KFC to be served on Japan Airlines flights

I was reading an article the other day on The Age website about the new cuisine to be served on Japan Airlines. I have flown with a few different airlines, such as Thai Airways, Malaysian Airlines and British Airways, and often on board these flights some of the meals served is from that country's local cuisine. So to hear the Japan airlines, which I assumed would serve something local like Sushi, is to start serving on the flights for Christmas Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), was quite a surprise. I would have thought that American Airlines would be the first airline to serve a fast food product on board their flights.

I read further into the article to discover why Japan Airlines would take such an interesting move with their choice of in-flight cuisine, and I discovered that there is actually an interesting explanation. Apparently in the 1970s, over Christmas, many expatriates in Japan would purchase KFC chicken for their Christmas dinner, as it was the closest thing they could find to a Christmas turkey in Japan. So sales of KFC would dramatically increase around December 25th each year. This lead to a tradition of having KFC for Christmas, which was picked up by the younger Japanese locals, making the tradition even more widespread in Japan, than just the expatriate community. It is in honour of this tradition that Japan Airlines has decided to serve KFC on their flights over the Christmas holiday period this year.

If you are interested in reading the original article, check out The Age website.

Nikola Tesla (Part 2)

Last week I started telling you about an inventor named Nikola Tesla, and I told you about an incredible invention he discovered. Now if you remember last week I said that he invented the Alternating Current (AC) electrical system, the first hydro-electric generator at Niagara Falls, X-rays and Radio. Although all of these inventions are still in operation or being used in some way today, the incredible invention that I am about to tell you about was never completed, but would have revolutionised the way in which we use electricity. Basically Nikola discovered a way to magnify electrical energy and to distribute the power wirelessly around the world. Imagine a world where you no longer had power lines connected to every home and the cost of delivering power to a large city would be the same as to deliver power to a shack in the middle of the desert. This is the invention that Nikola Tesla discovered, and not only did he discover it, but he started to build a tower in Long Island (New York State, in the United States of America) between 1901 and 1905. The foundations of this tower still exist today, however the tower was never completed.

Why do you suppose the tower was never complete? It was because the financier of the project realised that there would be no way to measure people's usage of power from the tower, so he could not charge them properly. J. Pierpont Morgan was the financier and his comment regarding the tower and his withdrawal of funding was, "If anyone can draw on the power, where do we put the meter?" So instead of creating a tower that could distribute electricity wirelessly around the globe, we have instead invested billions of dollars in cables being run all around the globe to deliver electricity, which has damaged our environment and I would say cost many more billions in repairs and maintenance just because with this method we are able to measure how much power is used and therefore charge people who use the most power. I think in the long run he would have made millions more distributing power wirelessly regardless of inability to measure people's usage.

If you would like to read more about Nikola Tesla, have a look at his biography on the Tesla Society website, or the original website I viewed to learn about Nikola, The Oat Meal. Learn more about wireless electricity transfer on ncoic.com.

Nikola Tesla (Part 1)

A while ago my friend sent me a website link about a man called Nikola Tesla, he was a Serbian-American inventor who lived from 1856 - 1943. The website outlined many of the great inventions that were attributed to Nikola Tesla, who by the end of his life had registered over 700 patents worldwide. The invention that interested me most was that of the Alternating Current (AC) electrical system. The reason that I find this interesting is because in school I always learnt that Thomas Edison invented the light bulb and modern day electricity, however this is in fact incorrect. Thomas Edison developed a light bulb based on other men's inventions and his Direct Current (DC) electrical system which powered this light bulb was weak and inefficient. It was Nikola Tesla who reinvented this system and created the AC electrical system, which is the system that is used to power all the nations around the world today, so in fact Nikola Tesla is actually the inventor of modern day electricity, not Edison. Tesla, after inventing the AC system, went on to develop the first Hydro-electric plant at Niagara Falls.

Nikola Tesla can also be credited with many other modern day inventions which have in fact been credited to other people. Wilhelm Rontgen is credited with inventing the X-Ray, however at the same time that he discovered this, Nikola Tesla was also experimenting with the same X-Ray technology. Although Wilhelm won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1901 for this discovery, it was actually discovered by Nikola prior to his experiments, however Nikola never attempted to claim priority for this invention. Guglielmo Marconi won the Nobel Prize in 1909 for his invention of the Radio, however in 1943 the United States Supreme Court ruled that Guglielmo's most important patent was invalid and recognised that Nikola's earlier discoveries regarding radio were more significant and recognised him as the inventor of Radio. This article highlights only a few, although there were many others, of Nikola's significant contributions to electrical science. In particular, there is one more incredible invention that I would like to highlight  however I do not have the space to include it in this blog. To learn what invention he discovered that was so incredible, you will have to check out my blog early next week.

Normally I include further references about a topic, in this case you will find the articles regarding Nikola Tesla on next week's blog, however to learn more about the invention of the light bulb, check out the UnMuseum website.

Waltzing Matilda definition

I was looking at the fact of the month on my desktop calendar and for November it said that the meaning of 'Waltzing Matilda' in German was 'carrying a backpack'. So in fact the tune would go, 'carrying a backpack, carrying a backpack, you'll come a carrying a backpack with me.' I thought this was very interesting, butI didn't quite believe it, so I did a little Google research. It turns out that the phrase 'Waltzing Matilda' was thought to have originated with the German immigrants in Australia and was derived from the German language. However although the definition could be loosely translated to mean 'carrying a backpack', that is a much too simplified definition of the phrase.The definition that I discovered on a few different sites, was that Waltzing was derived from the German term Auf der walz, which means to travel whilst working or learning a trade. The term Matilda has Teutonic origins and means Mighty Battle Maiden. This term was applied to camp followers of armies and a Matilda came to be known as someone who 'keeps you warm at night'. Eventually Matilda was applied to other things that kept you warm at night, such as a coat or blanket. 

So the phrase Waltzing Matilda actually means to travel whilst looking for work and carrying something to keep you warm at night. I can see why Banjo used the phrase Waltzing Matilda in his song, as the full definition would have really thrown out verses. Sing it with me, 'Traveling whilst looking for work and carrying something to keep you warm at night, traveling whilst looking for work and carrying something to keep you warm at night, you'll come a traveling whilst looking for work and carrying something to keep you warm at night with me'. Quite a mouthful, and it really doesn't have the same ring to it as Waltzing Matilda. I can also see why my desktop calendar shortened this definition, although they left out totally the part about traveling whilst looking for work, and I really don't consider that a backpack would keep you warm at night. So to say Waltzing Matilda means 'carrying a backpack' is an incredibly loose translation, but I can see that it would fit better on a desktop calendar than the real definition.

Thailand is a Monarchy

I will admit that I have traveled to many different countries and only upon arriving do I learn what form the political system of that country takes. My recent trip to Thailand was no different, upon arrival in Bangkok and after a checking out some of the sights, I noticed that there was a picture of a man in many different places around the city. I have noticed in my travels that countries which have an elected head of state don't tend to have pictures of the country leader strewn about, generally because they change so regularly that nobody forms a strong enough attachment to any of them that they start to hang pictures of them in the streets. So after seeing all of these pictures I wondered who the person was, I assumed that he was their king, however I wanted to be sure, so did a little Google research and also looked in my guidebook.

