Cake mix
Cake, who doesn’t love it, it’s pretty much the most amazing thing ever, very rarely do you encounter a person who passes on a piece of cake and chances are if they do it pretty much means they are communist or suffered a tragic taste bud reducing accident. I love cake, but sometimes I’m too lazy to make it from scratch, so the good old cake box mix comes in, a few pantry staples and bam you have a delicious moist creation. So where did the first mix come from?
So basic cake and biscuit mixes existed but were kinda lame because they either weren’t tasty or they would go bad really fast. In 1947 general mills, who owned Betty Crocker developed a cake mix which suggested to housewives to “just add water and mix!” It was a long development process that took 4 years to create a perfect mix. The original just add water mix didn’t sell very well and they didn’t understand why. Turns out ironically that it was too easy for housewives to make and they didn’t trust that just adding water would create something super yums.
After several years of testing they concluded that people liked adding in their own ingredients to make the cake mix their own. So they changed it and told consumers to just “add an egg” shockingly that was enough to increase sales. The funny thing is that adding the egg pretty much isn’t needed in the mix. Its pretty much just there for sales and to make people feel better…even now, all the mix really needs is water and it would still produce a cake that’s a-okay.
So there you have it over achieving homemakers and lazy cake lovers.
Wanna know more: cake mix

Sunday, February 12, 2012

ruff rufff ruuaff.....thats dog for "im mega hungries time!"

Dog food.
I always see the freezer in the dog food isle that has the fresh food and treats for them and I wondered when this transition happened. When did putty food go gourmet but more importantly when did it actually begin. My mocha eats alpo. He digs it and he’s really picky. I’m not gonna lie we spoil him and feed him a lot of table scraps. I know I know it’s bad and you’re not suppose to but I think that’s what all ld school dogs ate anyway so :P !
Turns out that a lightning rod sales man from Ohio named James Spratt was traveling in London around 1890. During his travels he noticed that dog would hang out in the shipyards waiting for the sailor to throw leftover hardtack and rotten food to them. Spratt thought he could totally do way better than this to feed them, yea that wouldn’t be hard. So he came up with a biscuit that had grains and beef blood. It was a hit!
Canned food became popular after WWI when there was a surplus of horse meat. War efforts were now using less animal power and more machine power, so they had to do something with the horses. However canned meat for dogs became a little hard to come by during WWII because they were super stingy with tin. So kibble became king and pretty much has to this day.
And then you have it, lightning rod salesman and table scraps. Whatever you feed your pup, im sure he’ll love it!

Saturday, February 11, 2012

tiny wastebasket liners...here, but not for long.

Plastic shopping Bags.
Plastic shopping bags are now public enemy #1 for environmentalists. Theyre pretty much the anti-christ according to them. but I learned something odd today, my generation is one of the first to be exposed to plastic shopping bags, before 1982 there was only paper…
“The modern lightweight shopping bag is the invention of Swedish engineer Sten Gustaf Thulin. In the early 1960s, Thulin developed the idea for forming a simple one-piece bag by folding, welding and die-cutting a flat tube of plastic in the early 1960s for packaging company Celloplast of Norrköping, Sweden. Thulin's design produced a simple, strong bag with a high load-carrying capacity, and was patented worldwide by Celloplast in 1965.”
Eventually celloplast lost the exclusive patent for plastic bags and a bunch of other companies took it and ran with it. Kroger and Safeway were the first stores in the mid-80s to begin using them.
Now there are specific laws banning them in certain cities, the generation that follows our wont even be able to remember plastic bags. Short lived and mega useful. Even though theyre biodegradable now, they won’t be around for long.
want to learn more :plastic shopping bags

Friday, February 10, 2012

zip it....zip it good.

Zippers.
I literally use a zipper every day, from jackets to jeans, to skirts and dresses, almost every single day I’m having to deal with one. It’s a genius idea when you think about it. Imagine how pissed you would be if your hoodie had 9274923497 buttons to button every single day. I mean im not that lazy, I love buttons, but not always. Zippers are fascinating if you’ve ever had one break and you try and fit it, you realize how simple and yet how very awesome it is. So who came up with it?
The first original zipper patent belonged to the dude who invented the sewing machine, Elias Howe. However, once he got well known for the sewing machine he kinda let his patent for Automatic, Continuous Clothing Closure just fizzle out. This was in 1851. Four years later Whitcomb Judson, the guy that also invented the pneumatic railway system, invented the clasp locker which was very similar to Howes patent. He then launched the universal fastener company which started to produce these clasps. However it was his son in law Gideon Sundback, who would come up with something very similar to what we know as a zipper today.
The term zipper actually came from the B.F. Goodrich company which used the fastener of some rain boots and referred to it as “the zipper”.
So there you have it. Over achieving inventor dudes and clever advertizing companies all came together for the zipper!
wanna know more: zippers

Thursday, February 9, 2012

because I should probably re-read "siddartha".

