Nirvana - Kurt Cobain 1991
11/23/2016
5/23/2016
Why did people think the Moon was made out of green cheese?
In fact, nobody really ever thought the Moon was made of green cheese… Well, there are nutters out there, so it’s possible that there was at least one person who thought the Moon was made of cheese, and kids used to sometimes believe the Moon was made of cheese thanks to various fables, but kids will believe anything. For instance, in 1902 it was found that the most common theory as to what the Moon was made of according to children in the United States was that it was made of cheese. But these children weren’t exactly setting the bar high as other popular responses from them were things like “yellow paper, dead people, and rags.”
So other than lunatics and children who were told so by their parents via fables, nobody seriously ever thought the Moon was made of cheese.
Another common misconception surrounding the Moon/green cheese thing is that the “green” here is referring to the color green. While there are actually green cheeses, what the “green” signifies here is “new” or “fresh”, so “the Moon is made of new cheese.” This was a common way to refer to cheese where the whey either hadn’t yet all been pressed out or had just been removed from the curds, in other words, cheese that has not been aged at all.
So how did this “Moon is made of green cheese” thing all start and become popularized? It isn’t entirely clear who was the first to come up with the expression, but it became extremely common starting in the mid-16th century. The credit for the person to come up with the expression usually goes to famed French monk and scholar François Rabelais or English writer John Heywood.
Heywood first used it in The Proverbs of John Heywood written in 1546
Ye fetch circumquaques to make me believe,
Or thinke, that the moone is made of greene cheese.
And when ye have made me a lout in all these,
It seemeth ye would make me goe to bed at noone.
So basically, the expression itself simply was used to refer to something so ludicrous that only the extremely gullible would believe it.
Another early example using the statement in the same way can be found in 1565 in Shacklock’s Hatched of Heresies:
Whilst they tell for truthe Luther his lowde lyes, so that they may make theyr blinde brotherhode and the ignorant sort beleve that the mone is made of grene chese
Yet another early reference from John Wilkins’ New World Book 1 (1638), which is explicitly clear as to the meaning of the expression and that it had become common,
You may as soon persuade some Country Peasants that the Moon is made of Green Cheese (as we say) as that ’tis bigger than his Cart-wheel
While in the early days it was used just to signify gullibility, in the last couple centuries many started thinking that people actually used to believe this, which is kind of ironic if you think about it. This is not unlike how people started believing that most thought the world was flat during the Middle Ages, when in truth in many parts of the world people have known the world wasn’t flat for well over 2000 years.
For instance, Eratosthenes (at the time the head librarian at the library of Alexandria) around 240 BC not only knew the Earth was round, as most Greek scholars did at the time, but managed to become the first known person to calculate the circumference of the Earth accurately, only off by about 2%. He also calculated the distance from the Earth to the Sun and was off by only about a half a percent. Not only that, but he calculated the tilt of the Earth on its axis and was off by less than half a degree. Another amazing accomplishment by Eratosthenes was that he basically invented the discipline of Geography with his remarkable three book treaties Geographikia. You can learn more about all this here: The Amazing Eratosthenes
Why are carved pumpkins called “Jack O’ Lanterns”?
The name “Jack O’ Lantern” was originally one of the numerous names given to ignis fatuus (Medieval Latin for “foolish fire”), another of which is “Will O’ the Wisps”, basically the odd light that can occasionally be seen over marshes, swamps, and the like. “Jack O’ Lantern” first popped up being used this way around the mid-17th century in East Anglia, UK and spread from there through parts of England, Ireland, and Scotland.
This name likely originally derived from the practice of calling men generically “Dick, Jack, Tom, etc.” In particular, men who were lower class, were often called generically “Jack” beginning around the 14th century in England. (This practice popped up again in the late 19th century in the United States where “Jack” was used for the name for a man where his real name is unknown). Thus, when you see someone carrying a lantern in a distance at night that you see is a man, but you can’t make out who exactly it is, he is literally “man with a lantern”, a.k.a. “Jack of the Lantern” or “Jack O’ Lantern”. This was also commonly used for a nickname for night watchmen and the like around the same time “Jack O’ Lantern” first popped up, referring to ignis fatuus.
As to how this name made the jump to referring to carved pumpkins with lights inside, it has its origins in the Celtic practice of hollowing out and carving faces into turnips and other vegetables during Samuin (a festival where many of the traditions of Halloween come from). After carving the vegetables, they’d place candles inside and put them in windows or carry the make-shift lanterns with them as they walked to ward off evil spirits.