I discovered that Thailand is actually a constitutional monarchy, and that this king (I was right they were pictures of the king), Bhumibol Adulyadej, is the longest serving head of state in history, and Thailand's longest reigning monarch. His reign  has lasted over 66 of the 84 years of his life. During his reign there has been 15 coups, 16 different constitutions and 27 changes of Prime Minister. In order to survive that long as the head of state in a county which has had so many different forms of government during his reign, from military regimes to more democratic government systems, he must be a remarkable man. After learning all this information it didn't surprise me that the king was revered and that Bangkok had so many pictures of him hanging in different places around the city. 

If you would like to read more about King Bhumibol, check out Wikipedia.

Australia has thousands of species of flies

I got a sample of printing products the other day and contained in this sample was a small desk calendar which each month has a new fact. This month what I have learnt is that in Australia there are over 6000 different species of flies. This count includes blow flies, fruit flies, house flies and mosquitoes (which are apparently considered a form of fly). My first thought was, wow, how can there be so many different species of the one insect. My second thought was, why would somebody want to catalogue these different types of flies? It was this second thought that drove me to do a little more research on the subject, via Google, and discovered an animal health website which had detailed information on different species of flies (not all 6000, just some of the more common species). 

Aside from the information on some of the more common species of flies, the website informs that there are more effective methods for exterminating each species, depending on their habits and which sites they choose to breed. I guess since we are always looking for more effective ways to kill these pests, that would explain why so much research has been performed and why someone has catalogued that there are 6000 species of flies. I guess my only real concern now, is that since there are so many different species of flies, and we are always on the lookout for was to better exterminate them, that perhaps this might be seen as insect cruelty, and people might create Fly Rights activist groups. The next step is that these groups might lobby the government, first to create an endangered species list of insects, and then try and get different species of flies added to the list. Then it is just small step until I am being arrested in my own home for swatting a fly! Okay, maybe this scenario is a long shot, but if the day comes when you get arrested for swatting a fly, don't tell me I didn't warn you!

If you want to learn more about the different fly species, check out the Bayer Animal Health website.

World record for the longest free-fall

I was reading an article the other day about Felix Baumgartner who recently became the first man to break the speed of sound in free-fall. The jump took place 65 years to the day after Chuck Yeager was the first man to break the sound barrier, whereas Chuck was being propelled in a jet, Felix was falling to the ground being propelled only by gravity (what goes up, must come down), which I think is a much scarier thought! Felix ascended to the height of 39km, to the edge of space, in a specially designed helium balloon before making his jump. He reached a top speed of 1342.8km/h and was in free-fall for 4 minutes and 20 seconds. Although Felix broke the sound barrier, and the records for highest manned balloon flight and highest free-fall jump, he did not beat the record for the longest free-fall.

The longest free-fall was actually achieved by Joseph Kittinger who fell for a record of 4 minutes and 36 seconds, 16 seconds longer than Felix Baumgartner. Joseph jumped, in 1962 (50 years before Felix's jump), from a height of approximately 31km above the Earth (8km closer to the Earth then Felix) and only reached speeds of 988km/h (354.8km/h less than Felix). Even though Joseph was in free-fall for a longer period of time, he actually only fell about 27km in free-fall, Felix on the other hand fell an astonishing 36.5km (9.5km longer than Joseph). Joseph spent a longer period of time in free-fall due to the lower speeds at which he fell. However since both Felix and Joseph used a Drogue parachute (a smaller parachute which is deployed to provide control and stability to a free-falling jumper), their free-falls are technically not considered to be genuine. The record for the longest genuine free-fall is thus considered to be held by Eugene Andreev who, in 1962, fell 24.5km (3km less distance than Joseph and 12km less than Felix) from a height of 25.46km above the Earth. As his jump was completed without the assistance of a Drogue parachute, he is considered to hold the world record for the longest free-fall.

If you would like to read the original article, check out The Age online or read about free-falls on Wikipedia.

The first Australian Police Force were originally Convicts

I was recently visiting Perth and whilst there playing cards with my sister and some other relations. The cards that we were using had a different fact on each card. One that interested me the most said that the first Australian Police Force was made up of the most well behaved convicts. I had recently visited Fremantle Prison where I learnt that the convicts that landed in Fremantle had to first build their own prison upon arrival, which I also found fascinating. So with my new found interest in convicts I decided to do a little Google research into the first Australian Police Force. It turns out that the New South Wales (NSW) Police Force was the first Australian Police Force and the cards didn't lie because the members of this force were actually recruited from the ranks of the best behaved convicts. The forces were named the Night Watch and the Row Boat Guard. These forces were created in 1789, however upon further reading, it turns out that although these convicts formed the first force of police in Australia, none of them were considered the first police officer in Australia.

Originally in 1788 the policing of the colony was performed by the Royal Navy Marines, however since this was not a job that they were particularly interested in doing, Governor Arthur Phillip appointed a free settler, John Smith, who performed the role of police constable. Although he performed the role for only a short while, his time as constable did earn him the record of being the first Australian Police Officer. It was after this appointment ended that the Night Watch and the Row Boat Guard were formed. In 1790 the Night Watch was replaced by the Sydney Foot Police (later simply known as the Sydney Police), who remained a separate force until all the NSW colonial police forces were amalgamated in 1862.  The Row Boat Guard were both a separate Water Police force and a part of the Sydney Police, and were the fore runners of what today is known as the Marine Area Command. The NSW Police Force is now one of the largest police organisations in the English Speaking world and it is interesting to know that the seed that they grew from was that of a few well behaved convicts!

Learn more about the NSW Police Force on their website.

Vasily Zaitsev

I watched a movie the other day called 'Enemy at the Gates'. I really enjoyed the movie, it is set during World War II on the battlefield and revolves around a duel fought between a Russian and German sniper in the battle of Stalingrad. Vasily Zaitsev was the Russian sniper (now if you haven't seen the movie and plan to watch it, don't read on as I am about to ruin the ending) and the German sniper was Erwin Konig, who was the head of the German sniper school. Vasily won the duel with the German sniper in the end, and also won the love of the girl, so happy endings all round in the film. However at the end it mentions that Vasily's sniper rifle is on display in a museum, which got me to wondering how accurately the film portrayed Vasily and the actual events of the battle. I did a little Google search and discovered that yes there was a Vasily Zaitsev who was a sniper and according to his memoirs he did have a duel with a German sniper during the battle of Stalingrad (however it only lasted 3 days), who it was revealed from his dog tags was the head of a German sniper school, however those were about the only two facts that they got right in the movie. 

Vasily in the movie was portrayed as one of many snipers operating in Stalingrad during the battle, although he was the most famous and the best. In real life Vasily was not only the best and most famous but he created a school where he trained other snipers during the battle of Stalingrad, and his tactics are still used today by snipers around the world. Overall I think the movie actually underrated the abilities of Vasily, who was credited with killing over 300 Nazi soldiers during World War II,  and would have been a much better film if they had let history and the character of Vasily drive the story instead of basing it around a love story and a duel. This blog seems to have turned into more of a critique on the movie than what I learnt and it seems that I didn't like the film when I actually did. So in conclusion, watch the film (even though I have ruined the ending, it was predictable anyway) but remember that Vasily was much different in real life than how he is portrayed in the film, and there was no love story in the real battle of Stalingrad.