Buddhism.
Last night I had a very interesting dinner with my lovely girlfriends and over discussions of hating babies, enjoying valentine’s day, and blurting out our aggressions of the day, somewhere along the way my lovely friend Sandra mentioned wanting to learn more about Buddhism. Here’s where stuff got interesting because none of us knew anything about it except they have lil statues of happy lil bald men. Were a sad bunch I know, so this one is for Sandra who pretty much asked, what is Buddhism all about?
It’s a lot of information, I, being not a fan of organized religions, quickly realized that in reading a bunch of stuff neither do Buddhists, in fact to even refer to them as such is kinda weird. They simply put, are people who follow a very simple way of life, which is kinda nice and seems super peaceful. Rather than mess up a bunch of information I really don’t know about I’ll stick to basics.
Buddhism is based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gotama, he was super insightful dude who was born into wealth and quickly realized money doesn’t buy happiness ( and here’s where I tap out of this philosophy, because I always feel this is untrue, but okay) there are several different types of Buddhism but most follow the concept of the 4 noble truths on the path to enlightenment.
Noble truths in a nutshell according to me:
1.       Life pretty much is full of tons of suffering
2.       You suffer because you get attached to stuff.
3.       Pretty much, you can stop suffering by not being clingy and attached to stuff
4.       You gotta figure out the path to less suffering, that’s like your mega goal…aka nirvana
So there are no deities to worship ( I always thought they worshiped the lil Buddha statues, nope, they pretty much just bow to it like saying hey thanks mister your philosophies are awesome)  and I also like the fact that there are no crazy preachers taking your money. It seems more like a philosophy and way of life. Which is nice, Its always awesome when people try to be better people by becoming compassionate and awesome. So if you’re into it. Go for it!

Here is the site that gave me tons of info, rather than go more in depth, go there and get it straight from Buddhists themselves i seriously learned alot from it today.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

power up!

Batteries.
We take batteries for granted way more often than we should. Imagine if you had to plug EVERYTHING into the wall. Your wii remote, your, your TVs remote your DVD remote, that big bird bicycle I had when I was like 5, that thing was awesome….I’m sure batteries are more useful than only for remote controls and toys, I just can’t think of any right now, but in any case, batteries are super practical, who came up with the first one and how do they work?
There’s this thing called the Bagdad battery but I already knew about it and will refrain from discussing it cause well thanks to history channel now I’m not sure whether or not this is super awesome, or just archeologists overanalyzing everything, if you want to learn about it : Baghdad Battery, be my guest.
Turns out the modern day battery was discovered thanks to a frog leg, (mmm yum, I love tender frog legs all delicious and grilled in like a light white wine sauce all dripping with golden juicy awesomeness…wait, oh yea batteries) so Luigi Galvani, Italian scientist dude, was dissecting a frog on a brass hook and when he touched the hook with an iron scalpel the frog leg moved. Crazy! He called this “animal electricity” an never put two and two together, his bff Alessandro Volta came along and was like no dude, it’s the metals touching and totally stole all his thunder! “Volta invented the first true battery, which came to be known as the Voltaic Pile. The Voltaic Pile consisted of pairs of copper and zinc discs piled on top of each other, separated by a layer of cloth or cardboard soaked in brine (i.e., the electrolyte)”  
Turns out since then there were A TON of other battery samples that came along. Ben Franklin however was the first to use the term “battery” to describe one of these contraptions. This dude was all up in everyone’s business, goodness gracious! The  Alkaline battery like we know it today came along in the mid 50’s and the lithium super awesome battery that keeps your remote controls working for like ever was developed in the early 70’s and made even more awesome in the late 90’s. I’m sure crazy scientist dudes are not through discovering new awesome ways to power our tiny appliances!.
And there you have it delicious frogs and sciencey garbles. Batteries are definitely awesome.
if you need to know more : batteries

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

If eiffel in love, it would be with this tower....

