...About the Tulip Bubble.

You may know that tulips are heavily associated with the Dutch people, along with strange last names. They have fields of the flower planted all over the country, but the flower is actually of Turkish origin. It was brought to Europe from the Ottoman Empire as gifts to the European rulers and aristocrats. The flower hit The Netherlands smack dab in the middle of their golden era which took place during most of the 17th century. At this time The Netherlands became the centre of world trade and was prospering from it. The Dutch East India company had secured a monopoly for the Asian trade market, their systems of canals were ideal for ship navigation (the main method of transportation), they had started the world's first national and centralized bank, and invented the stock market. They were close to the regions we know today as Britain, France, and Germany with no Alps in the way and products could easily make their way all over Europe from there. They had possession of Manhattan Island (known as New Amsterdam then) and today's neighbourhood of Harlem is named after a city in the Netherlands. Antwerp is still an important hub for the diamond trade.

These guys knew their Dutch history.

What does all this have to do with tulips? When they first arrived on the scene people went ape-shit for them. Tulip bulbs were bought with huge sums of money, often at prices that would have bought you a nice piece of land with all the fixings. But what really made the prices soar was its vulnerability to the Tulip Breaking Virus. This virus changes the pigmentation of the petal streaking it with ribbons of white or other colours producing some dazzling looks. No one knew it was a virus and experts of all kinds popped up claiming they could tell if a bulb would 'break' or not. There was no real way of telling if it would 'break' until it bloomed, and since they only bloomed in mid-spring, bulbs were bought and sold year round. The winter made transporting the bulbs impossible as it would kill the flower. So contracts were bought and sold between people based on what speculators were saying about the future prices of tulips. This has led to the modern day practice of future contracts. 


For Sale. 4200 guilders - a real steal. 

Its hard to say what exactly caused the bubble to burst and as we have seen in the past few years it doesn't take much. One reason is the plague. It hit areas that held tulip bulb auctions and buyers stopped showing up. Sellers had no buyers and if you've taken any Economic 101 classes you know this isn't good. Also, the Dutch government changed the rules about buying contracts. If you held a contract to buy 100 bulbs from Vendor X in the spring, you had to buy them, its a contract after all. The policy change made the futures contracts into option contracts. Now, if you held a contract for 100 bulbs you didn't have to buy them and could cancel the contract as long as you paid a small fee (about 3.5% of the original deal). Holders of contracts just paid the fees to cancel them instead of risking getting the plague. Sellers got out of the business since they were losing money with all the cancelled contracts. Eventually no one was buying or selling tulips and a lot of people lost a lot of money over it. And as we have seen over the past few years it sorta wrecks everything when a bunch of people have debt and no money to pay it off. This snowballed and is probably the reason why we aren't enjoying a smoke and a pancake while watching the latest ep of The Big Bang Theory.



I'm glad he's not my neighbour.

And that is what I learned today.

...Duct Tape Doesn't Work Well on a Hostage.

So, I'm writing this against my better judgement. I'll be admitting to something I'd rather not but was asked by a friend to write about it. And here I am. We should all know that Hollywood lies to us about some things, and its usually just to emphasize something (bears don't roar for instance). But something I've seen over and over again is the use of duct tape as a way to secure and/or silence a hostage. A simple piece of tape on the mouth can keep people from screaming and wrapping a bit around a wrist and chair will instantly prevent you from trying to escape.

Ok....that might be bit tougher.

I was bored at work and while at my desk I see a giant roll of duct tape and then proceeded to reach a new low. I tested it out. I put a piece over my mouth and wrapped some around my arm and a chair. With a little wiggling and stretching I managed to get it all off rather easily. Plus its a cloth backed tape, so as soon as there is a tear in it, it'll rip the whole way without issue. The tape was made to seal leaks not contain humans. Duct tape doesn't have a really interesting story. It was originally meant for military use only but soldiers returning from WWII noticed that it could be quite handy around the house too.

