Trivia & Miscellaneous

[Daniel E.]

Blue moon ice cream



Blue moon is an ice cream flavor with bright blue coloring, available in the Upper Midwest of the United States and originating in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Chicago Tribune has described the ice cream as "Smurf-blue, marshmallow-sweet". Blue moon ice cream is one of the flavors that make up Superman ice cream in certain states.

 

[Daniel E.]

The Designer Of The NES Dishes The Dirt On Nintendo's Early Days

Super Mario is often cited as the very first game to connect that [kawaii] style of cute character and cute music together...

Super Mario Bros. isn't set in Japan, but the character's Japanese. The name Mario sounds Italian, but he isn't Italian.

 

[Daniel E.]

Fitness experts: sit-ups are worthless, heres what to do instead - Business Insider

Last week, the US Army announced that after decades of requiring two-minute sit-up tests, it would phase out that portion of its fitness test by the end of 2020. Instead, the Army says it'll make room for some fitness tasks found to be more useful for soldiers' combat readiness, like deadlifts, power throws, and drag-and-carry moves, The Washington Times reported.

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Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) Event #2 - Standing-Power-Throw - YouTube

"The Standing-Power-Throw is an exercise that is designed to measure one's explosive power, balance, and flexibility."



Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) Event #4 - Sprint Drag Carry - YouTube

"The Sprint-Drag-Carry event is designed to test one's agility, anaerobic endurance, muscular endurance, and muscular strength."

 

[Daniel E.]

As if bootcamp was not hard enough, now they have to wear face masks while training outside in the heat.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Yikes!

 

[Daniel E.]

4 Reasons You May Have Back Pain on Only One Side -- Penn Medicine

Injuries to the spinal structures can happen in the muscles, discs, or joints, and make up the most common cause of back pain on just one side. They often occur after minor injuries or from an impact in sports or a car accident.

Tissue injuries typically cause pain central to the spine, but they can lead to pain entirely on either the right side or the left side of the back. And of tissue injuries overall, muscle strains are the most common cause of lower back pain on one side.

Poor posture is another possible culprit for this type of one-sided back pain, according to Dr. Tucker. "Typically when you sit, everything should be at a 90 degree angle: knees, ankles, hips, and elbows," he explains.

 

[Daniel E.]

Mary L. Trump - Wikipedia

Mary Lea Trump (born May 1965) is an American psychologist, businessperson, and author. She is a niece of President Donald J. Trump. Her 2020 book about him and the family, Too Much and Never Enough, sold over one million copies on the day of release.

 

[Daniel E.]

Why do my feet hurt more when I stand? - Pedorthic Association of Canada | www.Pedorthic.ca

When you stand, the same muscles in your feet fire repeatedly as the pressure on them remains constant. However, when you walk about, the pressure shifts to and from different areas of your foot as the same muscles aren't working all the time.

 

[Daniel E.]

Antiperspirant May Prevent Foot Blisters -- ScienceDaily

SCHAUMBURG, IL (October 19, 1998) -- Before you head out for a cross-country hike, a new study suggests that using antiperspirant on your feet may prevent blisters.

 

[Daniel E.]

Chickens - Natural Tick Control - The Cape Coop

Chickens are omnivores and healthy, happy chickens ideally spend their day foraging for bugs. A flock of chickens, allowed to free range, can significantly reduce the amount of ticks, mosquitoes, and fleas in your yard...

A scientific study was done in 1991 to determine the effect of chickens on tick populations. In the study, a flock of chickens was allowed to free range in a tick infested cattle field for 30-60 minutes. It was found that each chicken ingested anywhere from 3-331 ticks, with the average chicken eating over 80 ticks!

 

[Daniel E.]

Coronavirus: The slow death of the American all-you-can-eat buffet - BBC News

What is the history of the buffet?

Canadian entrepreneur Herb McDonald is credited with launching the first 24-hour all-you-can-eat buffet, called the Buckaroo Buffet, in the 1940s in Las Vegas.

A flyer advertising the restaurant boasts that for only one dollar, a patron can eat "every possible variety of hot and cold entrees to appease the howling coyote in your innards".

McDonald's model was quickly replicated up and down the famous strip as every hotel and casino strove to offer a buffet to tourists.

The appeal of all-you-can-eat food, with no waiter there to judge your food pairings or quantity, led the Washington Post this month to describe buffets as an "offer [of] public gluttony at an affordable price".

But despite the new precautions, most analysts agree it will be quite a long time before Americans can return to the buffet line for seconds (or even thirds... who's watching?).

