Famous Author...& Billiards Player!

Photo courtesy Mark Twain Museum

Today is the birthday of Mark Twain (1835-1910), one of my favorite authors and "characters", as we would call him in The South.  One thing I didn't know about him was that he was an avid billiards player.

Earliest Mechanical Calculator

Photo courtesy FreeImagesLive

The earliest attempt at designing a mechanical adding machine was probably by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), according to some of his notes found in 1967 in the National Museum of Spain.  The next two documented attempts were by the German Wilhelm Schickard (1592-1635) in 1623.  The location or existence of the two prototypes are unknown.

In 1642, the 18 year old Frenchman, Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), invented the first "arithmetical machine", and subsequently developed it further.  About 50 of these machines still exist.

Oldest Scientific Society in Existence

Photo of The Royal Society logo courtesy The Royal Society

The Royal Society was founded in London on this day in the year 1660, 351 years ago today.  The Royal Society is the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence.

Moon-Venus Conjunction

Photo of Venus & Moon courtesy FreeImagesLive.co.uk

November 26 and 27 are great nights for sky-watching in the northern hemisphere.  There is a conjunction between the moon and Venus.  For more information click here.

If you're in the southern hemisphere, did you get a look at the last solar eclipse for 2011 on November 25?

Mayonnaise

Photo courtesy FreeImagesLive.co.uk

Many people in the U.S. think the best part of Thanksgiving Dinner is the leftover-turkey salad that is made and usually used in sandwiches (for a change, try adding a little ground cumin--yum).  To make the salad you have to first make the mayonnaise from scratch--yes, I'm from The South, that's the 15 southern states in the United States (actually I'm from The Deep South: Alabama, aka "The Heart of Dixie").  If I'm not able to make mayonnaise from scratch (which is Never--I always make my mayo from scratch--I'm from The South, remember), then I would, of course, buy Hellmann's (The South, etc...).  When I lived in California the mayonnaise to buy was Best Foods, which is Hellmann's west of the Rockies.  A lot of people would say just about anything savory can taste better with mayonnaise on it.  I've even added a cup of mayo to a chocolate cake recipe, which made it more moist & delicious.

I've always wondered who developed the mayonnaise recipe, and how did they know--or did they know--that the chemical reaction of slowly dribbling oil into beaten eggs would not produce a drippy, oily mess but a fluffy, white emulsion that makes the tongue happy.

The most widely accepted story begins with the British rule of Port Mahon in 1756.  The French sent the infamous Armand de Vignerot du Plessis, 3rd Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788) to take the port.  During the course of the siege, the French ran short of supplies, but the Duc still wanted to host a banquet.  The Duc's chef decided to try whipping eggs and oil together to serve in place of the seasonings that they did not have, and it was a big hit.  The French won the Battle of  Port Mahon and returned home with, among other things, the new recipe named after the battle and called mayonnaise.

Below is my basic mayonnaise recipe, which is made in a food-processor and can be doubled.  There are endless variations, just try an internet search if you don't believe me.  Try adding a little onion powder to the recipe:  I swear it tastes like fried onion rings, and of course anything savory OR sweet tastes better fried, doesn't matter where you're from.

1 egg
2 egg-yolks
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 Tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 & 1/3 cups Wesson vegetable oil

1.  Process eggs for one minute. 
2.  Add salt and juice and process for 30 seconds. 
3.  With processor running, add oil in a very tiny steady stream until all oil is used.

Art Films & Documentaries

Photo courtesy MovieGoods.com

Yesterday a friend and I were talking about our favorite documentary- and art-films and the usually-beautiful art-film houses where we've seen the films.  One of my favorite experiences was seeing Theremin:  An Electric Odyssey at the Towne Theatre in San Jose, California in the 1990's.  My friend said that he saw one of his favorite documentaries--Nikola Tesla: The Giant Who Lit the World--just the other day online for free, and that there are many documentary films that you can see online for free.  Go to the website of TopDocumentaryFilms.com to see the Tesla film, and to MotionEmpire.com to see the Theremin film, or any of your own favorite documentaries.