I'm chalking this up to my P.I. training.

And that is what I learned today.

...A Little Medical History.

Lately I've been pondering what people will be laughing at us for 100 years from now. For instance: In 1910 it was thought Halley's Comet would kill all humans as the nitrogen from its tail would mix with the oxygen in the atmosphere making nitrous oxide and we would all die from laughing, literally. To study the Doppler Effect they put a marching band on a train and measured the pitch as it approached. It all seems silly now, but it was high tech science at the time. I think in the future they'll be baffled by the size of the Large Haldron Collider as most kids will probably build them for science fairs. I think life before the internet will be compared to life before discovering fire. Even now kids are saying this.

I laughed at this at the time. But my parents bought one anyway.

In the early 1900s doctors lost a lot of patients by a lack of blood. They could fix the wound but the body itself couldn't replace the blood quick enough. This led to the first blood transfusions and you want to know how they did it? They would just sew blood vessels of the donor and the receiver together right out in the open. Plus they didn't quite know how to sew them together evenly so blood would just be squirting all over the place and doctors just hoped some would transfer. Plus....they didn't know about blood types yet so most of the patients died anyway.

Blood brothers.

Another problem was organ removal. Doctors would need to get behind a healthy organ in order to fix the injured one. Problem is, they didn't know how to keep blood flowing to it to keep it healthy enough to be put back in. Eventually someone invented an artificial pump, called a perfusion pump, and everything was ok (sort of. The device was far from perfect but it paved the way for better versions and many lives were saved). The man who invented it? Charles Lindbergh.

Good thing he avoided the Bermuda Triangle....I'm looking at you Amelia.

And that is what I learned today.

...Fish Can be Dicks.

The kind of fish I'm talking about are any (or at least most) of the fish that swim together in large schools. Their sole defence is swimming in groups together so that if they are discovered by any hungry whales, that maybe....just maybe....., they won't get picked off. Little do they know it usually doesn't make a difference. Once a hungover tuna sees the school as it's version of a McDonalds BigMac its all over for them. The tuna will usually attract other tuna, then other fish (sorry, mammals) such as dolphins or whales, and depending on the carnage...sharks. And they will all eat and eat until there is nothing left.

What tuna looks like when I'm hungover.

For a long time scientists didn't know how these large schools swam together with such precision. Same with huge flocks of birds. As far as we know they just do. Each fish just tries to keep his distance away from the next. If he moves right the fish next to him moves out of the way, also moving right. And like ping pong balls on mouse traps, it sets of a chain reaction of all fish moving right. So what happens when one of these little guys gets hurt? The blood could attract predators or an injury can slow down the group. So they leave him behind. Ditch him. But how do the fish know to do this? Turns out the injured fish releases a chemical called chondroitin sulfate. It seems an accidental evolutionary tactic. Scientists think its just given off with an injury anyway and fish just don't like it. Over time the fish learned to recognize it and understand what it means.

Round and round we go!

And that is what I learned today.

OTHER THINGS I LEARNED:
-The old english word 'Ye' is pronounced like our word 'The'

...I Feel Guilty Not Updating More Often.

Another rapid fire session folks......I do apologize that I suck at doing this. One of the things I want/enjoy doing is providing you readers with a little more than a sentence or two. But sometimes what you learn can't be expanded any further, meaning you might see some shorter posts coming up. Having said that, I still have been writing stuff down and I learned each of these on a different day. I'll start with the oldest and end with today's.

#7
...Where the Term Taser Comes From.

Its an acronym, just like LASER (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) actually is, although TASER is not that scientific. It comes from a very old series of novels starring Tom Swift. Swift was a teen genius and his inquisitive nature led him to invent all sorts of fururistic devices, a different one for each book. Some crook would catch wind of his device (whatever it was in that issue) and figured out that he could use it to rob a bank or something. But Swift would always prevail.

I could use one of those.