The Eiffel Tower
Yea I’ve been to Europe, it was awesome, but one thing I regret is not spending the 99 Euros to fly to Paris France and see the Eiffel tower. Maybe next time… In any case, what’s the deal with it? Is it just some fancy thing someone thought up or does it have a purpose?
Turns out it was built for a contest to honor the centennial of the French revolution. Gustav Eiffel won a design contest and began building the tower in 1887, it was done and opened May 6, 1889. During the building efforts only one man died despite the open frame. I guess that’s a good thing. Once it was done a bunch of Parisians starting talking smack. They totally hated it. Little did they know it would become super iconic and make their city tourist trap central and home to like 928347935 engagements each year, (note: my number is just an estimate).  The tower was actually only suppose to stay up for 20 years. One of the requirements for the design contest was that it would be easy to dismantled. Well turns out that after those 20 years the city of Paris who now became full owner of the tower just left it up because it turned out be a super awesome radio tower to boot. So not only is it pretty, it’s handy. another fun fact is that up until 1930 it was the tallest structure in the world, the crystler building took its title.
And there you have it. Contests and enamored couples. Someday I’ll go!
wanna know more, and theres actually plenty more to learn : eiffel tower

Monday, February 6, 2012

being effiecient, paper is my new friend.

Today i saw a video which pretty much changed my life, so i made my own copycat video.
enjoy. Granted, i had made two previous videos where i couldnt get the bottle open, but i had loosened it with the paper, third times a charm. :D




poppin bottles dude. -- the original video I saw.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Juke boxes, ooo girl that’s my song!

Youre Imposing your musical views on the world and theres nothing anyone can do about it, you bravely select a barry manilow song, yea copacabana, you went there and then you realize its three plays to a dollar…you choose michael buble and reo speedwagon and you see everyone cringe, but fuck you its my dollar! That’s why I love juke boxes!
So where did it start and whys it called a juke box, please don’t tell me theres some dude named juke…
As it turns out a juke box is the first automatic coin operated machine. Well something like a joke box it was player pianos and those lil machines that sounded like music boxes. “In 1918 Hobart C. Niblack patented an apparatus that automatically changed records, leading to one of the first selective jukeboxes being introduced in 1927 by the Automated Musical Instrument Company, later known as AMI. In 1928, Justus P. Seeburg, who was manufacturing player pianos, combined an electrostatic loudspeaker with a record player that was coin operated, and gave the listener a choice of eight records.” Oooo 8 records! Sooo many choices! Eventually other small improvements were made like the addition of multiple records and the switch to 45’s and better sound quality but it didn’t deviate much from the original idea. Today most jukeboxes are connected to wireless networks which makes the playlists it can hold unlimited and thus making me a happy happy girl.
Interestingly enough there was NOT some dude named juke…lol. “The term "jukebox" came into use in the United States around 1940, apparently derived from the familiar usage "juke joint", derived from the Gullah language used by african americans in the word "juke" or "joog" meaning disorderly, rowdy, or wicked.”  And by the way I totally had to look up gullah cause I had no idea what it was turns out they are afro american that live in south carolina/georgia. Bam! Two for one learning in this post!
And so there you have it barry manilow and audiophiles. Yay!
want to know more: Jukebox

Saturday, February 4, 2012

the best excuse to eat cake for breakfast.

Since I had strawberries and whipped cream I figured I’d make pancakes this morning. And they were yum. So I wondered, pancakes where’d they originate?
Archaeological evidence suggests that varieties of pancakes are probably the earliest and most widespread types of cereal food eaten in prehistoric societies whereby dry carbohydrate-rich seed flours mixed with the available protein-rich liquids, usually milk and eggs, were baked on hot stones or in shallow earthenware pots over an open fire to form a nutritious and highly palatable foodstuff.”
The first time that a pancake was mentioned was in an old Middle English culinary manuscript from 1430. The Greeks however were said to come up with the first pancake type food called a Tagenites. Tagenites were made with wheat flour, olive oil, honey and curdled milk, and were served for breakfast.
and just in case you want to make your own, heres a lil recipe :
1 c. flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
3 tbsp. sugar
1 c. milk
1 egg
1/2 tsp. salt
Yum! Old school foods and hungry Greeks! Yay pancakes!

want to know more: pancakes

Friday, February 3, 2012

diet soda, the worlds greatest gift.