Thanksgiving in Hawaii

Photo of Makahiki Luau courtesy FreeImagesLive.co.uk

The traditional Hawaiian thanksgiving celebration is called Makahiki.  Makahiki lasts from November through February, and during this time all are forbidden to engage in work and war.  It is a time of celebrating harvests with religious ceremonies, luaus, and competitive games.

For more information see the HawaiiHistory.org website.

Thanksgiving in India

Photo courtesy FreeImagesLive.co.uk

Thanksgiving celebration in India is called Ladin or Ladainha, and is celebrated primarily in the Indian state of Goa.  Ladin is a Christian celebration held on August 15, and hymns and prayers are sung.  People celebrate with special candles and wine, and decorate altars with flowers and vines.

For more information see the Food.Gather.com and Thanksgiving-Day.org websites.

Thanksgiving in the United Kingdom

Photo courtesy FreeImagesLive.co.uk

There is a Thanksgiving Day of sorts in the United Kingdom known as Harvest Day.  It is primarily a rural celebration held on a Sunday in September near the harvest moon.  It is not a national holiday.  Churches are decorated with autumn foliage, fruits, and vegetables, and communities gather together for a dinner.  Turkey is not an obligatory part of the meal as it is in Canada and the United States. 

For more information see the Thanksgiving-Day.org and Thanksgiving-Day.biz websites.

Thanksgiving in Canada

Photo courtesy FreeImages.co.uk

In Canada, Thanksgiving is the second Monday of October, and constitutes an official holiday and three-day weekend.  Families usually gather together on any one of the three days of the long weekend for a big meal that includes turkey.  In Quebec, English-speaking families observe this tradition, but the French-speaking families usually do not.  Many Canadian cities have Thanksgiving parades.

The Thanksgiving Day as it is currently celebrated was made official by the government in 1957 as a day of thanks to God for the year's harvest.  However, there has been a Thanksgiving Day of some sort or another in Canada since April 15, 1872, when this day was celebrated in order to give thanks for the recovery of King Edward VII from a serious illness.

For more information, see the ThanksgivingDay.org website.

Shortest Day of 2011

Photo courtesy FreeImages.co.uk

The shortest day of 2011 in the northern hemisphere will be December 22, which is the winter solstice.  The winter solstice will begin at 5:30 A.M. UTC. 

For more details go to my favorite new-to-me website, TimeandDate.com.  It's chock full of information and interactive pages.

Ida Lupino

Photo courtesy FanPix.net

One of my favorite actresses is Ida Lupino (1918-1995).  She was very talented and active in her field.  In the mid-1940's she formed her own independent film company and became a producer, director, and screenwriter for the company.  She was given two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, acted in 59 films, directed 7 films, appeared in 58 serial television episodes (I didn't know this), and directed 50 serial television episodes (I didn't know this).  I also didn't know that she directed an episode (episode 37 of season 4 in 1965 titled "Arthur") of one of my favorite television shows, Alfred Hitchocock Presents.

For more information, see her website, IdaLupino.com.

Thanksgiving in Germany, Austria, & Switzerland

Photo of church altar Erntedank display
courtesy Elena Kortels and German-Way.com

Thanksgiving celebrations in Germany and other German-speaking countries occur in September or October, sometimes as late as November, and are not "official" holidays like they are in the United States.  In both large cities and small towns, Thanksgiving, called Erntedankfest (Harvest Thanksgiving Festival), is a celebration hosted by Christian churches.  In rural towns there may also be a parade and a country-fair type of celebration, including dancing and the crowning of a harvest queen.  Unless they live in rural areas or are church-goers, many Germans only experience Erntedankfest by seeing it on television.

For more information, see the German-Way.com website, and the German Holidays page of the Tulane University website.