Some of his inventions (remember that most of his novels were written in the 1910s. Inventors were all the rage then) include: a diamond making machine, a photo telephone, a wizard camera (portable camcorder), an electric locomotive, and his electric rifle. First let me point out that these inventions were in the book before they came out in real life. Many of his other inventions were just bigger and better than what we had back then but have now (his giant telescope for instance could see other galaxies). Both Steve Wozniak and Isaac Asminov both list Tom Swift as an influence. Second its the electric rifle that was the TASER, which stands for Tom Swift and his Electric Rifle (the 'A' was added to make it easier). The man who invented the Taser took the idea directly from Tom Swift.

Still from the new Police Academy movie.

#6
...Sugar Free Gum Can Give You The Runs.

Blame Sorbitol, Blame Sorbitol! That's right folks....that's the culprit that makes you clench your butt as you freshen your breath. The chemical does occur naturally in a few fruits and trees but has the ability to retain its sweetness once extracted. Our bodies don't absorb it very quickly and on top of that Sorbitol likes to draw water to it from other sources. Its a recipe for....well disaster.

When you're sliding into first.....

Doctors figured it out based on two patients with the same symptoms but unknown cause. Both patients were having 'problems' but nothing had changed in their lives to explain it. Eventually it came out that each patient would chew 15-20 sticks of gum a day. That's probably why you haven't noticed it yourself, it takes a high dose to have an effect. Its found in a lot of 'diet' food products and cough syrups.

Now available at Costco.

#5
...There Are Avalanche Rescue Cats.

This fact, specifically, is what I referred to above as a two sentence post. So, here it is: There are avalanche rescue cats. A man by the name of Steve Ruskay started CARCA (another acronym), the Canadian Avalanche Rescue Cat Association. He claims that cats are easier to train and are better at finding people buried under the snow. Plus cats are just easier to take care of.

Step 1: Rescue Human.
Step 2: Eat Human.

He came up with the idea over his frustration with traditional probe techniques. That's where you stick a pole into the snow and hope that it pokes someone buried. A fine method over a few feet of space but tougher on the side of a mountain. It's not official yet as there is a lot of red tape to get this approved. But on the one outing that he took a cat, the cat found the person. So far it works 100% of the time. There's a documentary online somewhere about it and you can see the cute volunteers here.

Cuter? I doubt that's a valid reason for funding unless you're a polar bear, baby seal, or a homeless child. 

#4
...The Most Unlucky Number Around.

1000000000000066600000000000001. That's the number. For one, you might be able to see why. A big ol' 666 right in the middle. Flanking the number of the devil are 13 zeros on each side. Plus its a prime number and palindromic. They call it Belphegor's Prime and the symbol for it is an upside down pi symbol. Why is it Belphegor's prime? I'll answer that question with another question....mark, ? Couldn't find out why. I guess the other demons were busy.

Nice ass.

Belphegor is one of the princes on hell (along with Lucifer, Beelzebub, and Satan). Quite the title. He's the prince of sloth and his modus operandi is tricking people with inventiveness. He would offer ideas for new and radical inventions and the man who sold his soul for them would get rich quick. Since money is the root of all evil, it doesn't take much to see where this ends up.

'Any one know Edison's phone number?'

#3
...How To Kill A Whale.

I wouldn't ever kill a whale, except for those smug Narwhals. I know the Inuit (or Eskimos, there's a bit of a debate which term is correct) used to hunt for humpbacks back in the day. This always impressed me that they were able to do this. With a few spears and fast feet they could kill this giant beast and feed for days. But they had help in the form of Aconitum delphinifolium, a flower also known as the Larkspur monkshood.

Ooooo....look at me....I have a useless, giant tooth.

