A better way to boil eggs

YouTube link.

Poison for the arrows of bushmen

Beetles of the genus Diamphidia lay their eggs on the stems of shrubs from the Commiphora genus – commonly known as frankincense and myrrh. The doting mothers then coat their precious eggs with their own feces (that’s faeces for my UK friends), which harden into a protective armor. As the eggs develop through the instar and grub phases, the larvae will shed their poo protection and burrow up to (down to?) three feet, where they make a cocoon from sand and take a needed break. They may lay dormant for several years before molting into pupae, and continue their life cycle. This long dormancy period means that the Bushmen can find the cocoons and larvae year-round and have a ready supply of poison, especially important since mature beetles are not poisonous.

The Bushmen, also known as the San people, dig beside Commiphora host plants, such as Commiphora angolensis, in search of Diamphidia nigroornata, or Commiphora africana for Diamphidia vittatipennis. Once collected, the Bushmen will squeeze the fluid from the larvae and pupae, otherwise known as hemolymph, onto the shaft of their arrows, but not the tip, to avoid “accidents.” Up to ten larvae could be applied to one arrow, which is then dried over hot coals to bond the poison, which maintains its lethal potential for up to a year.

More info at Nature's Poisons, a quite interesting website.  The toxicity was originally assumed to be neurotoxicity and some cardiotoxicity, but recent studies suggest hemolysis as a primary mechanism.

Trail mix

"In Germany, Poland, Hungary and several other European countries, trail mix is called "student food" or "student snack" in the local languages. In New Zealand, trail mix is known as "scroggin" or "schmogle". The term is also used in some places in Australia but usage has only been traced back to the 1970s. Some claim that the name stands for sultanas, carob, raisins, orange peel, grains, glucose, imagination, and nuts or alternatively sultanas, chocolate, raisins and other goody-goodies including nuts; but this may be a false etymology.

The word gorp, a term for trail mix often used by hikers, is typically said to be an acronym for "good old raisins and peanuts" or its common ingredients "granola, oats, raisins, peanuts." The Oxford English Dictionary cites a 1913 reference to the verb gorp, meaning "to eat greedily.""

Hexagon geometry puzzle

This one you can do in your head.  That's what I did.  Got it wrong, but I was really, really, close...

For the answer, go to Brilliant or to Data Genetics.

A new theory about fluorescent coral

It has been known for some time that some shallow-water corals use fluorescence as a protective mechanism:

...the pink and purple fluorescence in shallow waters act as a kind of sunscreen. The fluorescent pigments absorb damaging wavelengths of light and emit it as pink or purple light, protecting the single-celled organisms called zooxanthellae that live symbiotically inside coral. Zooxanthellae are photosynthetic and they provide the coral with food in exchange for shelter.

But now the phenomenon has been observed in coral at low-light depths:

Coral may be converting blue light into orange-red light that penetrates deeper into the coral tissue, where photosynthetic zooxanthellae live. Fluorescence, by definition, is the absorption of light in one color and the emission in another... Blue light may be good at penetrating water and for photosynthesis, but it doesn’t penetrate the coral’s tissues well. And zooxanthellae can live deep inside coral...

Mikhail Matz, a coral scientist at the University of Texas at Austin, says he’s not yet convinced this completely explains the function of the fluorescent pigment in deep water corals. As humans with eyes, we tend focus on the light coming from these coral. But maybe the glow isn’t the point. “The fluorescence may not be the important aspect. It could be a side effect,” he says. It could be that fluorescent proteins are actually there just to absorb light as the part of some metabolism, and the glow that we see is incidental to its true purpose.

Further discussion at The Atlantic.   The paper is at Proc Roy Soc B.

"Punctuation police"

What's worse than a "grammar Nazi?"  Perhaps a "punctuation policeman."

Teachers have attacked the "punctuation police" who have marked down children's SATs for incorrectly drawn commas and semi-colons. Frustrated staff complained about the new mark scheme on social media after children were penalised for drawing punctuation points at the wrong level or failing to draw apostrophes with sufficient curve. Teachers said that their pupils had been marked down for semi-colons which were too high on the line...

Some comments at the Telegraph article suggest that the problem lies with the teachers failing to instruct the students in the proper manner of denoting punctuation marks.

A question for a philatelist

The stamp is Norway's Scott, Facit, and NK #1.  The margins leave something to be desired (i.e. width), but on the positive side the stamp is graced with a well-centered three-ring numeral cancel.

But... is the cancel "66" from Fikke, or "99" from Hamar?

My 2004 Norgeskatalogen accords a "66" cancel on a #1 a rarity factor of "RR"(+1,500 NOK), while the "99" receives a rarity factor of "b" (+100 NOK).

Is there anything about the typography of the numbers that allows a 66 to be distinguished from a 99 when the stamp is off-cover?

I'd appreciate any insight on this matter.

Puddling - updated

These are Purple Emperor and Lesser Emperor butterflies (Apatura genus) getting nutrients from the body of a dead frog.  Butterflies that "puddle" at muddy spots or on scat or on carrion (as shown here) are seeking sodium, which is rarely found in plants (potassium is the principal cation in vegetation).