Read more about Vasily Zaitsev on Russiapedia.

Procuring relates to prostitution

I was talking to my mother the other day and I mentioned that a friend of mine was a procurement officer. She looked at me a little strange, and then asked me what a procurement officer did. I replied that they purchase office supplies and computers, whatever the company required in order to continue running. I then asked her she how it was that didn't know, as I thought that procurement officer's were a common thing in organisations and surely she had encountered the term before. She replied that in her experience, what I was describing was the role of a purchasing officer, and procurement was the term applied to people who arrange prostitutes for other people. I found this hilarious, as I had never heard the term used for that purpose.

I did a little Google search and I discovered that procuring or pandering is exactly what my mother described. However nowadays people who are procuring are generally referred to as pimps. I also looked into the term procurement, and it is only a relatively recent term applied to purchasing since the late 1980s. It was recognised that people who performed the role of purchasing in an organisation were doing a very functional task and as organisations wanted purchasing to form part of their overall strategic direction, many organisations decided to rename the purchasing function, procurement (perhaps unaware of the other use the term already held), in order to support this more strategic outlook. So in essence both uses of the term are correct, however the definition of procuring a prostitute is perhaps less used these days then the procurement as a purchasing function of an organisation.

Check out Wikipedia for more information on this topic.

The definition of a Plutocrat

I was watching Downton Abbey the other day, and one of the maids was talking to a footman, who was boasting of his get rich quick plans, to which she replied something like, 'well aren't you the budding Plutocrat'. This got me to wondering, what is a Plutocrat? My first thought was since the word is similar to aristocrat, a plutocrat could be a person of the ruling class on the planet Pluto. However, being the ultra intelligent person that I am, I decided to rule that definition out, because it just didn't quite fit with the context in which the maid used the word. I mean to suggest she was saying that the footman was going to rule a planet that nobody had visited, and in fact had not even discovered at the time, would be a bit far fetched, even for me to suggest!

I decided that my best option was to ask my old friend Dictionary.com. The response I got was that a Plutocrat was a member of a Plutocracy. Now since I could have made up a better answer than that (and in fact did, although not a plausible one), I decided it must be the correct answer, and then looked into the definition of a Plutocracy. It turns out my search finished here, as a Plutocracy is a government or state in which the wealthy class rule. Since England could easily have been described in this way back in the time Downton Abbey is set, I knew this was the correct answer. So the maid was cleverly indicating that the footman would become part of the ruling class of England if his get rich quick scheme worked. I do love to watch a show where I need to have a dictionary on hand to understand the plot, just so long as I don't need to use said dictionary too often!

Check out dictionary.com for this and other definitions.

Is there a potential health benefit to smoking?

The other day I was reading a highly regarded publication, the MX (a Melbourne commuter newspaper, not really that highly regarded, although a great source of trashy news), and read a story about cigarettes actually having a healthy impact on an individual. I have always been taught about the harms of cigarettes, so I was intrigued to learn more about this possible benefit of smoking. It turns out that there was a story of an individual who was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis (a bowel disease which is similar to Crohns disease) and was struggling with crippling pain, tiredness, dehydration and other symptoms, which all disappeared shortly after taking up a four- cigarette-a-day smoking habit.

I found this to be incredible, however as I read further in the article, I discovered that it wasn't the smoking habit the was removing these symptoms, but the nicotine that the person gained from the cigarettes. There has actually been a number of studies done on using nicotine as a treatment and apparently people can gain the same reduction in symptoms of this disease using nicotine patches, which have far less negative impacts. I can understand that this person would want to remove the pain, however to trade a lack of pain now for a potential to develop many types of cancer in the future, was dumbfounding. In general I am always a little dumbfounded as to why anybody would take up smoking these days, especially since we all know the risks involved. This is why I was interested in this story, because I thought perhaps the gains in this case outweighed the risks, which would at least justify why one person would take up smoking. Sadly I was disappointed, as the gains that were made from smoking in this story could easily have been gained from a less health damaging activity. So I am still yet to be given a satisfactory explanation of why anybody would risk their health by taking up smoking, maybe one day a reason will present itself, but I won't hold my breath.

Edwin Booth saved a Lincoln

I was sitting in a waiting room the other day and to pass the time I picked up the Readers Digest. Whilst reading I stumbled across an interesting article about coincidences. There were a few that were just unbelievable, although true, but the one that interested me the most was about John Wilkes Booth's (the man who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln) brother Edwin Booth. At the time Edwin was a famous actor, probably of a level with Brad Pitt, if he was alive today, and as a result his face was well recognised. He probably would have been famous in his own right if his brother had not killed the president, but he is now more often remembered as John Wilkes Booth's brother then for his own fame as a great actor.

The part of the article that interested me about Edwin Booth, was that prior to his brother assassinating Abraham Lincoln, Edwin Booth saved the life of Robert Lincoln, Abraham's son. Apparently Robert was waiting on a train platform, and the press of the crowd pushed him against a stationary train at the platform. As the train started to pull out of the station, Robert fell onto the tracks. Edwin Booth saw this happen, reached down and pulled Robert to safety. Robert recognised Edwin, (if your life was saved by George Clooney you would probably recognise your saviour) thanked him and that was the last they saw of each other. I found this story to be a massive coincidence which is why I am sharing it with you. To think that one Booth saved the life of a Lincoln and the other Booth took the life of a Lincoln, that is almost unbelievable.

If you want to read a section of a letter Robert wrote about Edwin Booth saving his life, check out Wikipedia.

Madison Square Garden iterations

I was watching a movie the other day called 'Cinderella Man' with Russell Crowe, it was about boxing and was actually a really good movie. The thing that I noticed when watching it though, was the Madison Square Garden, where many of the boxing matches were held, look entirely different to the Madison Square Garden that I had seen when I visited New York. This got me to wondering if they were even the same building. As usual I went to my trusty friend Google and asked my question. It turns out that it was not the same Madison Square Garden that I had seen, and in fact there have been four different Madison Square Gardens throughout history. 

The first Madison Square Garden was built on the corner of 26th street and Madison Avenue (diagonally across from Madison Square Park, which gave the arena its name). The building was a open air arena, with seating for 10,000, which had been converted from an abandoned railway depot. The arena was open from the early 1870s as an arena, but was only named Madison Square Garden in 1879. It was closed in 1890 and replaced by the second Madison Square Garden in 1891 on the same site. The second Garden was an indoor arena with seating for 8000, but standing room for thousands more. It operated until 1925 and after its closure it was demolished so that the New York Life Building (which stands currently) could be built on the site. In 1925 once the old arena closed a third Madison Square Garden, which was built in a different location away from Madison Square on 8th avenue between 49th and 50th streets, was opened. This is the Garden that was featured in 'Cinderella Man' and was also an indoor arena, with a different seating size for crowds depending on the sport, the largest capacity being 18,496 spectators for boxing or basketball. This arena operated for 43 years, from 1925 until its closure in 1968 (it was demolished and remained a parking lot until 1989), when it was replaced by the fourth and current Madison Square Garden, the one that I saw whilst visiting New York, which is located on top of Pennsylvania (Penn) Station, still on 8th avenue, however between 31st and 33rd streets (further downtown than the third Garden, and closer to Madison Square Park). This is also an indoor arena and has a different seating capacity depending on the attraction, with up to 22,292 squeezing inside for a professional wrestling match. The current Garden is the longest serving of that name, but who knows what the future may hold and whether there might be a fifth Madison Square Garden.

