tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20423851537141799532024-03-14T03:52:24.923-04:00If You Pass Saturn, You've Gone Too FarA blog about everything science, from space to weather to physics to health to tech and everything in between, all without the jargon. Jayson Blankenshiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16630207805831892920noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2042385153714179953.post-48790821750167877732021-02-04T17:16:00.000-05:002021-02-04T17:16:04.396-05:00The Misery (Laugh) Index<p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/fe/bd/e6/febde62f2ec46251ca29cf4269ab6721.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="210" data-original-width="300" src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/fe/bd/e6/febde62f2ec46251ca29cf4269ab6721.jpg" /></a></div><br /> Slapstick comedy has been around for ages. The ancient Greeks were familiar with it. The Marx Brothers made a living off of it in the early 1900s. That transcended across mediums into cartoons such as <i>Tom and Jerry</i> and <i>Looney Tunes</i>, and became its own sub-genre of movies with hits such as <i>Hot Shots, Airplane, Scary Movie</i>, and <i>Dumb and Dumber</i>. and it's a genre that's still seen today with shows like <i>Impractical Jokers, Jackass, </i>and<i> Ridiculousness</i>; but it's more than movies. Physical comedy has been one of the largest sources of comedy for ages. Have you ever seen a friend fall down, trip over something, or get smacked in the face or groin, and you laugh? Of course you have. Where you ever in college and you watched your drunk jump off the roof onto the pong table and break his arm - and then you laughed about it? Of course you did. Your friend experienced physical pain, and you laughed at their expense; but it wasn't on purpose, it's one of those things that just seemed to happen. Why do we do this? What's the science?<p></p><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"> According to Stanford University professor William Fry, "play frame" is when real life events in a non serious context prompts <a href="https://www.medicaldaily.com/sense-humor-falling-down-pain-and-pleasure-375962#:~:text=Mental%20Distance,feel%20empathy%20for%20the%20victim." target="_blank">phycological reactions</a>. Seeing someone fall to the their death of course is not funny to most, if not all people, but witnessing someone fall onto the sidewalk is. The non-serious nature makes it comedic. Injury is not comedic, but embarrassment is. And there is also incongruity, which is the relation between the "punchline" and the "body" of the joke. Falls, trips, and running into things are incongruent because they are not expected. Steve Ellen, the director of Melbourne's Psychosocial Oncology Program, proposes that nervous laughter is a psychological response to anxiety and tension. <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/yw55yw/experts-explain-why-you-laugh-when-you-shouldnt" target="_blank">Jordan Raine</a>, a PhD researcher into "Human Non-Verbal Vocalizations" at the University of Sussex agrees. They say laughing as a way to diffuse tension and as a coping mechanism when faced with traumatic experiences. According to <i>Medical Daily, </i>many neurologists that mirror neurons fire inside the brain, mirroring the neurons of the person performing the action (falling, tripping, being hit, etc), making us feel as we're the ones experiencing it, therefore making us laugh. It's also suggested that the further away we are from publicly humiliating situations, the more likely we are to laugh out loud. Psychologist Peter McGraw at the University of Colorado <a href="https://www.medicaldaily.com/sense-humor-falling-down-pain-and-pleasure-375962#:~:text=Mental%20Distance,feel%20empathy%20for%20the%20victim." target="_blank">suggests</a> that seeing others getting hurt is funny when the viewer doesn't feel empathy for the victim. We can't personally resonate with the guys on <i>Jackass </i>and we're not there live to witness it, so when they ride a shopping cart down a ramp and smash into the ground - and considering the fact that they're choosing to do this - we're distanced enough that laughing at them feels natural.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> As much as you may not want to laugh at others pain, it is an actual medical condition. <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/pseudobulbar-affect/symptoms-causes/syc-20353737#:~:text=Pseudobulbar%20affect%20(PBA)%20is%20a,way%20the%20brain%20controls%20emotion." target="_blank">Pseudobulbar affect (PBA)</a> is a medical condition when a person has uncontrollable and inappropriate episodes of laughing and crying. Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections (PANDAS) is another disorder that can trigger inappropriate laughter episodes. People with PBA experience normal emotions, but they can be expressed in an dramatic or inappropriate way. With PBA, laughter can turn to tears. Joker in the movie <i>Joker</i> (2019) a (Hollywood) version of PBA. PBA can be caused by head injuries, PANDAS, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's, ALS, and Alzheimer's.