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From Enlightenment Age Swedes to Vegas Gamblers: The History of the All-You-Can-Eat Buffet | Food Wine

The epitome of American gluttony—the all-you-can-eat buffet—actually originated as a much classier and much more European affair. While enormous spreads of food were a common sight during medieval feasts, the Swedes were the first to formalize and give a name to such an endless meal. In the 16th century, it became a common Swedish practice prior to a more substantial feast to welcome arriving guests with a brännvinsbord, meaning a “table of spirits.” Though it consisted of finger foods like bread, butter, cheese, cured meats and smoked fish, the star of the brännvinsbord was the traditional spiced vodka—known as Brännvin—that was served. Often distilled from potatoes or grains, Brännvin would later be joined on the table by beer, schnapps or aquavit.

In the early 18th century, the Swedes turned the pre-dinner brännvinsbord into the meal itself. Calling it “smörgåsbord," it was often used to feed hungry guests coming from a long distance. The spreads usually featured a mix of cold and warm dishes, specializing in Swedish delicacies like salted fish, eggs, fruits and vegetables—probably no omelet station. While the smörgåsbord is still quite popular today, there's one main difference from the Americanized version of the all-you-can-eat buffet: It isn’t a free-for-all. The serving table is meticulously set in a very specific order that forces guests to exercise some restraint and not grab all the food at once. As gracefully put by Sweden’s official tourism website, “You can pick out a non-Swede by the way the person loads everything onto a single plate.”

...You can thank Sweden for introducing this culinary marvel to America. And Las Vegas for perfecting it.

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smörgåsbord

It is customary to eat particular foods together; herring is typically eaten with boiled potatoes and hard-boiled eggs and is frequently accompanied by strong spirits like snaps, brännvin or akvavit with or without spices. Other traditional foods are smoked eel, rollmops, herring salad, baked herring and smoked salmon.

 

[Daniel E.]

Association Between Apple Consumption and Physician Visits

Evidence does not support that an apple a day keeps the doctor away; however, the small fraction of US adults who eat an apple a day do appear to use fewer prescription medications.

 

[Daniel E.]

All blue-eyed humans have common ancestor - ScienceBlog.com
January 30, 2008

New research shows that people with blue eyes have a single, common ancestor. A team at the University of Copenhagen have tracked down a genetic mutation which took place 6-10,000 years ago and is the cause of the eye colour of all blue-eyed humans alive on the planet today.

 

[Daniel E.]

35 Random Trivia Facts That Will Blow Your Mind - Fun Facts for National Trivia Day


Apple Pie isn't actually American at all.

The next time you call something "as American as apple pie," you might want to consider the fact that neither apple pies nor apples originally came from America. Apples are in fact native to Asia, and the first recorded recipe for apple pie was actually written in England.

 

[Daniel E.]

Apple pie - Wikipedia





English apple pie recipes go back to the time of Chaucer. The 1381 recipe (see illustration) is the earliest known apple pie recipe in the world, and lists the ingredients as good apples, good spices, figs, raisins and pears. The cofyn of the recipe is a casing of pastry. Saffron is used for colouring the pie filling. Today, the English style incorporates generous layers of sweetened slices of, usually, Bramley apple; layered into a dome shape to allow for downward shrinkage, and thus avoid a saggy middle, then topped with butter or lard shortcrust pastry, and baked until the apple filling is cooked.

In English-speaking countries, apple pie, often classified as a satisfying 'comfort' food, is a dessert of enduring popularity, whether it's eaten hot or cold, on its own or with ice cream, double cream, or custard.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

God Save The Queen!

 

[Daniel E.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_KtT8YfOTc&feature=youtu.be

 

[Daniel E.]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_Okay_to_Not_Be_Okay

It's Okay to Not Be Okay (Korean: 사이코지만 괜찮아; RR: Saikojiman gwaenchana; lit. Psycho But It's Okay) is a 2020 South Korean romantic television series starring Kim Soo-hyun and Seo Ye-ji. The series tells an unusual romance story between two people who end up healing each other's emotional and psychological wounds. It aired on tvN every Saturday and Sunday at 21:00 (KST) time slot from June 20 to August 9, 2020 for 16 episodes. The series is available worldwide on Netflix.

 

[Daniel E.]

https://en.pedia.org/[wiki]/Fovea_centralis[/wiki][wiki]

The fovea centralis is a small, central pit composed of closely packed cones in the eye. It is located in the center of the [URL="https://en.[wiki]pedia.org/[wiki]/Macula_of_retina"]macula lutea[/URL] of the [WIKI]retina.

The fovea is responsible for sharp central vision (also called foveal vision), which is necessary in humans for activities for which visual detail is of primary importance, such as reading and driving...

Approximately half the nerve fibers in the optic nerve carry information from the fovea, while the remaining half carry information from the rest of the retina.[/wiki]

 

[Daniel E.]

https://en.pedia.org/[wiki]/Memetic_algorithm[/wiki][wiki]

In computer science and operations research, a memetic algorithm (MA) is an extension of the traditional [WIKI]genetic algorithm. It uses a local search technique to reduce the likelihood of the premature convergence. Memetic algorithms represent one of the recent growing areas of research in evolutionary computation.