If you would like to read more about the various Madison Square Gardens, check out the Wikipeida articles, MSG, MSG2, MSG3 and MSG4.

The History of Tattoos

A friend of mine sent me an online article about the history of tattoos the other day. As I was reading the article I was intrigued by how such a permanent mark became so fashionable. Tattoos were first discovered by Sir Joseph Banks, who served as a botanist on Captain Cook's first voyage to the Pacific. He discovered that it was a custom that many Polynesian natives tattooed themselves, generally on their faces, whilst travelling the island in the Pacific. Even though Banks thought the custom of tattooing absurd, he still detailed the process the Polynesians went through to gain their tattoos. The word tattoo itself is derived from a Tahitian (Tahiti is a Polynesian island) word tatau, meaning 'to mark'. Bank's detailing of the process lead to many sailors taking up the practice of wearing tattoos. Amongst sailors the tattoos became symbols of where they had traveled, with a turtle signalling that the sailor has crossed the equator, an anchor they had crossed the Atlantic, a dragon to signify a sailor had served on a China station and a golden dragon to signify that the sailor had crossed the International date line, to name a few.

Although sailors had been tattooing themselves since the 1700s, it wasn't until the late 1800s when it became popular amongst the high society of England. In 1862 the playboy prince, Bertie (later Edward VII), adopted a Jerusalem Cross as his first tattoo. His sons also gained tattoos during their service with the Royal Navy and this started a trend in the upper classes of England. This trend continued for a couple of decades, until 1891, when Samuel O'Reilly invented the modern day electronic tattooing device, which dramatically decreased the cost of getting a tattoo, thus making the practice more affordable to the lower classes. This affordability lead to more commoners sporting tattoos and the upper class covering up their body art in fear of being branded common. It has only been in the last 20 years that celebrities around the world have once again sparked an interest in tattoos amongst the general public, and today tattoos are more common than they have even been before, with more than 1,500 tattoo parlours in the United Kingdom alone.

If you would like to read more about the history of tattoos, check out the full article on HistoryToday.

Difference between Mineral, Soda or Tonic water

I was talking to a friend a while ago and she asked me what the difference was between mineral, tonic and soda water. Now I admit that I had no idea and it got me to thinking, 'What is the difference?' I decided to Google the answer and found an interesting few websites that explained the difference. In order to start this explanation we need to define that there is a difference between carbonated water (water with bubbles) and still water. Often this is phrased as still or sparkling, with sparkling obviously being the carbonated water. There are many varieties around the world of sparkling water, in the United States it is often known as seltzer and in the United Kingdom it is usually just referred to as sparkling water. When you are offered still or sparkling water, generally it is plain water (still) or plain water with bubbles (sparkling). Now mineral water is different from plain water because in order to be named mineral water it must contain a level of naturally occurring minerals. So the source of the water would have to be a mineral spring somewhere. This water, as with plain water, can be either still or sparkling.

Soda water is similar to mineral water however the minerals are added to the water and are not naturally occurring, hence why this water cannot be named mineral water. Soda water is always carbonated and has never been made in a still variety. All of the waters mentioned above taste similar and I personally think, others might disagree, can easily be substituted with each other in either their still or sparkling varieties (obviously the still varieties will taste difference from the sparkling). Tonic water is the main exception, although it is a carbonated (sparkling) water, this type of water tastes very different to the other varieties. The reason for this, is because it contains a compound called quinine, this is what gives tonic water its bitter taste. Quinine is actually a medicinal compound which was the first effective treatment for malaria and originally tonic water was used for medicinal purposes. It is also this bitter taste which quinine adds to tonic water that ensures any other carbonated water added in place of tonic, to a gin and tonic, will give it a drastically different flavour. Hopefully you (and myself) will remember all these differences and next time somebody asks you why these waters have different names, you will be able to give them an answer!

Check out the kitchn website to read more about these water varieties.

The Australian Ballot

I was in Canberra recently and I decided, since I was in our nations capital, that I should do something touristy. So I visited the Museum of Australian Democracy, which is located in Old Parliament House. I initially had a guided tour of Old Parliament House before I went wandering around the place myself. During my wander I found out an interesting fact about the system we use to vote in Australia. Apparently back in the 1800s, there were problems in Australia because voters were being intimidated into voting for a certain candidate. Due to the fact that a vote was public, for example people might stand in a group and show hands if they want to vote for Julia, it was easy for candidates to see who voted for them. So this public vote made it very easy to punish those who didn't vote for you, which made intimidating voters a very easy prospect.

During the 1850s it was proposed that all elections should be put to a secret ballot and a man by the name of Henry Chapman devised this process, which is still in use today. The process later came to be known as 'the Australian Ballot' and was designed with the expectations that the government would issue the voting documents, and that all voters would be registered, given these voting document to make their mark in secret for their preferred candidate, before depositing the voting documents to be counted by officials at a later time. This process removed the ability of candidates to threaten individuals into voting in their favour, because they could no longer see whether the individual voted for the candidate or not, and overall made the voting system in the Australian colonies a much fairer system. This system was then adopted by other nations around the world, such as the United Kingdom and the United States, and is today still known by many as the Australian Ballot.

Wisdom Teeth's name origin

I was speaking to my cousin the other day and she charged me with the task of finding out why wisdom teeth were known as wisdom teeth. She had apparently Googled it, as people these days do when searching information, however she was dissatisfied with the answer. Apparently the explanation she discovered was that people are wiser when their wisdom teeth come through than when their initial teeth come through. I decided to look into teeth growth a little and I found that the first stage is when you get your baby teeth (you are a young when this happens, hence why they are often referred to as baby teeth). Eventually you lose your baby teeth, and your second stage teeth replace them, these are the teeth you will have for the rest of your life. Usually the last teeth in the second stage come around the age of ten to twelve. However the final stage is your wisdom teeth which don't come through usually until you are at least 17 and often as late as 23. The stages are usually known as, your baby teeth (stage one) your permanent teeth (stage two) and your wisdom teeth (stage three). These stages were basically agreed upon on all sites I checked and also agreed with what I was taught growing up, however it still left the question of why the third stage teeth were called wisdom teeth.

I looked further into the reason and found many references to people being wiser when their third stage teeth came through than when their other teeth grew. I was nearly ready to give up and agree that this was in fact the reason when I discovered a line in one article which stated, that the ages of 17 to 25 was often a period in people's lives that was referred to as the 'age of wisdom,' hence, since the third stage teeth grew during this period they were referred to as wisdom teeth. I decided to Google this 'age of wisdom' further, however I could not find a reference to the age of wisdom that didn't relate to a clothing brand or to teeth. So it appears that wisdom teeth were named thus because the years of a person's life during which they grow is often known as the age of wisdom. However, why that period in people's life is referred to as the age of wisdom, I could not discover. I guess we will have to be happy with having half of the answer at this point in time.