The tradition in various forms endured, including in Britain where pranksters would make these types of carved lanterns to scare people on the road or children would carry them around during Hallowmas while begging for soul cakes.
From here things get a little murkier in terms of tracing how exactly “Jack O’ Lantern” got applied to carved pumpkins. It is entirely possible that the above “man with a lantern” nickname of “Jack O’ Lantern” may have simply directly extended as a nickname for these carved turnip or vegetable lanterns without any intermediary. The first known instance of this application was in 1837 in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Great Carbuncle:
On the other hand, given that it appears it was Irish immigrants to America who brought over the practice of carving and lighting vegetables and it appears it was they that adapted this practice to carving pumpkins for this purpose, it seems likely enough that the nickname did not make a direct jump from “man with a lantern” to “carved vegetable lantern”, but rather came via an Irish legend, Stingy Jack. (This legend sprung up around a century after the first known instance of “Jack O’ Lantern” referring to ignis fatuus.)
There are numerous versions of The Legend of Stingy Jack, but the general story is there was a sinful drunkard named Jack who encountered the Devil and convinced the Devil to come have a drink with him before the Devil would take him down to Hell. The Devil agreed and after Jack had drunk his fill, as he had no money, he asked the Devil to cover the bill. As the Devil had no use for money, he had none on him, so Jack suggested he transform himself into a silver coin so Jack could pay the bill. (Why Jack or the Devil would care about paying at this point in the story makes little sense, among other oddities, but shhhh! You’re interrupting the story.)
Once the Devil had transformed himself into the coin, rather than pay the bill, Jack quickly stuck the coin into a small money pouch which had a crucifix on it, trapping the Devil.
In order to get Jack to let him out, the Devil made a deal with Jack that he’d give him 10 more years of life. The bargain was struck and after 10 years, the Devil returned for Jack and Jack made the request that the Devil fetch him an apple from up a tree. The moronic Devil, who apparently lives to please, climbed the tree and fetched an apple for Jack. While he was up the tree, Jack carved a crucifix into the bark at the base of the tree, thereby trapping the Devil… who could apparently turn into a coin but couldn’t turn into a bird. Or, you know… couldn’t just hop down past the crucifix instead of climbing down when he reached that point…
A second deal was struck, this time with Jack demanding that the Devil never take his soul to Hell. The Devil agreed and, being known for honesty and integrity, kept his word once Jack let him go.
Of course, Jack eventually died (maybe he should have asked for immortality and eternal youth?) and upon arriving at Heaven’s gates, whoops! His sinful life made it so he couldn’t get in. He then went and visited the entrance to Hell to try to get in there (for some odd reason), but the Devil wouldn’t let him in owing to his previous promise. Being once again apparently kind and generous, the Devil did give Jack an ever burning coal from Hell to use to light his way / warn other people of Jack’s presence. Jack then placed it in a carved turnip (which apparently doomed souls have easy access to) and proceeded to wander the Earth for all eternity.
So whether it was a direct jump from the “man with a lantern” British slang to being associated with people holding vegetable lanterns and then the vegetable lantern itself or, probably more likely given how vegetable carving became popular in America, via the Irish Stingy Jack legend, the ultimate origin of why we call carved pumpkins “Jack O’ Lanterns” seems to be a melding of the ignis fatuus nickname, “Jack O’ Lantern”, with the Samuin practice of using hollowed out vegetables with candles inside to ward off evil spirits.
Where did the phrase “take a gander” come from? What the hell is a “gander” and why would I want to take it?
As you are no doubt aware, but for those who aren’t familiar with the phrase, “take a gander” is an expression meaning “take a look”, “get a peek”, “check it out”, etc.
It first popped up around the late 19th / early 20th century. It is based on the “male goose” definition of “gander”. “Gander”, meaning “male goose”, derives from the Old English “gandra”, which ultimately comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *ghans-, meaning “goose”.
So how did “take a gander”, essentially meaning “take a male goose”, come to mean “take a look”? It is thought by some etymologists to have originated from “thieves’ slang”, much like“tip” as in “leave a tip”, but this time originating in the United States, rather than Brittan.
Whether thieves came up with it or not, this usage is referencing the fact that geese have long necks and like to poke their heads just about everywhere (literally, watch out if you’re around a gaggle of people friendly geese, particularly if you’re wearing a dress or just if you’re a guy and want to keep your sensitive bits unpoked).
So, basically, geese appear to be a bunch of rubberneckers. Thus, to “take a gander” meant to “stretch your neck and see”, as a long-necked goose would.