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> While pseudobulbar affect can come off as severe, if you laugh because someone runs into a lamp pole, don't worry, that's just a natural human effect. While seeing someone slip and fall on a patch of black ice in the moment may shock you initially, it's the the embarrassment after they get up and dust it off that gives your brain a green light. As humans, physicality is important to us, and since we're so complex, situations just aren't going to illicit the same emotional response in every similar situation. So next time your friend breaks their face, but doesn't really break their face, it's okay to laugh. Make sure they're okay of course...but bask in the moment.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">*ABC News, Medical Daily, Scientific American, New Statesman, Mayo Clinic, Vice</span></p>Jayson Blankenshiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16630207805831892920noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2042385153714179953.post-75485386989844606102020-04-27T15:35:00.000-04:002020-04-27T15:37:18.322-04:00The Real World: Tuna<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It may not come off as the sexist fish, but tuna is in high demand. According to the National Fisheries Institute, <a href="https://www.aboutseafood.com/tuna-council-3/tuna-facts/" target="_blank">canned tuna</a> is the second most popular seafood item in the United States after shrimp and represents over 1/3 of the total seafood segment. The United States, European Union, and Japan consume 88 percent of the worlds tuna. Nearly half of American households eat canned tuna at least once a month, and tuna is a big lunch food. Tuna can be used in salads, sushi, pasta, sandwiches, wraps, and so much more; it's a versatile fish, but when you buy tuna, are you truly getting it?</div>
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According to <i>Huff Post</i>, <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fake-tuna-escolar_n_597600f7e4b0e79ec19abf44" target="_blank">a study</a> by <i>Oceana</i> found that 21 percent of market and grocery tuna was mislabeled. According to <i>Oceana</i>, this is a rampant problem that plagues the seafood industry, with tuna being the second most mislabeled fish. So if it's not tuna, what is it? Likely: escolar.</div>
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Escolar is nothing like tuna. It's an inferior quality fish (and it's uglier too). In their study,<i> Oceana </i>found that 84 percent of white tuna samples that they tested were actually escolar. "White tuna" should raise a red flag, considering there is no such fish as white tuna. Albacore is the lightest tuna, while Yellowfin, Ahi, and Bluefin are the darker types. And according to <i>Oceana</i>, the biggest offenders are sushi restaurants. 74 percent of samples tested were fakers.</div>
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So what's the big deal? Is there really one? Well, if you ordered or purchased tuna, isn't that what you want to get? Not only is it misleading, but escolar is a pretty poor replacement. So poor, it has been banned in Japan since 1977 and is banned in Italy. In the European Union, escolar has to be sold with health warnings. The FDA had a bulletin in the '90s advising against selling escolar, but I presume someone lobbied that in Washington because it was taken down. While escolar does have a fine taste thanks to its fats, its fats comes from wax esters, which humans can't digest. Consuming too much escolar can cause diarrhea and...anal leakage. Its a swimming laxative.</div>
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So how can you spot escolar vs tuna? One big way is price. If the price is too good to be true, it is. When it comes to color, escolar is milky white. And if you get fish from a fish market, make sure the fishmonger can tell you where it came from. According to <i>Mother Jones</i>, escolar has gone through rebrandings, now being labeled as "white tuna", "butterfish", "hawaiian walu", and "rudderfish." <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_7tZTQT-lBpA/TEdiTmDQ7pI/AAAAAAAAAaI/2SO6J6G5M2U/s1600/escolar-large.jpg" target="_blank">This picture</a> gives a great visual. If you do get an escolar craving and have to satisfy your fix, start with portions under six ounces and go for meat closer to the tail. Freezing it and cooking it various ways does not make much a difference according to a report on escolar from Nick Ruello.</div>
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While escolar has been shown to be a faker, one thing that is not fake in tuna is mercury. Mercury is a naturally occurring element. Burning coal and erupting volcanoes emit it. Mercury in the atmosphere eventually ends up in the oceans and lakes, where it builds up in marine life. Tuna contains more mercury than oysters, salmon, scallops, and tilapia. Tuna feed more on smaller, contaminated fish. And since it can't be excreted easily, it builds in tuna tissues over time, the same way fat builds up in our bodies. Light tuna contains the lesser amounts of mercury, while bigeye tuna contains the most. Albacore and yellowfish fall in the middle with 0.350 to 0.358 ppm. High exposure to mercury can lead to brain cell death, depression, heart disease, and impaired motor skills. </div>