Check out this article on teeth growth stages, or this one on the name wisdom tooth.

Gmail alerts users to attach documents

A few years ago I was applying for a job online and I sent a resume off to a prospective employer saying, "please find attached my resume for your consideration." However I forgot to attach my resume before I sent it. Luckily the email was also my cover letter and the employer assumed there was a technical error and let me know that he didn't receive an attachment. So I went along with the pretence and apologised for the technical error and to find my resume attached to the reply. Then I pressed send, however once again forgot to add the attachment. I realised this just after I clicked sent, but there was no way to get the email back, so my quick thinking led me to search my sent items, copy the text I had previously sent, and reply to the email again, this time adding the attachment. I hoped that the employer would assume there was another technical glitch and that the email sent twice, once with and once without attachment.

Now many of you reading this might think that nobody would fall for that, however this was in 2005 when email wasn't as widely used and there were many people who would happily believe in a technical error over a human error. Luckily for me this employer was one of those people, and he accepted my application, invited me to interview and offered me the job! This is a great example of my forgetfulness and things have only slightly improved over the years. In fact, again today, I was writing an email to a recruitment consultant, said the magic lines in the email, "I have attached a copy of my resume," and pressed send, without actually attaching my resume. Luckily however, Gmail came to my rescue with a prompt, "You have included the words 'I have attached a copy' in your message but have added no attachments, are you sure you would like to send?" I quickly pressed 'No' and thanked Gmail for its ingenious technological advances, attached the resume and clicked send again. So today I have learned that the technological advances of Google have reached a point where I no longer have to remember trivial things like attaching a resume to potential employers, as Gmail will remind me if I forget!

Cotton wool can prevent sea sickness

I was recently in Thailand and travelled from Phuket to Ko Phi Phi Don via a two hour ferry ride. Now I am somebody who can usually ride any form of transport and never have an issue with travel sickness, as not everybody feels this way, I count myself lucky. However on this particular journey, and again when travelling this route back to Phuket, I felt nauseous. I didn't really think anything of it, after all, a couple of journeys feeling sick out of hundreds still isn't that unlucky, however the subject came up when chatting to my Aunt about my trip. She told me that when her and a friend were travelling on a boat once, the captain of the boat cured her friend of sea sickness with a very simple method that didn't involve any medication. After first hearing the story, I thought this method was interesting, and even though the story would have been more useful a few weeks earlier, this method could help me in the future. 

So the story went that her friend was very unwell during the journey and throwing up over the side. The captain took her to the back of the boat gave her a cotton wool ball and asked her with which hand she wrote. He then told he to put the cotton wool ball into the opposite ear. He also said that anything can be used to block the ear, but only block one, and make sure it is the ear opposite to the hand with which you write. Thirty minutes later her friend was eating a full seafood buffet on board the boat, even though the sea conditions hadn't changed. I Googled this remedy when I returned home and the Internet is full of success stories for this particular method of curing sea sickness. Even people who get sick at the mention on the word boat apparently have had no issues in metre high swells using this method. So to me this seems like the cheapest and most effective way to combat sea sickness and I can't wait to try it myself, if I ever feel sea sick again!

The lyrics of Hollywood

Whilst I was travelling around Thailand I did much listening to Angus and Julia Stone. They are two of my favourite musicians and I love their music. During one of the many listenings on my holiday, I noticed the lyrics to one of their songs, Hollywood. It is a really nice song but I had never really paid attention to the meaning of the lyrics previously, and when I did, I liked the song even more. Basically the song is Julia singing about how she hates Hollywood because of the all the fairy tales that they tell, and that they make an impressionable young girl think that fairytale endings are real, but in the real world things like that just don't happen.

My favourite lyrics are, "They all would have been killed in the Sound of Music" and "She never would have made it to shore, The little mermaid. He would have married a whore, From a wealthy family, after all he was royalty." It just breaks down those fairy tale endings to what would have happened in the real world, in her opinion, and does it quite brutally. However, the song is just a nice slow song and so you just don't see the lyrics coming, which is why I like it. I also like the fact that she opens the door in the song for the possibility of a 'happily ever after', such as 'Johnny and June,' whom I assume to be Johnny Cash and June Carter (their 'happily ever after' came after many not so pleasant moments). So even though the song is about how Hollywood is responsible for false hope, there is actually some hope out there that you will get a 'happily ever after', maybe just not the fairytale one that Hollywood lead you to expect.

If you want to read the lyrics check out Song Meanings or listen to the song on YouTube.

Parkour

I was out having a few drinks with friends the other day in Melbourne, and we were at a bar around a pylon on a bridge. The bridge also had a decorative metal semi circle spanning from one end to the other. If you stand in the middle of the bridge the top of the arch would be about18 feet above where you stand. As we were having a beer at the bar, we saw a guy run over the top of this semi circle on the bridge. None of us were sure why he would do this, but we noticed that he was being filmed by some friends of his from the other side of the river, and my friend said, 'they are probably just practising parkour." I had no idea what parkour was, and so I had to question what my friend was talking about. After a short conversation I had a rough idea what parkour was, and she sent me a text with the spelling so that I could Google it later, which I did!

Basically parkour is a non competitive sport, which was developed in France by David Belle, where participants have to move through their urban environment and avoid obstacles in the most efficient way possible. The most efficient way might involve rolling, jumping, running, or climbing, to name a few. Practitioners of parkour are known as a traceur, or traceuse if they are female, and a great example of parkour was displayed in the James Bond film, Casino Royale, where the traceur is being chased and is seen to be jumping over fences easily, climbing a vertical steel girder and jumping through the middle of an abandoned van. Personally I love the idea of being able to practise parkour, but I think the training that would be required to become accomplished at this sport would be too intense.

To read more about parkour, check out Wikipedia, or to see the Casino Royale chase, check out YouTube.

Tetraphobia

I was taking to a work colleague the other day, and he mentioned that Chinese people have an aversion to the number four. The word for the number four in Chinese is very similar in sounding to the word for death, and as a result people don't like the number four. After hearing this I decided to do a little Googling of my own to substantiate this claim, and what I discovered, was that there is actually a named phobia for people with an aversion or fear of the number four. It is called Tetraphobia. It is most commonly a superstition in South East Asian countries for the very reason my colleague mentioned, because the number four sounds similar to death.

I also discovered that in Chinese cultures other numbers are considered positive or negative based on how they sound. The numbers two, three, five, six, seven, eight and nine are considered positive due to their links with other Chinese positive sounding words. In addition to the number four, the numbers five six and seven can are often considered unlucky numbers due to their similar sounds to negative words in the Chinese language. You will notice that some numbers appear on both positive and negative lists, which I assume is why most Chinese people believe the aversion to certain numbers to be a simple superstition. However I have noticed that even people who believe certain things to be superstitious still don't open their umbrella inside or walk under a ladder. So I guess regardless of how silly some people may consider particular superstitions, there are always others that believe and some that deride in public but believe in secret.

If you wish to read more about why each number is considered lucky or unlucky, check out the Wikipedia article.

