Gestalt

Apparently the phrase "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts" is an incorrect translation of Kurtz Koffka's actual phrase about Gestalt philosophy "the whole is other than the sum of its parts."

Trivia

I played Trivial Pursuit with my family last night, and there were a few things I learned that I was determined to remember.

Malcolm X's real surname was Little.

A volley in tennis means hitting the ball before it touches the ground.

Hmm, I'm sure there was at least one more. Oh, I know...

It's called magma when it is still underground, and lava when it is above ground.

Causes of fatness

I had already read articles showing that, while diet and exercise are most important (in that order), other things also have an effect on weight gain. They include lack of sleep (the next most important), temperature (apparently shivering burns calories), stress and medication/chemicals. But last year's New Scientist that I just borrowed from the library (December 2011, No2844/2845 Australia) had a couple I hadn't heard before.  

One is pollution. Rats had 50% more abdominal fat after 10 weeks of being subjected to polluted air than rats on the same diet living in clean air. It can also "make your cells less sensitive to insulin, increasing your risk of type 2 diabetes." (p64) The link for diabetes has also been shown in humans. Nasty.

More startling is that the common cold virus, or at least one incarnation of it, has a strong link to obesity. Adenovirus-36 (Ad-36) increases both the number of fat cells and their size, and the effect lasts for years. One study claims "children with Ad-36 antibodies weighed an average of 23 kilograms more than children without them." (p63) And another 10 microbes have a fat-increasing effect. One researcher hoped that this means we can do something about obesity.

Maybe I don't have big bones. Maybe I have the fat virus.

Passionfruit parfait

Donkey talks about parfait on Shrek when Shrek says he is like an onion (with layers) -- apparently everyone loves parfait. I wasn't really certain what it was, other than a desserty thing. But today I made some. It involved sieving the seeds out of passionfruit (which is mainly seeds), whisking yolks over heat without ending up with scrambled eggs, making sugar syrup and adding it to other ingredients without getting little lumps of boiled lolly as it cools, 3 saucepans and 2 sets of beaters. The end result tastes, rather pleasantly, like passionfruit folded through whipped cream. I could have folded passionfruit through whipped cream with a lot less time, trouble, and dirty saucepans. And egg all over the floor when I dropped the whisk (twice).

So I'd be happy to order this in a restaurant, but I won't be making it again in a hurry.

The speed of bees

According to a quirky snippet of info printed on the wrapping of this morning's sanitary product, bees fly at an average of 15 miles per hour. I don't particularly put my faith in this, some of the other "facts" have been highly suspect. But it could be true.

Termites

Termites are descended from cockroaches. Yuck.

Hawaii

The Muppet Show, a great source of information, had a sequence on Vets Hospital with a patient (a pig) from Hawaii. A joke revolved around the fact that Hawaii used to be called (by Europeans, presumably, not the natives) the Sandwich Islands. I didn't know that. The Muppets are always teaching me something new.

Dunnock

Another blogger (in England) mentioned seeing a dunnock when she was collecting her morning milk from the doorstep. I had no idea what a dunnock was, so I looked it up -- it is a small bird. I don't think we have them in Australia. But there you go.

Cell regeneration

Received wisdom is that every cell in the body is replaced every seven years, but according to COSMOS magazine it varies by body part. 2-3 days for the lining of the small intestine, 7 days for the outer layer of the cornea (and apparently the rest of the eye doesn't regenerate at all), 180-400 days for the liver, 10 years for the brain, 15 years for muscles. The heart only regenerates about 1% of its cells each year in a young adult and less as you age.

Fish faking the big O

Apparently a female trout will act as though releasing eggs into the water (shaking her body vigorously) so that an undesirable male will ejeculate. He rolls over and goes to sleep, figuratively speaking, and she heads off and finds herself a more attractive trout to actually fertilise her eggs.

I suppose everyone wins.

Doesn't matter, had sex.

Misophonia

While I don't think I have better hearing than anyone else (well, maybe a bit, I certainly prefer the TV and music turned down lower than the rest of my family), I do find certain sounds very annoying. Doesn't everyone? Apparently not. My husband can sleep through a dripping tap, no problems, while I lie awake. Sniffing drives me crazy. But the worst is the sound of someone eating. It's ok if I am eating too because then I can only hear myself, which doesn't bother me. But other people! Yuck! The sound of the food smooshing around their mouth makes me feel ill. My husband usually gets home too late to have dinner with me and the kids, and I'm sure he would like me to sit with him to chat while he has his meal; but I just can't.

And there is a name for this ... disorder!