It's unclear how exactly they figured it out but the could extract a toxin from it they used to cover their spear tips. If the spears didn't kill the whale it would take a few days for the whale to die due to its size and slow heart beat but when it washed up, it was party time. Whale hunters were seen in awe by the other villagers. They would sequester themselves before a hunt to bond and prepare as the event was very dangerous. The flower is small and blue. Reminds me of the flower Bruce Wayne had to carry up the mountain in Batman Begins. I even looked online for a connection but couldn't find one.

Ninja training, lesson #1.

#2
...There's A Purple Crab.

I've written about strangely coloured animals before. And there are other colour lobsters as well (if you think white is a colour). So I was very excited to hear of the purple crab. More excited than anyone outside the field of Carcinology should be anyway. The purple crabs act just like any other crab and are found up and down the North American west coast.

Must be gay.

The best reason for being purple, as well as being covered with red, white, yellow, and other coloured spots is to distinguish themselves between other crab species and genders. Crabs can tell the difference between colours so its likely its the case. 4 new species of purple crabs have been discovered in the Philippines just a few weeks ago, and again, behave like you'd expect them do.

Tastes like grape.

#1
...Who Glenn Seaborg Is.

Mr. Seaborg has done a lot for humanity and made some incredible discoveries during his time here on earth. He has also fell victim to the age old human trait of being ignored for his achievements but how we love Kim Kardashian for doing nothing. I wish that behaviour had a name. Glenn discovered and isolated ten nuclear elements: plutonium, americum, einstienium, curium, berkelium, califorium, fermium, nobelium, and mendelevium. I may not know what each does but I know they are important enough to name them after some pretty important people. Glenn got one named after him, seaborgium, while he was still alive (another big deal). Oh, and he also worked in at Berkely University in California, America...if you get my drift.

I can see the similarites.

He is also responsible for one of those weird lines of elements at the bottom of the periodic table that's separated from the rest. He was instrumental in the development of the atomic bomb having isolated plutonium-239 (the isotope that pretty much makes the whole thing work). He was against the use of the bomb though, having signed a secret document sent to Truman asking him to show the Japanese a test of a bomb before using it on them. He also later supported and added to the anti-nuclear bomb movement. He found iodine-131 which is still used in medical treatments today. The lab where he did most of his work is labelled a U.S. National Historic Site. The guy was good. There's even a wikipedia page solely for things named after him.

What? Too cool for the rest of us?

...There's Such a Thing as an Alligator Snapping Turtle.

I came across this animal after reading an article from National Geographic. The author was just on a hike by himself and had a seat next to a lake. He felt something graze across his boot and this turtle had popped out of the water to have a look at him. The hiker then took his time to slowly back away from the turtle for fear of its ferocious bite.

Away, vile reptiles!!

Mr. Macrochelys temminckii is the largest North American fresh water turtle and is found mostly in the southern USA. Mt is a frequent victim of the black market exotic pet trade, which is having an effect on animal populations more than most people realize. The Japanese are crazy for it, not only as a pet but a culinary delight as well. There's an unverified account of a 400 lb turtle found back in 1937 but the biggest known (for sure) is about 250 lbs. Most go about 2 feet in length and weigh 175 lbs. So for the hiker it must have been a shock to see one with its front feet on your boot. Their bite however only measures the same as a human (well below a number of turtle species), but that can pack a serious punch.

Say hello to my little friend.

Their hunting techniques are interesting to note as well. The inside of their mouth is camouflaged and its tongue has an extra appendage on it that mimics a worm. It sits motionless on the lake bottom with its mouth open and tongue out luring minnows. They are carnivores and eat most types of meat including chicken or pork. There are also cases of them eating other turtles and small alligators but this all happened when confined with these other animals.

Say ahhhhhh

 And that is what I learnded today.

...A Bit About Bird Eggs.

There are some things that give me nothing but enjoyment. The clickity-clack of trains, playing with Lego, and looking at bird eggs (but not chicken eggs, they're boring). The colours and sizes are really neat to me.

Sadly, making eggs from Lego isn't fun.