Essays can be marked by computer software

I was reading online a while ago about a computer program that had been created to make the work of marking hundreds of essays less time consuming. The program is called Qualrus and is being trialled at the University of Missouri to mark sociology essays. Apparently the computer software is able to give students, who upload drafts of their essays online, detailed feedback within seconds. It does this by comparing previous work that has been loaded and submitted by students and information entered by the course tutor. It can pick up word patterns used by the student to determine whether their arguments are sound and then give the essay a numerical score, based on the weight that instructors place on certain sections.

According to the professor who created the software, it is quite accurate and there are rarely instances where they disagree with the feedback given by the computer program. If this trial is successful then programs such as this could greatly reduce the amount of hours that instructors spend marking essays and would enable students to get instant feedback on their essays as frequently as they desire. I personally am wary of programs that can think too much, mainly because I seen too many terminator films, however if this program has continued success and can be adapted to other areas of learning, then I think the creator will worth millions in years to come!

If you would like to read more, check out the BBC News online.

Qantas flight fuelled by cooking oil

I was talking to a co-worker the other day and she told me that Qantas had recently powered one of their flights using cooking oil. I was surprised as I had not read about this aviation feat. So when I  returned home I decided to Google it to discover more. It turns out that Qantas, with financial assistance from the Australian government, is researching alternative fuel sources for the aviation industry, and that they had recently trialled a one off flight between Sydney and Adelaide powered by used cooking oil. 

Apparently the cost of the oil is four times that of conventional fuel, because the used cooking oil has to be refined in order to make it a viable fuel source. Since the United States of America is the only country where a refinery with that capability is located, the refined oil had to be imported, which is a major reason why the oil is so expensive. However the trial flight was run to test the fuel in use and the trail was not expected to be cost effective. The pilot reported that the used cooking oil performed relatively the same as normal jet fuel, with the exception that it lasted longer than normal jet fuel. It is hoped that this trial will support the case that a refinery capable of producing this used cooking oil product, to be used as jet fuel, should be built in Australia. This would reduce the cost of this alternative fuel source and hopefully bring us closer to making flights more sustainable than they are currently.

This new revelation has given me a rare glimpse of the future, in order for Qantas to source the amount of used cooking oil it requires to fly it's planes, I think it will have to start feeding passengers deep fried foods on all it's flights. I can imagine their menu's now, deep fried mars bars, snickers, pizzas and ice creams would feature and I think it would get to the stage where Jetstar would have to start giving people free deep fried food just to use enough cooking oil to justify the flight. So if this occurs we are in for a future where will be able to fly the globe with less damage to the environment, but we will all have to get plenty of exercise at our destinations in order to justify the deep fried feasts on board our flights!

Apples float but pears don't

I have long used the expression and often heard others use the expression, "you need to compare apples with apples," when describing making like comparisons between two subjects. Recently after watching QI, I discovered a good example why comparing two different fruits can give you two wildly varying outcomes. In the case of the apple and the pear, when you place an apple in water it floats, however when you place a pear in water it sinks. I previously did not know this even though I grew up in a major fruit growing region. It also solves the question why people bob for apples but never for pears.  Now this does not mean that all apples will float and all pears will sink, as they say, there is a exception to every rule. So you may find that some pears will float, whilst some apples will sink. However as a general rule you will find that apples float more often than not and pears sink more often than not.

Now why do you ask, does an apple float and a pear sink? It is all to do with the water & oxygen content, a pear is a denser fruit and has a higher water content, it is also unable to absorb much oxygen once it has been picked, which results in it being unable to float. However an apple has the capacity to continue to absorb oxygen even after it is picked, which means it contains more air and is therefore less dense and has a lower water content, thus enabling it to float. This is also the reason why an apple is able to stay fresh longer than a pear, because the apple still absorbs oxygen once picked, the apple in effect can breathe, which enables it to stay fresher longer, the pear is unable to absorb much oxygen, so cannot breath, which results in it decaying faster.

Elephants can paint

I was having a discussion with some friends over lunch the other day, and the topic came up about elephants being given paint brushes and a canvas on which to paint. Apparently the elephants are creating great works of art. Prior to this conversation I had never even heard of the concept of an elephant painting but I was interested in the topic when I learnt of it. I later did a Google search and found that there is a National Elephant Institute in Thailand which has people who are devoted to developing elephant art. It is believed that the elephants are aware of what they are creating and the only assistance they receive is from a human who loads the specially modified brushes (modified so that they can hold the brush in their trunk to paint), hands them to the elephants and reloads the brush with paint when the elephant runs out. However the colours used for the paintings are chosen by humans, so the only thing that the elephant really does is paint the brush strokes on the canvas.

I have had a look at the elephant art gallery online and, aside from the fact that an elephant has painted the particular picture with its trunk, I don't see anything remarkable about the paintings. To me they are just painted lines on a page. I am however amazed that the elephants know what to do with the paint brushes and can contain their brush strokes to the canvas, I guess the only thing that disappoints me is that elephant doesn't choose the colours itself. Since it is a human who chooses the colours, it seems to me that it is a human deciding what colours would look best together on the canvas, the elephant is really just the means of getting the paint onto the canvas. It is for this reason that I don't consider the elephant paintings to be art, even though the fact that the elephant can perform this task is fairly remarkable.

If you are interested in viewing some elephant art check out The Elephant Art Gallery website.

Blindfolded people can't walk in a straight line

I was watching QI the other night and I discovered that nobody knows why blindfolded or blind people are unable to walk in a straight line. Now I never actually knew that when you were blindfolded that it is impossible to walk in a straight line, as the only times that I have tried was to hit a pinata, play pin the tail on the donkey, or  play other games indoors where there are things to walk into, so it is impossible to walk in a straight line anyway. So when I heard that it was impossible, I was intrigued. Apparently it has been tested that if somebody is blindfolded, told to walk in a straight line and set loose in an open space, they always walk with a curve to one side, even though they are convinced that they are walking in a straight line.

QI informs me, as well as a brief Google search, that science is unable to solve this mystery. Now I am not concerned that this puzzle is not solved by science because, if you have been reading my blog previously you might already know, I think spending science dollars to research inconsequetial facts such as this, is a waste money. Especially when you consider that there are cures still to be found to many fatal diseases and much poverty in the world. However that fact that people are unable to walk in a straight line whilst blindfolded is intriguing and I feel that I want to test this theory myself. I think it might be fun to try and prove people wrong by walking in a straight line whilst blindfolded. Even if they are most likely correct, it doesn't mean I try to be the exception to the rule!

Cat games on ipads

I was chatting to a friend of mine at lunch the other day and she was telling me about a game that you can get for your ipad, which is made for cats. Basically the game consists of a mouse running around the ipad screen and the cat has to hit the mouse with its paw. It is a very simple concept and apparently cats love it. My friend told me her friend's cats play it all the time, often enough that the protective casing on her ipad is covered in scratches.

At lunch there was also a little girl, who I noticed could use an iphone more adeptly than I can, and also seems to know how to do more things on the iphone than I do. I am ok with a child being better at using technology than myself, because nowadays they are probably already using them in their cradles, however hearing about this new electronic game for cats depressed me a little, because now I can see a future, in my lifetime, where not only will children be better with technology than I am, but where pets will be better with technology too. I just don't think I am ready for that future! I still remember a time before there were VCRs, and when the walkman was the coolest invention ever!