In the beginning of this sort of “look” definition of “gander”, the word was often used as a verb, rather than in the phrase “take a gander” where it is used in its noun form. But starting around 1914, this switched and over the next several decades the noun form became more common and today hearing someone use the verb form is fairly rare.
5/18/2016
Why Skin Wrinkles In Water ?
If you’ve ever washed away your day with hours in a hot-tub, you might have asked yourself, “Why do my hands look like I’m 90 years old when they’re in the water?”
The full explanation of how and why our fingers wrinkle in wet environments is still the subject of some debate. What we know is that the physiological mechanisms causing this phenomenon are the result of our veins constricting (vasoconstriction) in your hands and feet. One might notice this occurs even in warm water, when we otherwise would assume blood vessels should dilate instead of constrict. This suggests an evolutionary benefit to wrinkling digits. One such advantaged recently demonstrated by two studies showed that wrinkled fingers provide us with better grip in wet environments.
To better understand what’s going on with our dish-pan-hands, let’s take a closer look at the anatomy and physiology involved.
It was once widely reported that water-immersion wrinkling was the result of osmosis. Water being pulled into dead skin cells (keratin) on our epidermis would cause them to swell. The swollen outer layer of skin, still tightly attached to the layers beneath, would then wrinkle due to the increased surface area. A quick Google search will show you this idea is still widely circulated, even by some otherwise reputable sources.
While it might have some minor role, we now know osmosis resulting in skin swelling is not the main cause of finger wrinkling for several reasons. The first is that only fingers, toes and the bottoms of your feet tend to wrinkle when wet. If osmosis was the reason, all parts of your skin would wrinkle in response to wetness. Some have suggested it’s because the outer layer of the skin is the thickest in these areas, as such, would be more subject to swelling and wrinkling. The problem is that measurements have shown a decrease in finger volume when wrinkled, not an increase, as would be the case if swelling was the cause.
The most damning evidence that osmosis is not the cause of finger wrinkling is that if you cut the sympathetic nerve fibers (those that respond to your fight or flight response) to a person’s fingers, they will no longer wrinkle in water.
For those who don’t want to let go of an osmosis mediated answer, never fear. Water diffusing into our porous skin is thought to cause the reaction by our sympathetic nervous system, leading to vasoconstriction.
It’s the vasoconstriction that is the cause of wrinkling digits. In the 1930s, Dr.’s T. Lewis and GW Pickering, noticed patients with damaged median nerves (one of the main nerves in your arms that can affect the movement and sensation in the hands) did not have their skin wrinkle in areas connected to that nerve. Since this observation, there have been several studies that have confirmed vasoconstriction as the main cause of water-immersion wrinkling.
The debate among researchers is exactly how the sympathetic nervous system gets stimulated by water. The two leading theories revolve around electrolyte imbalances in your epidermis, and an overproduction of sweat by your sweat glands.
Several studies looking at using finger wrinkling as a test for how well your sympathetic nerves are functioning in your limbs, have cited electrolyte imbalances as the most likely cause of an increased fight-or-flight response to your extremities.
When water diffuses into the many sweat ducts of your hands and feet, the increased water volume creates an abnormal balance of electrolytes like sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, chloride, and bicarbonate. They state:
Altered epidermal electrolyte homeostasis would lead to a change in membrane stability of the surrounding dense network of nerve fibers and trigger increased vasomotor firing with subsequent vasoconstriction. Vasoconstriction, through loss of volume, leads to negative digit pulp pressure resulting in a downward pull on the overlying skin, which wrinkles as it is distorted. The degree of wrinkling would directly depend on the change in digit tip volume and implies any process inducing loss of digit volume will precipitate wrinkling.
Other researchers looking at a cause of the increased nerve firing have cited an equally plausible scenario- overproduction of sweat by your sweat glands. Those who posit this cause agree that it’s your sympathetic nervous system trying to maintain homeostasis within the epidermis. However, the cause in their view is a loss of the surface tension created by sweat droplets when outside water is introduced.
Normally your sweat glands at rest produce sweat at certain pressures. That droplet is then evaporated depending on the environment you’re in. In the water, evaporation is absent. The result is a sweat droplet that continuously grows in size.