One bird, the Cuckoo Finch, lays its eggs in another bird's nest and lets them do all the work of raising the chick. Birds are pretty dumb and on top of that chicks sorta all look the same. I wouldn't even be able to tell the difference between two. I find the behaviour odd and don't see how the Finch benefits from this behaviour. The surrogate bird now has more mouths to feed from limited resources. So the chance of survival is lower for all chicks. The Finch frequently lay eggs in the nests of the Tawny-Flanked Prinia, so the Prinia has to figure out how to avoid feeding a chick that's not its own. It has done this by changing the colour of its egg. This way the Prinia knows who's who. The Finch however also adapted to this and started changing the colour of its own eggs to try and match the Prinia's.

Which one doesn't belong?

This came about when some researchers looked at some specimens of older eggs for some project or other. They found that within just the past 40 years, the birds have fully changed the colour of their eggs. A split second in terms of an evolution time scale.

No he's not. He doesn't even have a Blackberry

And that is what I learned today.

...How to Fight a Ticket.

Came across this news story about a physicist who used some clever trickery to get out of paying a ticket. He was fined for not stopping at a stop sign (roll through) by a cop watching that intersection. The news article was brief so this post might be as well but I'll do my best.

I said you failed to stop

When Mr. Physicist showed up to court to fight hs ticket he had a full scientific paper with him proving his innocence. There were three factors that coincidently happened to him that day that led the police officer to conclude he failed to stop. The first was the angle at which the observer (police) was at when the object (car) approached. Something about angular speed vs. linear speed and constant speed vs. deceleration made the cop percieve the car didn't stop but it in fact did. There's a lot of math involved. Next, he stated that he did fully stop but accelerated too quickly for the police to notice him stop. Third, another car was in the way when he stopped and the officer didn't see it for the obstruction.

Its simple really.

He won in the end. The judge probably just had enough of it since the man had all sorts of graphs and calculations for his presentation. What's funnier is that the second it would have taken him to actually stop takes WAY less time than writing a paper and preparing a presentation. So next time you get a ticket say 'goodbye' to Pointts and 'hello' to your old text book. You can read the paper here.

And that is what I learned today.

OTHER THINGS I LEARNED:
-There's such a thing as Strawberry Blond Cat

...How Killer Whales Hunt.

I'm sorry for the shortness of this post, but the video will explain it so much better than I. I knew whales worked together to hunt but I didn't know they did this. My experience with whales hunting was that they blew bubbles while in a circle. As the air rose it would trap small fish in the circle and the whale would just shoot in and eat all he could. But I hadn't seen/heard this before. I'm amazed at how synched they are together and how complex it is when you think about it. Now drift off as you listen to the enchanting voice of Mr. Attenbourough.

Watch it here

And that is what I learned today.

OTHER THINGS I LEARNED:
-I share a birthday with Wonder Woman, Kenny (South Park), and James T. Kirk (probably because Shatner also has this birthday).

...The First Known Vending Machine Was for Holy Water

It was invented by a man named Hero of Alexandria (more on him in a bit) who was the Thomas Edison of his day. He invented dozens of 'machines' during his life and was a highly regarded mathematician as well. I say 'machines' becasue they weren't what we would typically call machines today. But he invented an early version of the steam engine, automatic doors, and a force pump (used by fire fighters for a time). He also came up with a 10 minute mechanical play for the stage. Using all kinds of ropes and pullies fake characters would move around and create sound effects. He also figured out how to get water to go uphill.

Hero's were less deadly.

The vending machine operated how you would probably think. A coin was put into a slot and rolled onto a lever. The weight of the coin tilted the lever, opening a valve, and out came the water. As the lever fell, the coin would slowly roll off and a counter weight would pull the lever back to its original position. I have no idea why people would need all that holy water in the first place. But I do love the irony (I think its irony) that people were stealing it in the first place to necessitate the vending machine in the first place.