The Sinking Library

I was watching How I met Your Mother the other night, and Ted was telling Robin about an architect who designed a library, however when he was doing the calculations he forgot to factor in the weight of the books, and as a result the library started to sink a little each year, until it was eventually condemned. I thought that this was an interesting story, so I decided to Google a little more to discover where that library was built and who designed the building. If the story was true I was sure Google would have the answer. What I discovered however, was that the whole story was an urban legend, apparently for years there have been stories floating about regarding how libraries across the world had been the victims of this architectural flaw. However the few libraries that have actually been sinking were always found to be the result of faulty materials, shoddy workmanship, or poor investigation of the soil prior to building the library.

I must say that I was quite disappointed that this story wasn't true. I had once heard a story about an architect who built a supermarket, and had used all available space to maximise the shop floor to fit in more goods, however didn't provide an access point for disabled people, and so the company had to purchase land next door in order to fit in a ramp for disabled access. This bluder cost the site construction a few delays and a decent chunk of money, however it didn't result in the building being unusable. So I guess I wanted to hear a story about a bigger blunder, and was disappointed that I hadn't found it in the sinking library story. I suppose I will just have to settle with the Leaning Tower of Pisa!

Flexible e-paper

I read a little while ago on The Age website, about a new product being launched by LG. The product is an Electronic Paper Display (EPD) product, basically it is like an e-book but is 0.7 millimetres thick, can almost fit into the palm of your hand (it is only 1024 x 768 screen size) and can be bent up to 40 degrees. Apparently it can also survive a drop of up to 1.5 metres height without sustaining any damage. Currently it is only available in Europe with no set dates for release in the United States or Australia, however this new product could compete very well with the popular e-books currently on the market.

My thoughts are that eventually this new technology could lead to the creation of e-books that actually feel like you are reading a real book. You could buy a book with 100 flexible e-pages and flick through the electronic display pages of your favourite novels as if they were in real books. A newspaper sized e-paper could also be developed that could replace what we currently know as reading the paper. There would be no more trees cut down to make a paper everyday, and no more newsprint on your fingers when you read. I do however, wonder how you would fill in your crossword or sudoku, because you wouldn't be wanting to draw all over your screen because it would ruin the next page of reading. However since this new EPD is also scratch resistant, perhaps you could just wipe the answers away before you read the next page of the paper. Who knows really what the future may hold!

If you would like to read the article, check out The Age online.

Worm Grunting

I was watching QI the other day and I learnt about an obscure hobby called worm grunting. Now generally people who participate in worm grunting, or worm charming as it is also known, are people who are looking to obtain worms for fishing. However, there are a few of these grunters who are actually in it for the competition, and to whom it is considered a sport. I had never heard of this hobby, let alone the fact that it was a sport previously, but I learnt that some people in Britain, Canada and America compete in worm grunting competitions every year.

Basically the sport consists of people vibrating the soils in order to collect the most worms in a set amount of time and they are usually given a space of three square yards from which they can obtain their worms.  Apparently the reason that worms come to the surface when the ground vibrates, is that they believe that there is a mole in the vicinity, because the vibrations created are similar to the disturbance a mole causes, and moles prey on earthworms. The sport is not considered to be a mainstream sport, so I doubt that it will be making an appearance in the Olympic Games any time soon, however the skills are passed down through the generations in order to preserve this dying pass-time. I  expect that there are few, if any, physical benefits to worm grunting, so I don't see myself trying it any time soon, but you never know what the future may bring (I'm fairly certain I know what it will bring on this particular topic though).

Sharks have no backbones

I was watching QI the other day and I learnt an interesting fact, sharks don't have backbones. Their skeleton is not made of bone but of cartilage. The reason for this is that it allows the shark's body to be more flexible, which enables it to have greater movement in the water. However, since their 'spine' is made of cartilage and not bone, I guess in essence you could consider a shark to be spineless. Now a spineless creature, to me, has always been defined as one lacking courage, a real coward. However, sharks are not considered to be lacking in courage, and are in fact a creature that instils fear and scares away cowards, so does this mean that we should redefine what spineless means?

I suppose when they created the term spineless they were thinking of creatures such as worms or snails, creatures that don't instil fear, and that hide away when they sense danger. The fact of the matter is though, that there are other spineless creatures that will attack rather than hide, such as the scorpion. So perhaps more work should have been done when creating the term spineless, to see if it is really an accurate portrayal of all spineless creatures. In this instance though, since this term is already in effect, I guess we just need to accept that they are wrong but let them have their way.

Japanese Spider Crabs

I was speaking to my travel agent the other day and she emailed me a picture of these giants crabs that, I will admit, freaked me out a little. To be fair, she did warn me that these crabs freaked her out also, so I knew what I was getting myself into when I asked to see a picture of the giant crab. Now the main reason that I was freaked out, was because they looked like a spider, and spiders have always been creepy to me, ever since I saw the movie Arachnophobia when I was younger! The official name of these giant crabs, is actually the Spider Crab, another inventive name, and they can have legs up to 3.8 metres long and can weigh up to 19 kilograms! However the average length of their legs is generally 1 to 1.2 metres. Thankfully these creatures are mainly found off the coast of Japan, which is a decent distance from Australia, so there is no need for me to start expecting to see them if I swim in the beaches around Victoria.

One thing that is a little worrying is that they can have a life span of up to 100 years! That really is a long time for a spider looking creature to live. The one thing that I like most about spiders, is that they usually have a life span of only two years, often less. However spiders are much more prolific breeders than Spider Crabs, so I think that it probably evens out a little in the end. To be fair it is said that the Spider Crab has a gentle disposition, which means that I really shouldn't be worried about getting attacked by one, so their lifespan shouldn't disturb me or even concern me. However that doesn't stop them from looking creepy!

To see a picture of the Spider Crab check out Google Images, or to read more about them check out Wikipedia.

The Fog Index

I was speaking to my mum the other day and she told me to research the fog index, and that I would probably be surprised by what I discovered. My first thought was that is was something to do with the weather, which judging from the name would be a natural assumption. Perhaps they had some sort of rating system as to how dense the fog is, as to how long it will take to clear. However it turns out that I was way off! The fog index's full name is, the Gunning fog index and it measures the readability of English writing. Robert Gunning is an American businessman who created the fog index in 1952, and the name apparently derives from how foggy a piece of writing is to understand. The lower the score on the index, the clearer, or less foggy, a piece of text is to understand. The index is most commonly used to determine if a text is pitched at the right level for the intended audience and as a rule of thumb, text which is intended to be understood universally, requires a fog index of eight or lower.

There is a formula which is used to determine the fog index of a piece of text, which incorporates the number of words in a sentence, and the number of complex words in a sentence, divided by the overall number of words. The full formula and how to determine the fog index of a text can be found on Wikipedia, however a much more expedient way of measuring the fog index is to take a block of text, approximately 100 words (one or more full paragraphs), copy, then paste the sentence into the Gunning fog Index website, and click calculate. The Gunning fog index rates this entire blog at a 14.79 on the index, which means that it won't be understood universally. So if you are reading and understanding this blog, then feel special, because, according to the Gunning fog index, this text is a little too foggy to be understood by every English speaker in the world.