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So should you cut tuna out? Honestly, no. While mercury is a concern, tuna is packed with vitamins, healthy fats, and protein. Like most foods, moderating it in your diet is better. 2 to 3 times a week is all you need to get a healthy amount of omega 3's. <i>Healthline</i> <a href="https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/mercury-in-tuna#frequency" target="_blank">breaks it down</a> the best.</div>
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The mislabeling problem is not exclusive to tuna. Always research your food and make sure it comes from where you expect it, and the product is what you wanted to get. Escolar tried it, but it'll never replace tuna. And canned tuna has done a great job of avoiding the escolar problem. Your Starkist tuna salads are safe.</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">sources: National Fisheries Institute, Oceana, Huff Post, Mother Jones, Healthline</span></div>
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Jayson Blankenshiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16630207805831892920noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2042385153714179953.post-3614679524629467052019-12-12T14:36:00.000-05:002019-12-12T14:36:30.492-05:00Vanilla Impossible<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Vanilla, like it's flavor, has a rich history. Not just in food, but in medicines, perfumes, candles, industrial applications, and so on; vanilla is multi-purpose. Vanilla has become a top tier flavor that is known by all and loved by most. Vanilla is so common, it's often times mistaken as the "plain" flavor in food products (being white also doesn't help). Vanilla ice cream, cookies, yogurt, pudding, cupcakes, crackers, coffee creamer, soda, the list goes on and on. An estimated 18,000 products contain vanilla flavor, yet as widespread as that may seem, vanilla is not that easy to find, nor is it cheap to produce. According to <i>Huffpost</i>, the average price for a kilogram of vanilla is $350-500, with a peak of $600 in 2017; the price constantly fluctuating (prices being higher lately thanks to <a href="https://www.foodbusinessnews.net/articles/9039-cyclone-hits-vanilla-growing-regions-in-madagascar" target="_blank">hurricanes</a>). Things haven't changed as vanilla is still staggeringly expensive - the second most expensive spice after saffron according to <i>Huffpost</i> - even though Americans consume 638 million beans a year. The reason vanilla is so expensive is because it is hard to grow. When many people think of growing fruits, vegetables, and flavors, they think of just throwing a seed into the ground and watering it. Vanilla beans are actually pollinated by hand. Hand pollination is not an easy craft and growing operations are small. Vanilla can only grow 10 to 20 degrees away from the equator, and 80% of today's natural vanilla hails from farms in Madagascar. It takes 600 hand-pollinated vanilla blossoms to produce 1 kilogram of vanilla beans. One pound of processed vanilla takes five to seven pounds of vanilla beans.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Vanilla can be traced back to Mexico, which made its way across the world as colonization and conquests took place starting in the 1500's. In 1841, a 12 year old slave on the French island of Reunion named Edmond Albius developed the method of pollinating vanilla flowers by hand with a stick: a method that is still done today. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Because cultivating vanilla is such a <i>task</i>, and an expensive one at that, the vanilla that you know and love is highly unlikely actual vanilla, but rather vanilla flavoring made through chemistry. According to <i>The Conversation</i>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/choosy-consumers-drive-a-near-1-000-spike-in-vanilla-prices-72780" target="_blank">less than 1%</a> of vanilla flavor is from actual vanilla beans. According to <i>The Conversation</i>, <a href="http://sciencemeetsfood.org/vanilla-conquered-world/" target="_blank">vanillin</a> was developed in the 19th century, around 1858. Vanillin is the flavor compound that gives vanilla its smell that we know and love, and scientists were about to pull it out of "lignin" and "eugenol." 