The researchers calculated all of the pressures involved and found the total pressure of the atmosphere and water, at depths of 10cm, was 767mmHg. The total pressure exerted on the sweat droplet, by the sweat gland, was 1260mmHg. The much higher pressures pushing on your sweat droplet caused a free-flow of sweat from the body. In response to the excessive loss of sweat, they concluded:
To maintain homeostasis, the sympathetic nervous system triggers a reduction of blood flow to the hand, causing the vasoconstriction and eventual wrinkling of the skin. Other factors, including the temperature and tonicity of both the sweat and water, as well as the depth of immersion, also influence the formation of wrinkles.
No matter the exact mechanism causing our sympathetic nervous system to fire off like were being chased by wolves, the result does give us a gripping advantage in wet conditions.
In 2011, Mark Changizi, an evolutionary neurobiologist, was the first to propose this idea. The hypothesis was confirmed by neurobiologists at Newcastle University in the UK in 2013. Along with the advantages in wet environments, they found wrinkled fingers gave no disadvantage in dry conditions, suggesting a superiority in one situation while not diminishing our protection in others.
So next time you’re washing dishes, be thankful that your fingers wrinkle- it gives you a better grip!
Why Getting Kicked in the Balls Hurts in the abdomen, Not Just the Region That Was Actually Impacted?
Testes originally form in the abdomen near the stomach and kidneys. The nerves and blood vessels remain attached in that region, even after the balls drop. So when a guy gets kicked in the balls or otherwise has his nuts squished, the pain involved travels up from each testicle into the abdominal cavity, via the spermatic plexus, which is the primary nerve of each testicle, and then to the spine.
In addition to the pain in the stomach area, many men also experience severe nausea. This is thought to be caused by a huge rush of sympathetic nervous system discharge. So the body’s tolerance level for that rush determines whether that person will be someone susceptible to actually vomiting when kicked in the nuts.
So bottom line, getting kicked in the balls = severe pain in testicles + severe abdominal pain + quite a bit of nausea and possible vomiting. Good times.
Teflon Was Invented by Accident
The man who accidentally invented it was Dr. Roy Plunkett. After receiving his BA, MS, and eventually PhD in organic chemistry, Dr. Plunkett took a job with DuPont, in Jackson New Jersey. He was subsequently assigned to work on synthesizing various new forms of refrigerant, trying to find a non-toxic alternative to refrigerants like sulfur dioxide and ammonia.
According to DuPont, in 1938, 27 year old Dr. Plunkett and his assistant, Jack Rebok, were experimenting with one such potential alternative refrigerant, tetrafluorethylene (TFE). Dr. Plunkett subsequently created around 100 pounds of TFE and stored the gas in small cylinders.
On April 6, 1938, upon opening the valve on one of the pressurized cylinders of TFE that had previously been frozen, nothing came out, even though by its weight, it seemed to still be full. Dr. Plunkett and Jack Rebok then decided to investigate further by cutting the cylinder open. Once they managed to get it open, they discovered that the TFE gas inside had polymerized into a waxy white powder, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) resin.
Ever the scientist, Plunkett then proceeded to run tests on this new substance to see if it had any unique or useful properties. Four of the most important properties of this substance discovered were that it was extremely slippery (one of the slipperiest substances known to man), non-corrosive, chemically stable, and that it had an extremely high melting point. These properties were deemed interesting enough that the study of the substance was transferred to DuPont’s Central Research Department and assigned to chemists that had special experience in polymer research and development, while Dr. Plunkett was then promoted and transferred to a separate division that produced tetraethyl, used to boost gasoline octane levels.
Three years later, the process and name of Teflon were patented and trademarked. Four years after that, Teflon first began being sold, initially only used for various industrial and military applications due to the expense of producing TFE. By the 1960s, various forms of Teflon were being used in a variety of applications, such as stain repellant in fabrics and electrical wire insulation. It was also in the 1960s that Teflon began being used in its most publicly known application, as a coating for non-stick pans. Today, Teflon or other brands of the same product are also used in windshield wipers; carpets and furniture (as a stain repellant); light bulbs; coating on glasses; in various hair products; in semiconductor manufacturing; automotive lubricant; igniters for solid-fuel rocket propellants; and in infrared decoy flares, among other things.
5/10/2016
Was Beethoven Really Deaf When He Wrote All His Music?
If there is one Ludvig van Beethoven fact everyone knows it’s that he was deaf. But just saying “he was deaf” leaves a lot of pertinent questions unanswered, such as how deaf was he? How did he communicate with people? Of course, the biggest question is how did he compose what is considered some of his greatest music while he was deaf.
Beethoven was born in 1770, and was introduced to music at a young age by his father who was a piano and violin teacher as well as a talented tenor. Young Beethoven was considered a child prodigy when it came to music, and performed his first public concert in his hometown of Bonn when he was just seven years old.