Diet soda
Growing up I hated diet sodas I thought they were gross and disgusting and didn’t know why you would ever in your life want to drink them. Thus explaining why I was a plump lil child. Now a days I wont drink it if it’s not diet, I’ve grown accustomed to the sweet weird taste and I love it. So when was the first diet drink introduced? And who made it.
Well in 1952 kirsch bottling company from Brooklyn, New York launched a sugar free ginger ale called no-cal. Originally the drink was marketed towards people who were diabetic. In 1958 Royal crown cola launched their Diet Rite cola, fresca a citrus diet soda came on the market, and Dr. Pepper soon followed with their own version of the diet drink but these really didn’t sell that well because most people associated diet drinks with diabetic people. Pepsi was the first large company to release a diet drink called “patio” (omg like in the mad men episode!!) 1963 coca cola launched Tab, this turned sales around for diet drinks and they started to become popular. But after a scare that most of these drinks were sweetened with cyclamate a sweetener that was banned by the U.S. government for being a carcinogen. Scary! After this most formulas were reformulated to include non toxic sweeteners.
And so there you have it, diabetics and poisonous sugars! Yay diet soda!
wanna know more: diet soda

Thursday, February 2, 2012

putting all your heads in one basket....oh wait thats eggs huh? hmm nevermind.

 guillotines
Off with their heads, I never really thought about the names of stuff, yesterday’s ponzi scheme inspired me to find another thing that’s named after someone that I never really knew was named after someone. And thanks to my ever clever love for pointing me in the direction of guillotines. Seriously though, guillotines. I always thought they were scary torture devices. Little did I know it was a way to reform executions, all thanks to, drum roll please, Doctor Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, a French physician.
So the guillotine actually wasn’t invented by the doctor, it had been around as a form of execution with a different moon shaped blade before, but what Dr. Guillotine did was create a set of articles to reform capital punishment in France. Before there was a ton of torture devices, like that wheel that stretched people out or burning at the steak. He pretty much said he wanted people regardless of class to be executed in the same humane way. I know I know, cutting off someones head doesn’t sound humane, but compared to the other stuff they were doing this was totally okay.
The first execution by guillotine was performed on highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier on 25 April 1792. From June 1793 to July 1794 there was a ton of executions and people got super into them and would go to watch public executions on a daily basis. At one point programs were even dispersed containing the names of the people who were scheduled to die that day, super morbid. Eventually cause they were so repetitive people stopped going. I mean how many times can you see a head roll off someone before you were  a) creeped out or  b) just didn’t care anymore. Sad but true, I wonder if I would go see it if it existed today, id really have to think about that one that sounds super scary and not cool and would totally gimme the willies for days and days. In any case the last public one was of Eugen Weidmann, on 17 June 1939. After that, surprisingly France kept using this meathod until 1981 when they got rid of their death penalty.
And so there you have it. Heads a rollin and those crazy french.

want to know more: guillotines

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Ponzi! It sounds like Fonzi, but it's definitely not as cool…eeeyyyy

Ponzi schemes, I’m sure by now were all familiar with Bernie Madoff and his ponzi investing scheme. Yea a lot of people got screwed over, but that’s what happens when something is to good to be true…chances are its probably NOT true. Anyhoo I thought ponzi was kinda like widget, just an arbitrary term given to something. Well it’s not, turns out there’s a Charles Ponzi who’s scheme in the 1920s was so detrimental, they named every subsequential scheme after his.Thats kind of an awesome legacy... So who was this guy and what exactly is a ponzi scheme?

Charles Ponzi lookin super sharp,
I'm guessing this was before his scheme fell apart.
In 1920 Charles Ponzi’s scheme wasn’t exactly new; he just executed it in a big way.A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to its investors from their own money or the money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit earned by the individual or organization running the operation. The Ponzi scheme usually entices new investors by offering higher returns than other investments, in the form of short-term returns that are either abnormally high or unusually consistent. Perpetuation of the high returns requires an ever-increasing flow of money from new investors to keep the scheme going.” (wikipedia)
So pretty much for it to keep going you need to keep bringing in people. These are usually common with churches and people influenced by some higher authority. But when the flow of people stops, the system collapses, and well everyone and their momma who gave any kind of money is officially screwed.
Charles Ponzi Started the scheme in Boston in 1920 using international postage stamp stuff and ended up raking in millions of dollars. In the 1920’s omg he was like super mega richtastic. This spark huge red flags with the Boston bank commissioner and while they didn’t originally find anything illegal, Ponzi ended up serving jail time for it but then was later deported, cause well he wasn’t a U.S. citizen anyway.  
wanna learn more: Ponzi Schemes