3 Sheckles please.

And that is what I learned today.

...How Time Used to be Kept.

We all know that back in the day the sundial was the go to clock for most people. It was consistent, accurate, and reliable. Learning about sundials when I was a kid I always used to wonder how they would keep time on a cloudy day? I just assumed that they didn't, but I should have given them more credit.

The sun is never around when you need it.

Water clocks were the big seller and the Persians along with the Ancient Greek and Romans used them. You would poke a hole in a bag or bowl, fill it with a set amount of water, and when it ran out time was up! Plato even invented an water alarm clock. Any water that fell out of the bag would fill up a tub below it. A small bowl with steel balls would float to the top and as the balls spilled out they would hit a copper plate making all sorts of racket. Another version of the water clock worked almost in the opposite fashion. A small bowl with a hole in the bottom would be placed in a tub of water and slowly fill up. Once it was full your round of  Scategories was over. My favourite was how the Chinese would do it. They would light incense sticks of different scents throughout the day of a certain length that would burn for a set amount of time. People could then tell what time it was just by the smell.

It smells like Jasmine o'clock.

Of course Hourglasses were eventually used, but they were rare as glass working was difficult to do for a long period of time. Once glass blowing was fine tuned, the pendulum clock had already started to make its appearance. Here, someone figured out that a coiled wire or spring took a set amount of time to uncoil. Attach it to a few gears and winches and you were set. Today we generally use atomic clocks where a radio active material emits it's protons or electrons or whatever trons they want. And so you know, a second is traditionally defined as 1/86,400 of the earth's rotation. Officially its: 'the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium 133 atom'.

So much easier than an hourglass

And that is what I learned today.

OTHER THINGS I LEARNED:
-Canada has a glow in the dark quater that'll set you back $30.

...We'll Have a Second Sun Soon.

Well, not soon as we define soon. But soon within the cosmic reality of the universe soon, within the next 1,000,000 years or so. There is going to be a huge supernova (exploding star) and the light from it will shine on the earth for weeks. We won't be able to tell night from day when it happens.

We'll all end up like this.

The star in question is Betelgeuse. It's a bit of a mystery to astronomers, they don't quite know exactly how far it is away or it's mass but have some good guesses. Not knowing the mass is why we can't say for sure when it will blow, but its estimated to be at least as heavy as 10 of our suns (about 20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kgs). It could have collapsed already and we don't even know it, since it will take 640 years for us to see the explosion. What they do know is that it is the 8th brightest star in the sky and is so large that if it were to replace our sun it would reach Jupiter. You 've seen it before, we all have. Its the left shoulder of the constellation Orion (upper right section).

Hey there!

It's also thought to be a runaway star. These things scare me. Runaway stars are stars that were once paired with another star of similar size and type. As they slowly moved through space, one of the stars will fall victim to a black hole. As one gets sucked in the other gets slingshoted away....at millions of miles an hour. Its name comes from what could be a few Anglicized Arabic words such as the Arabic name for the constellation and possibly the word for 'armpit' as that is where the star is located on the Hunter.

Weeeeeeeeee!

And that is what I learned today.

...Some Caterpillars Puke.

One of the stranger things I find about the animal kingdom are some of the ways animals defend themselves. Some are obvious like a poisonous snake or thorns on a rose bush, but some are odd. Like how a squid shoots ink or how a hagfish makes the water around it all slimy or fainting goats are all odd examples. Some caterpillars puke because it smells awful, bad enough that a little drop of the stuff scares away birds and other, much bigger, predators.

If you're going to regurgitate to defend yourself, regurgitate into this.

The stranger part of this caterpillar is that it usually only throws up when alone. The defence act does harm to the caterpillar in the long run and they try not to do it. By vomiting they now have empty stomachs and no food for energy. The lack of food leads to predictable problems such as lower survival rates, less egg production in females, and slower growth. But I suppose being smaller is better than being dead.

Last one to puke dies.