85% of vanilla today comes from "guaiacol", which in chemistry is also known as C6H4(OH)(OCH3). Vanilla is one of up to 250 chemical compounds that make up vanilla flavoring, according to <i>Smithsonian</i>. Water and ethanol are added to make vanilla extract. This chemistry and the fact that a little vanilla/vanilla goes a long way is why extracted vanilla is brown, but vanilla-flavored products are typically white and d on't change the color of other typical ingrediants such as milk and sugar. If your vanilla ice cream was brown, it would cost hundreds of dollars, and the overpowering flavor and taste would make you pass out, honestly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Brands today have joined the "natural foods" wave, but at a cost. Artificial ingredients and flavors in foods have been dropping this decade from <a href="https://fortune.com/2015/06/04/subway-artificial-ingredients/" target="_blank">fast food</a> to grocery brands, with consumer support - <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/colorful-artificial-trix-is-back-2017-9" target="_blank">mostly</a>. The problem with vanilla is that it's just not as easy to switch as other flavors. According to Scientific American, Nestle was the one of the first major companies to announce an artificial overhaul in 2015 when it came to flavorings. Nestle announced that they would stop putting vanillin in their chocolate to contrast with the cocoa. This put the pressure on other brands and their products. And often strawberry, chocolate, coconut, and caramel flavors rely on vanilla as well to create a holistic flavor experience. Vanilla is a big part of what makes Nestle's chocolate "Nestle." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Even if food brands decide to rely less on synthetic vanillin, that doesn't mean completely natural beans are going to benefit from the switch. According to </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Scientific American</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">, Solvay makes "natural" vanillin by fermenting yeast with ferulic acid, which comes from rice bran oil. So, still not beans. Eugenol is also used, but it's an industrial process, and it's not a cheap. Even petroleum can play a role. GMO vanillin has also been </span><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-problem-with-vanilla/" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">created</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> by Evolva, but it has not yet been embraced by the FDA, food companies, or the public.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> The good thing is that because of the chemistry, it's become hard to really <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/best-vanilla-extract-beans-imitation_l_5cd2f355e4b07ce6ef791aed" target="_blank">tell the difference</a> between actual vanilla and vanilla flavoring - many actually preferring the latter. And vanillin is safe to consume. Again, it makes up 99% of what we know as vanilla. No other spice or flavoring can lay the crazy claims that vanilla does. So next time you crack open the vanilla ice cream or get a sugar high off vanilla icing on vanilla cupcakes, remember it's actually science that's made it possible and made it cheap.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">*sources: The Conversation, Smithsonian, Science Meets Food, Fortune, Food Business News, NPR, Scientific American, Business Insider, Rodelle Kitchen, picture from Fine Cooking</span></div>
Jayson Blankenshiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16630207805831892920noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2042385153714179953.post-24313758355047173292019-10-25T16:11:00.001-04:002019-10-25T16:18:43.458-04:00The Truth of Juice <br />
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The juice is loose. I'm not talking about OJ, but rather OJ. That OJ, yes the drinking one: orange juice. Orange juice, apple juice, grape juice, cranberry juice, papaya juice - there is a huge market for fruit juice. And now you can even get fusions such as "cran-apple", "cran-grape", "crango", and if that isn't enough - "orange-apple-pineapple", all in one bottle. Fruit juices are in a class of their own when it comes to commercial drinks such as water, sports drinks, and sodas, but are fruit juices really what they appear to be in the grocery store?</div>
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How is orange juice really made? You shouldn't be surprised that the process involves more than just squeezing oranges. Most commercial orange juices are made by yes, squeezing juice out of the orange, but typically that juice is then stored and oxygen is removed. This process affects the juice flavor, which means artificial <a href="https://www.foodrenegade.com/secret-ingredient-your-orange-juice/" target="_blank">flavor packs</a> have to be added. Flavor packs are packs of chemicals that have been engineered to replicate flavor. They are not listed on the ingredients label because they are derived from orange essence. These flavor packs are what makes Minute Maid, Tropicana, Simply Orange, and so on all have unique tastes. Companies such as Calvin Klein and Dior even supply these fragrant flavor packs. Ethyl butyrate is a chemical commonly found in the flavor packs of American orange juices. That is not exactly what you'd call, "freshly squeezed."<br />