Photo source, via Uncertain Times.

Reposted from 2011 to add this relevant photo of Eyed Browns by Douglas Buege, via Wisconsin Butterflies' Recent Sightings webpage:

When you ask the internet for assistance...

The couple in the photo above asked the internet to photoshop the image to remove the shirtless fellow in the background.  Here are some of the results:

There are about 400 more offerings in the link at Bored Panda.

A card trick anyone can do

YouTube link. 

Mathematical card tricks are the best ones to learn, because no sleight-of-hand is required.  A hat tip to Mark Frauenfelder for creating this video to illustrate the methodology of a clever trick posted at Greg Ross' Futility Closet.

Readers who are math enthusiasts may be able to explain to the rest of us how/why this trick works.  I'm satisfied to accept it as magic.

Reposted from 2013 so I can relearn this trick before our upcoming family reunion.

The sad decline of "open-pollinated" crops

I spotted the above sign recently at the University of Wisconsin Allen Centennial Gardens, a free educational facility that teaches students and the public about gardening and landscaping.

I'm don't know the context/import of the "kissing" reference (answer in the Comments), but the "open pollinated" comment caught my eye:

"The last open pollinated corn was released in 1902 - 115 years ago!

Here's a concise explanation from Green Haven:

“Open Pollinated” is a horticultural term meaning that the plant will produce seeds naturally. When these seeds are planted they will reliably reproduce the same plant as the parent. On the other hand, hybrid corn is the result of controlled pollination of inbred plants. These seeds are often sterile, and if they do germinate, will not reliably produce the same plant as the parent. This means the farmer has a perpetual reliance on the seed companies.

This dependence on a few seed/chemical giants is becoming more and more uncomfortable for American consumers and farmers. Green Haven Open Pollinated Seed Group is changing that. We are a nationwide organization of seed producers based in western NY that are pooling out efforts to offer the most beneficial varieties of quality open pollinated Seed. By selection, Green Haven focuses on improving open pollinated corn for silage, grain, and wildlife plots.

A turtle with a "Corvette body"

"Several years ago, a client brought me a box turtle that had been hit by a car. I used fiberglass to repair his broken shell and then released him in my woods. Recently, while walking on my hillside, I spotted an odd pattern in the leaves. To my amazement, there was my old patient with the fiberglass still on... years later! Sometimes, being a vet is the best thing there is."

From the Facebook page of the Hocking Hills Animal Center, via Bored Panda.

Addendum: There is relevant information re repairing turtle shells in this discussion thread.

"Dream On" (Aerosmith, 1973)

YouTube link.

 

Sing with me, sing for the year

Sing for the laughter, sing for the tears

Sing with me, if it's just for today

Maybe tomorrow, the good lord will take you away...

Full lyrics.

In a 2011 interview, Steven Tyler reminisced about his father, a Juilliard-trained musician, and recalled "lying beneath his dad's piano as a three-year-old, listening to him play classical music. That's where I got that Dream On chordage," he said.

Reposted from 2011 because the originally embedded video had undergone linkrot.  So I'll use this opportunity to embed the original musci video and append some additional info.

Dream On has been classified as a "power ballad." q.v.:

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French chanson balladée or ballade, which were originally "danced songs''... Sentimental ballads, also known as pop ballads, rock ballads or power ballads, are an emotional style of music that often deal with romantic and intimate relationships, and to a lesser extent, war (protest songs), loneliness, death, drug abuse, politics and religion, usually in a poignant but solemn manner... Aaron argues that the power ballad broke into the mainstream of American consciousness in 1976 as FM radio gave a new lease of life to earlier songs such as Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" (1971), Aerosmith's "Dream On" (1973), and Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" (1974).

For those who like me have wondered how Steven Tyler's voice held up over the years, here's his performance over 40 years later of a slightly-more concise version:

YouTube link.

Pretty damn good.  And so TIL there is a Nobel Peace Prize Concert.

Elevator buttons

There may be a perfectly valid logical reason for the ordering of these elevator buttons; several suggestions are offered in the CrappyDesign subreddit.

Image cropped for size from the original.

"Death and the Civil War"

YouTube link.

To paraphrase Will Rogers, I haven't seen an American Experience episode I didn't like.  I have to admit I had low expectations for this one, thinking it would be rehash of the horrors of wartime medicine and the conditions in Andersonville etc., but instead it's a broader view of how a society copes (or doesn't cope) with massive numbers of largely unexpected casualties.

Before the war began neither the Union or the Confederacy had in place any mechanism for dealing with death and injury on the battlefield.  No ambulances, no burial crews (and no designated cemeteries), no dogtags for ID, and not even a perceived responsibility to notify next-of-kin of a death.  Bodies were left unburied and unidentified.  IIRC, fully half of the casualties in the war who were eventually buried were labeled "Unknown."

This is a brief trailer for the 2012 program.  The PBS link for the full-length program shows it to be "unavailable in my area" (I got the DVD from the library).  At 2 hours run-time, it's a bit overlong (I did some fast-forwarding), but overall it was well worth viewing.