New Seven Wonders

Photo of Iguazu Falls courtesy New7Wonders.com

The New Seven Wonders Corporation began tallying popular votes on July 7, 2007 (07-07-07) for a list of  New Seven Wonders of Nature and New Seven Wonders of the World, which will be finalized and released in early 2012.  The New Seven Wonders series are based on the ancient Seven Wonders of the World lists by the ancient historians and scholars Herodotus and Antipator of Sidon.

Life on Europa

Photo of Jupiter and it's moons courtesy 123rf.com

New evidence suggests that there may be life in an underground ocean on Europa, Jupiter's ice-covered moon.

For more information, see the article on the website of UniverseToday.com.

Stock Ticker's Birthday

Photo of early stock ticker courtesy FreeImagesLive.co.uk

The stock ticker is 144 years old today.  Prior to this invention by Edward Augustin Calahan (1838-1912), information from the New York Stock Exchange was delivered by mail or messenger.

For more information in addition to the above links, see the article at History.com.

Fish Schools' Rules

Photo courtesy FreeImagesLive.co.uk

New studies of the movement of schools of fish indicate that each fish in the school eyes only the one or two nearest neighbors, and moves in the direction and with the same speed of their nearest neighbor(s).

For more information, see the article in ScienceNews.org.

The Most Peaceful Era in the History of the World

Photo of one of Edward Hicks' "The Peaceful Kingdom" paintings courtesy AllPaintings.org

According to the historical research by Steven Pinker, New College of the Humanities in London visiting professor and Harvard University experimental psychologist, we are now living in the least violent and most peaceful era in the history of the world.

For more information, see information on his book, The Better Angels of Our Nature, and his website, StevenPinker.com.

11-12-11, 11:12 A.M., In Harm's Way

Photo courtesy Naval History & Heritage Command

On November 16, 1778, American Navy Captain John Paul Jones (1747-1792) wrote a letter to the French government hoping they would provide for him a ship to use in the Americans' rebellion against the British.  In the letter he stated, "I wish to have no Connection with any Ship that does not Sail fast for I intend to go in harm's way."  His phrase "in harm's way" has most often been used to refer to people in the military who are sent "in harm's way" during wartime.

For more information, in addition to the above links, see the websites of the U.S.S. John Paul Jones and The Top 10 Quotes About & By the U.S. Marines.

11-11-11, 11:11 A.M., Remembrance Day

Photo courtesy FreeImagesLive.co.uk

Today is Remembrance Day, also known as Armistice Day, Veterans Day, and Poppy Day in the United States and British Commonwealth countries except Mozambique.  There are similar celebrations in other countries around the world.  This is the day celebrating the signing of the armistice that ended World War I on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918.  It is also a day for remembering the service of all war veterans.

For more information in addition to the above links, see the websites of the National WWI Museum, the BBC World War I History, World War I Trenches on the Web, and the Teacher Oz History Website.

History of Scrabble

Photo courtesy FreeImagesLive.co.uk

The board game, Scrabble, was invented by New York architect and artist Alfred Mosher Butts (1899-1993) in 1938.  To date, one hundred fifty million games have been sold worldwide, and between one and two million sets are sold annually in the United States alone.

Butts initially named the game Criss Cross Words, but when entrepreneur James Brunot (1902-1984)bought the rights to the game in 1948 he changed the name to Scrabble, a word meaning "to grope frantically", from the Dutch "Schrabben," to scrape or scratch.  Brunot converted an abandoned school-house into the Scrabble factory.

For more information in addition to the above links, including information about Scrabble associations and tournaments, see the websites of IdeaFinder.com, North American Scrabble Players Association, Anagrammer.com, and, of course, the official Scrabble website.

Asteroid Passes Close to Earth

Photo courtesy FreeImageFinder.com

Yesterday and today people in both the northern and southern hemispheres are able to easily see the asteroid 2005 YU55 as it passes close to Earth.  An event of this type--when we will know in advance about an object this large that will pass this close to Earth--will not happen again until 2028.

For more information, see the websites of UniverseToday.com and SpaceDaily.com, which has an animation of the trajectory.