COSMOS magazine says that misophonia has been recognised in the last decade, and describes the inability to tolerate certain patterns of sound. And they quote someone saying: "I can't handle listening to people eat," he says. "It's the chomping and clicking sound - saliva getting sloshed around in there." (p43)

So, there is name for it!

Hair

Ever wondered how many hairs you have on your head? According to "The Doctors" on TV, everyone has about 100,000 hair follicles (I'm sure it varies a bit), of which 90% are in use at any given time.

So you have in the vicinity of 90,000 hairs. Quite a lot.

Fecal Transplants

If someone has persistant diarrhoea that doesn't respond to antibiotics, one solution of last resort is to give them a fecal transplant to replenish good bacteria in their intestine. Yes, that's right, they transfer someone else's poo into them.

Whose? Apparently someone they live with is best because this gives a match for the balance of bacteria creative by diet and environment. So generally a spouse or family member. I guess a flatmate would do. Kinda weird tho.

How? Well they used to do surgery on the colon to insert it, nowadays they find it is much quicker and less invasive to put a tube down your nostril. Yup, they pour poo down your nose. Someone else's poo. As a medical treatment.

We live in interesting times.

Luddite

While editing today I came across the term Luddite and didn't know what it meant, so looked it up on Wikipedia:

The Luddites were a social movement of 19th-century English textile artisans who protested – often by destroying mechanised looms – against the changes produced by the Industrial Revolution, which they felt were leaving them without work and changing their way of life. The movement was named after General Ned Ludd or King Ludd, a mythical figure who, like Robin Hood, was reputed to live in Sherwood Forest.[1]

The article was actually very interesting. In modern terms a Luddite is someone who is against technology; in the manuscript I was editing it was used to describe someone who didn't know how to use a computer for a particular task,

Bowers

According to my Macquarie Dictionary, the term bower (from card games like euchre and 500) for the jack is derived from the German Bauer meaning peasant.

And the joker is "often" called the "best bower" -- can't say I've heard that one.

Mosquitos and what a man is worth

Stephen Fry says that more than half of the people who have ever lived were killed by mosquitos.

And the ones that give you malaria don't hum.

And if we sold all our body parts a person would be worth more than 400,000 pounds -- but if broken down into component chemicals they would only be worth about 10 pounds, 50 pence of which would be from gold.

The Golden Screw

I put this in my 3BT blog as well, I just enjoyed it so much I had to share it.

In The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss, Kvothe tells a story around a campfire. Condensed: A boy is born with a gold screw in his belly button. No one knows what it is for -- not his parents or grandparents or the wise folk of the town or anyone he meets in his travels. Eventually he meets with the most powerful king in the world and asks him about the gold screw in his belly button. The king opens a gold box on a gold platter and behold, there is a gold screwdriver. He takes it out and turns the gold screw in the boy's belly button. Once, twice, three times. And the boy's ass falls off.

Funny

http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/2011.htm

These are the hilarious results of a competition for the funniest first lines of imaginary novels.

Initiation

This is my response to a flash fiction challenge on unicorns proposed by Chuck Wendig at http://terrible minds.com

Initiation
Gerald polished his pearly horn on his flank and then checked his reflection in the lake.

“Looking good!” neighed Simon. “They won’t be able to resist you.”

Gerald straightened his neck. Was the horn really big enough? Sure, it gleamed in the moonlight and all that, but he’d feel a lot more confident if it was just a little bigger. He knew Simon was admiring, but he hardly counted. Simon was still practically a foal. He wouldn’t get his initiation night for years.

The other stallions were watching from the nearby trees. Magnificent, every one of them; with noble necks and shiny hooves and glowing white coats. And big horns.

Gerald grimaced a goodbye to Simon and trotted towards the other males. They spun in perfect unison and led him away through the forest. Like the ghosts of horses, they flowed through the warm night with an elegance no other creature had ever attained. They cantered through burbling streams, wove between ancient trees, and galloped across moonlit glades until at last they reached the edge of the forest. A human town lay across the fields, lit by the huge bonfire that marked the midsummer festival.

“The festivities are well underway,” said James, the eldest. “They will all be drunk by now, relaxed and lusty. Go, find your virgin.”

Gerald nodded to them, and started to make his way around the edge of the field, staying in the shadows. He was looking forward to his initiation, but he still wasn’t sure his horn was big enough.

The finger

Stephen Fry says that the legend about flipping someone the finger deriving from British archers showing the French (who threatened to cut them off) they still have their bow-drawing fingers is just rubbish that started circulating in the 1970s. It is more likely that the gesture is a two-horned cuckold.

He knows everything, doesn't he.