Hot dog stuffed pizza crust

I learnt the other day that Pizza Hut in the United Kingdom has released a new type of stuffed crust pizza, those of you who read the title will be aware that they have stuffed the crust with a hot dog. You may remember that Pizza Hut was also the company that released cheese stuffed pizza crusts, probably to the general groan of cardiac surgeons across the globe. I guess those same surgeons will be groaning again with the news of the latest stuffed crust. This new menu creation astounds me because I just don't understand why a company in this day and age, where obesity is nearly becoming an epidemic, finds it acceptable to be introducing menu items that make an already unhealthy dish even more unhealthy. To give you some perspective the new pizza contains approximately 270 calories per slice, compared with a plain cheese pizza which contains approximately 140 calories per slice. An average male is expected to consume around 2500 calories per day, so to eat just three slices of this new pizza, you would be consuming around a third of your recommended calories per day in one sitting. If you were to consume a whole pizza (which some people are known to do) you would have consumed all of your recommended calories at once!

However leaving the lowing of nutrition standards aside, I think the biggest surprise is that this pizza is being launched in the United Kingdom and not the United States. Hearing that this was launched in the United States would have surprised me about as much as seeing the sun rising in the morning. I say this because I heard a few years ago about a beef burger that was sold in the United States which contained a beef pattie and lettuce, however in place of the burger bun, was a sliced open Krispy Kreme doughnut. It sickened me to learn about the Krispy Kreme burger almost as much as it has about the hot dog stuffed pizza. My personal opinion is that companies around the world should be spending their menu development funds on discovering ways to make healthy food taste as delicious as unhealthy food. I mean imagine a lettuce that tasted as good as chocolate, but was as healthy as lettuce! That would be a better spend of resources because people would be rushing to buy something that will improve their health, instead of rushing to buy something that will eventually require them to seek the services of a good cardiac surgeon.

The Pilcrow

My friend sent me a link to a blog about shady characters, I was intrigued by the title, but once I actually started reading I was even more surprised about the content of the blog. I have always been a bit of a word nerd and liked the book 'Eats, shoot and leaves' which is about the decline of our modern day punctuation. So when the topic of shady characters was punctuation, I read on with interest. The blog was a three part story loosley focused on the story of the pilcrow, it takes many asides into the history of punctuation and the place of the pilcrow in punctuation. Now at this point you are probably asking yourself, what is a pilcrow? Most of you will know it as the mark in Microsoft Word, that when you turn on the hidden formatting symbols it marks the end of each paragraph. ¶

The story of the pilcrow and of punctuation in general is an interesting one. Back in the days of Ancient Greece, and later the days of Ancient Rome, punctuation was not used and words were written without spaces, with each word running into the next. Punctuation was first used to assist orators to read text aloud, rather than to assist readers to be able to read the text to themselves. It took many years after the first inception of punctuation, and a period where it fell into disuse, before what was to become modern day punctuation was born. 

The pilcrow was originally designed to be used to mark the beginning of paragraphs, not the end of them as it does nowadays in Microsoft Word. When writing a document, a writer would leave a blank space at the beginning and add the pilcrows in last. However due to deadlines being tight (yes tight deadlines have been around for a long time), often manuscripts would be published without the pilcrow, instead with just a blank space for the intended pilcrow. This practice gave birth to using indentation as the mark of a new paragraph, instead of the pilcrow, and was the reason for the pilcrow's fall into disuse. It has only now been revived with the creation of word processing programs, such as Microsoft Word, which have once again adopted the pilcrow as a paragraph mark.

This is a brief story of the pilcrow, I would recommend reading the full story on the Shady Characters blog, which covers many other facets of the history of punctuation in addition to the pilcrow.

Kleftiko

I was out the other night at my favourite Greek Restaurant in Melbourne, Tsindos. Whilst I was reading the menu I noticed a dish called Kleftiko. It was a lamb dish and the menu also told a little about the history of the dish and its unusual cooking style. Apparently during the time that the Ottomans occupied Greece, the freedom fighters who lived in the hills had to steal their meat in order to be able to have a full meal. They also devised a way of cooking this stolen meat which was to seal it in special earthenware pottery, and then bury the pottery in the ground. The pottery was buried with coals and these coals would cook the meat, however since it was buried it didn't give off any smoke or show any flames, which allowed the freedom fighters to remain hidden in the hills and still be able to have a cooked meal. This way of cooking meat became known as Kleftiko and was the dish that was available on the menu that night. 

I am assuming that in a modern day restaurant that they no longer bury the food underground to cook, as they wouldn't have any need, I assume, to hide that they were cooking food in a place that people visit to purchase cooked food. However I am sure that they still seal the meat in similar earthenware pottery and cook it over coals. On this occasion I didn't happen to try the dish, I had other dishes in mind that night, but I think next time that I visit Tsindos I will give the Kleftiko a try.

Dogs at work reduce stress

The other day I was having a discussion with friends of mine at work and we decided that we wanted to bring our co-worker's dogs into work and have a little puppy creche so that we could have some distractions at work. We all had a laugh at this idea knowing that we would never be allowed to do set it up. A few days later one of the friends I was having the discussion with emailed me an article from the BBC News website. Apparently there have been studies done in the United States around the benefits of brings your dogs into work! I was astounded that a workplace would allow this distraction, however it seems that the trial has shown many benefits.

They trailed having some people bring in their dogs, another group who owned dogs but left them at home and a third group who did not own dogs. The results of a study of these groups over a week was that in the mornings all groups had the same stress level, however the group that had brought their dogs to work had their stress levels lowered throughout the day as oppose to the other groups who had their stress level rise throughout the day. Also when it was tested that the people who brought their dogs to work, left them at home for a day, their stress levels rose on that day. The results show that bringing dogs to work is actually a stress reliever, so our idea was not as hopeless as we had first assumed. Armed with this knowledge I think I might try to implement a similar policy at my workplace, however first I will have to start owning a dog, so baby steps might be best practised here!

If you want to read the full article check out BBC News.

Roman vomitoriums

I was chatting to a friend of mine from work the other day and somehow it came up in conversation that the ancient Romans used to have special areas or rooms, called vomitoriums, that they could visit during a meal in order to void their stomachs, to enable them to continue feasting. I must admit that I was sceptical when I heard this, mainly because I have actually been to Rome and visited many Roman ruins around the world and have never heard of this practice or seen any evidence of these rooms in any ruins. I have also never heard any mention of the practice in books that I have read about Rome or in any of the novels that I have read that were set in ancient Rome. The lack of reference to this practice made me decide to try and verify this fact via Google.

It turns out that vomitoriums, as described above, are a myth. The Romans never practised vomiting to make room for more feasting nor did they preserve spaces in their homes for the practice. The word vomitorium, is a Latin word which means 'to spew forth', and it actually refers to the passageways that lead in and out of auditoriums. The design of these vomitoriums enabled many people to enter and exit from venues in a very short amount of time. The vomitoriums in the Roman Colosseum were so well designed, that it is said that the 50,000 seat venue could be filled in around fifteen minutes. This efficiency makes me think that perhaps we need to look at adding a few vomitoriums to our sports stadiums. Overall, sorry to all of you believers out there that thought that ancient Romans loved their food so much that they would vomit up earlier courses in order to enjoy more, it is just not true!