So why do they do it alone? Turns out they also like to gamble. When in a group they won't throw up for a very long time/unless they HAVE to. In a group they have a dramatically less chance of getting picked up by a bird. They're also competing for food on the same leaf so not purposely blowing  chunks is a good thing.

And that is what I learned today.

OTHER THINGS I LEARNED TODAY:
-I should cheer for the Jets
-Some workout rules are wrong.

...I Have (at least) 3 Mendelian Traits.

I've mentioned this before but I'm no biology fan. I'm not saying biology as a science sucks, I just don't understand it all that well. Therefore I'm not a fan. But I try. I was watching something on DNA and Heredity and the name Gregor Johann Mendel came up. Everyone already knew that your parents would pass on certain traits to their offspring. Daughters have been looking like their mothers forever. Mendel was basically the first to come up with a scientific explanation for it.

Who's who?

It all started with his pea plants. He would cross breed different types to see what would happen. He was a monk so he had plenty of time on his hands and cross bred his plants about 29,000 times. His first clue into traits being passed on was when he was breeding plants with white and purple flowers. He thought he would get a blend of the two, a light purple, but found that 3/4 times the offspring would be a full blown purple. Since a white flower would pop out every now and then, he concluded the purple flower was dominant. We kinda know how this works, genes come in pairs and lets say the purple flower has a 'PP' gene and the white has a 'ww' gene (a capital P to show dominance). When sperm meets egg they split these pairs and the new baby randomly gets two out of the four. Either a PP, Pw, wP, or ww. Purple is dominant and results in a purple offspring 3/4 times as Mendel's experiments suggest it would.

I think I see nirvana.

A Mendelian trait is when the 'ww' shows up and its rare. Remember, any offspring only has a 1/4 chance of getting a 'ww' but a 3/4 of getting a 'P' in any combo. Plus if one parent has a PP and the other a Pw the w will always be recessive. These traits are also isolated to one specific gene. Eye colour was thought to be a Mendelian trait (I would have had 4 then...) but further study suggests eye colour involves multiple genes. Some examples of Mendelian traits are sickle-cell anemia, Tay-Sachs disease, cystic fibrosis, xeroderma pigmentosa, Albinism, and immunity to poison ivy.

Fezzik, jog his memory.

The 3 I have are hitchiker's thumb (it bends backward quite a bit), photic sneeze reflex (bright light causes sneezing), and wet ear wax (wet ear wax). I might be able to smell hydrogen cyanide or taste phenylthiocarbamide but haven't had the opportunity to try yet.

Going my way?

And that is what I learned today.

OTHER THINGS I LEARNED:
-If you were to unravel all the DNA in your body, it would reach the sun and back......600 times!

...Why Jesus Has a Fish.

I'm sure you've seen them, especially on the bumpers and trunks of cars. A Jesus Fish. You may have even seen the famous 'Darwin' fish, although I have yet to figure out why he has one in the first place.

It should say Lamarck

So, why a fish? For one, a fish is a pretty popular animal in the bible. Jesus once fed a crowd of thousands with 2 and its a protein source you can eat on Fridays and when fasting. There's also a few stories about fishermen, the most known one about Jesus walking on water. When Christianity first started, followers were often persecuted. There were no churches or temples to meet each other in so other arrangements were made and they met in the bars/coffee shops of the day. But most of the population couldn't read and store signs were useless to them and they needed a way to let everyone know where to go. This is where the fish comes in, it was inscribed on the wall outside of where ever they would meet.

Not very subtle.

But there's another reason why the fish was used. The old Greek word for fish is:  ΙΧΘΥΣ and it was a clever acronym that stood for "Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior". This idea was also used during 12th century England to identify pubs and inns. That's why they have basic names like 'The Three Horseshoes' or 'The White Rabbit', owners would hang signs with pictures on them so you knew where to meet your friends.

Its easy to find.

And that is what I learned today.