Folklore and Nandina

Photo courtesy FreeImageFinder.com

I've always liked nandina bushes and have always had them in my yard, however not because I planted them there but because they were already there when I moved into the house.  What I didn't know was the folklore about nandinas.  In the Japanese language nandina is homonymic for "difficulties" and "changing", so the nandina is believed to have the power to make bad fortune disappear.  In the western world nandina branches are used in New Year's arrangements, coats of arms, art, and textile design where it symbolizes longevity,

For more information, see the websites NandinaBushes.com and CherryBlossom.co.nz.

Largest Woodpecker in History Now on Film

Photo courtesy FreeImageFinder.com

It is believed that the Imperial Woodpecker, the largest woodpecker in history, became extinct in the late 1900's and had never been photographed or filmed.  A 16mm film shot by Pennsylvania Dentist William L. Rhein in 1956 has been discovered and is now being analyzed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which has one of my favorite websites about birds.  The film can been seen at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/imperial.

For more information in addition to the above links, see the website of ScienceDaily.com and BirdLifeInternational.org.

Where is the Driest Desert on Earth?

Photo courtesy of FreeImageFinder.com

The Atacama Desert is a 600-mile (1,000 km) strip of land on the South American Pacific Coast, running through Chile and Peru.  Outlying less-dry areas of the desert run through Bolivia and Argentina.  The Atacama Desert is the driest desert in the world with no rainfall having been recorded since rainfall records began being kept.  It is also the highest desert on earth, and one of the coldest deserts on earth.  Since certain bacteria and sea-life fossils have been found in gypsum boulders (similar to rocks on the planet Mars), it is believed that the Atacama Desert was once underwater.

For more information in addition to the above links, see the websites of the Gypsum Association and the ALMA telescope, which is the Atacama Large Millimeter Array telescope erected in the Atacama Desert by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Golden Section & Stradivarius Violins

Photo courtesy FreeImageFinder.com

The golden section (also known as the golden mean, the golden ratio, and divine proportion), is a mathematical calculation that produces what is considered to be the most aesthetically pleasing proportion.  What I didn't know is that Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737), the greatest violin maker in history, was aware of the golden section and used it to place the f-holes (pictured above) in his famous violins. 

I also didn't know that there has been quite a bit of research to find the golden section intentionally and unintentionally used in classical music compositions.

For more information, see the links above and the website on Fibonacci Numbers and the Golden Section in Art, Architecture, and Music.

The bel and Mr. Bell

Photo of Decible Meter courtesy of  FreeImagesLive.co.uk

The decibel (symbol dB, one-tenth of a bel) is a unit used in electrical engineering and acoustics to express relative loudness.  What I didn't know is that the bel was named after Alexander Graham Bell(1847-1922).

For more information, in addition to the links above see the website of The Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers at the Library of Congress.

Automatic Brain Remodeling

Photo courtesy FreeImagesLive.co.uk

Recent studies in charting the brain’s genetic activity from before birth to old age--particularly when, where and for how long each gene in the brain is turned on over the course of a person’s life--reveal that the brain continually remodels itself in predictable ways throughout life.

For more information, see the article at the ScienceNews.org website.

Steam Powered Church Organ

Photo courtesy freeimageslive.co.uk

Pope Sylvester II (946-1003), also known as Gerbert, built church organs powered by steam, a great innovation of the time, which eliminated having people force air through the organ pipes by physically operating bellows while another person actually played the organ keys.

He also constructed the precursor to Galileo's telescope, and became one of the first great collectors of books.

For more information, see the websites of Christian Classics Ethereal Library, and Encyclopedia Britannica.

Rattlesnakes & Ambulance Sirens

Photo courtesy FreeImages.com

The frequency of the rattle-sound produced by the rattlesnake can reach 5000 hertz to 8000 hertz, which is the same as that of the ambulance siren.

For more information on rattlesnakes, see the websites of the American International Rattlesnake Museum, Kidzone, and Reptile Knowledge.