He continued his musical career while learning from some of his great contemporaries, like Christian Gottlob Neefe, who taught him composition. He played viola in the court orchestra and became familiar with operas, several of which were by Mozart. He continued to study Mozart, along with Bach and other famous composers. By 1791, Beethoven had composed several of his own works and began publishing these compositions just a few years later.
In 1795, Beethoven performed publically in Vienna for the first time. He had developed a reputation with the piano, and wowed crowds with either Piano Concerto #1 or Piano Concerto #2.
All of Beethoven’s achievements above were done—as far as we can tell—with quite good hearing. This soon changed. Starting around 1796, we have references of Beethoven mentioning in letters hearing “buzzing noises,” but it wouldn’t be until 1801 when we have documented evidence that he had been gradually going deaf.
The exact cause of Beethoven’s deafness is unknown, theories have ranged from syphilis to the composer’s habit of dunking his head in cold water whenever he was tired, among many others.
It isn’t known precisely when he went completely deaf. There are documented instances of people needing to shout in his ear in order for Beethoven to hear them in the 1810s, and his hearing continued to decline from there. It is known that Beethoven continued seeking (fruitless) medical advice and treatment for his hearing up until 1822, after which the composer finally accepted that his hearing was never going to improve and stopped seeking medical aid for his condition.
Beethoven’s music, which is generally split into three periods, reflects the gradual decline in his hearing. The Early Period lasts from Beethoven’s childhood to around 1803, when he had both the First and Second Symphonies under his belt in addition to the accomplishments described above. During this period, he could mostly hear and his music was characterised by higher notes.
The Middle Period starts right around the time Beethoven’s decline in hearing was becoming severe and ends just before the 1820s when he was presumed to be totally deaf. This period is characterised by lower notes, with the number of high notes he used dropping significantly. As you can probably guess, since high notes were giving him trouble, he switched to lower notes so that he could better hear the music he was creating. Compositions like the Moonlight sonata, the opera Fidelio, and six symphonies, among others, were written during the Middle Period
The Late Period starts just before 1820. During this time, his music switched back to including more high notes. If he wasn’t already fully deaf at the start of this period, he was likely close to it. The reintroduction of higher pitched notes suggest that he was resolved to “listening” with his inner ear rather than actually hearing the music he was creating.
One of Beethoven’s biggest accomplishments during the Late Period was the composition of the Ninth Symphony, which he began working on in 1822 and was first performed in 1824. There is a popular story that Beethoven conducted this symphony, and kept on conducting even after the players had finished as he couldn’t hear the applause behind him nor that the music had stopped. Beyond his eyes working just fine, allowing him to see (even if only peripherally) that the musicians had stopped, this seems unlikely, at least the way the story is commonly stated. If he was indeed conducting, he would have needed to have the music timed perfectly in his head, and if he didn’t, this would have made him a nearly useless conductor. Unsurprisingly given his deafness and the importance of timing in conducting, most historians think that he merely assisted the actual conductor on stage, but did not conduct himself. Whatever the case, it was reported that he received a standing ovation.
While the loss of his hearing was a crushing blow to the man, this was actually a boon to history. As his hearing diminished, he took to writing to communicate with people, resulting in numerous letters and “conversation books,” many of which have survived providing incredible insight into Beethoven’s life and music. For instance, in a letter to a friend he vocalized his social struggles and his concern over his future on account of losing his hearing: “For two years I have avoided almost all social gatherings because it is impossible for me to say to people ‘I am deaf.’ If I belonged to any other profession it would be easier, but in my profession it is a frightful state…” He went on to say that, “Of course I am resolved to rise above every obstacle, but how will it be possible?”
In the end, Beethoven’s ability to hear for much of his life and mastery over music composition during that time enabled him to continue to compose new music while deaf. Where the disability ended up causing the most trouble was simply in performing in concerts, which he could no longer do with ease. Unfortunately for him, this was a significant source of income that, once he became functionally deaf, he could no longer earn. Beethoven’s final public performance took place in April of 1814, playing his so-called “Archduke Trio”, known formally as Beethoven’s Piano Trio in B-flat major, Op. 97. Reportedly, Beethoven’s deafness severely impacted his performance.
Beethoven passed away in 1827. During an autopsy, they found that his auditory nerves had atrophied and Eustachian tube was narrowed. This certainly explained why he was deaf, but not what had caused it. Beethoven himself would commonly blame it on gastrointestinal problems or typhus.