The biggest argument presented against commercial juices is the added sugar content. According to <i>Food Renegade</i>, it takes 6-8 apples to make one cup of apple juice. Drinking one cup of apple juice is much easier (and in my opinion, more delicious) than eating 6 apples in a sitting. Yet that deliciousness of the juice make it easy to over-consume and load up on sugar. <i>Healthline</i> argues that the small amount of antioxidants and vitamins in juice doesn't make up for the sugar content. A 12 ounce Coca Cola contains 40 grams of sugar, while 12 ounces of apple juice contain up to 39 grams. Another issue with fruit juices is that they lack the fiber that real fruits don't. <a href="https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/fruit-juice-is-just-as-bad-as-soda#section4" target="_blank">Liquid calories</a> are dangerous. I often catch myself consuming glasses upon glasses of juice without thinking about how much sugar that really is. Juices easily fly under the radar and the calories go unnoticed.</div>
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Many consumers have lately caught on to the potential juice fraud. Naked, a popular juice brand has been under fire this decade for its ingredients. In 2013, Pepsi had to pay $9 million in a class-action lawsuit after it was found that the "all-natural" marketed (and not really naked) juices weren't that "natural." Zinc oxide, calcium pantothenate - a product of formaldehyde, and GMOs were found in Naked juices. That lawsuit was not the first for Naked. Trader Joe's, a fan favorite, has also been involved in lawsuits for "deceptive labeling."<br />
According to <i>Today</i> and the <i>Food Institute,</i> juice consumption is going down. Even <a href="https://www.jamba.com/" target="_blank">Jamba Juice</a> has decided to ax "Juice" from their name. Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that the average American consumed 5.2 gallons of juice in 2017, the lowest number in at least 49 years. Recent consumer reports have not helped matters either. One <a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/food-safety/arsenic-and-lead-are-in-your-fruit-juice-what-you-need-to-know/" target="_blank">report</a> found levels of heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, and arsenic in fruit juices that could pose health risks. <i>Consumer Reports </i>tested 45 popular fruit juices and found "elevated levels" in almost half. This is a concern, considering 74% of parents surveyed give their children 3 and younger juice at least once a day. The report also found grape juice to have the highest average level of heavy metals, 5 of the products with elevated levels were juice boxes, organic juices did not have lower levels than conventional ones, and every product tested had measurable levels of at least one of cadmium, arsenic, lead, or mercury. Check out the entire interactive report <a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/food-safety/arsenic-and-lead-are-in-your-fruit-juice-what-you-need-to-know/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
According to <i>Today</i>, 2013 was the first time in 43 years that Americans consumed more fresh fruit than we did sweeteners. Grapefruit consumption has torpedoed from 9 pounds a year in the 1980s to 1.9 pounds in 2017. Grapefruit juice consumption has plummeted 89% from 1968 to 2017. Orange juice has not been hit only in the United States, but rather the world, <a href="http://citrusindustry.net/2018/10/03/world-orange-juice-consumption-falls-again/" target="_blank">dropping</a> 21% worldwide in 15 years - falling another 4% from 2016 to 2017. Every major juice type has been in <a href="http://www.mckeany-flavell.com/united-states-juice-consumption-11-05-18/" target="_blank">decline</a> since 2013.<br />
Does this all mean you should forever stay away from Minute Main, Tropicana, Motts, Ocean Spray, and company? Not necessarily. Even with the added chemicals, orange juice and other fruit juices are still generally safe to drink, otherwise they wouldn't be allowed to be sold. Yet if you want to be more health conscious, then you really want to watch how much of it you drink. It's ridiculously easy to load up on sugar through fruit juices, and you aren't going to get near the health benefits of eating actual fruit. There is also the concern of heavy metals in juices, but avoiding them completely is impossible as they're also found in soil and air. There are definitely more natural options for juice lovers. Smoothies are delicious and a great alternative for juice, but be careful when buying commercial smoothies as they can also be loaded with sugar. Making your own juice at home can be easy, fun, and will most assuredly be healthier.<br />
Fruit juices may be going though a tough time, but apple juice will always be #1 with me. Drink your juice, but drink in moderation, watch sugar content, buy from trusted brands, and always consider alternatives.</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">*Food Renegade, Huffington Post, Washingtonian, Today, Healthline, Consumer Reports, Citrus Industry, McKeany Flavell</span></div>
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Jayson Blankenshiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16630207805831892920noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2042385153714179953.post-30155578026833240092019-09-30T15:35:00.000-04:002019-09-30T16:01:47.649-04:00Ketching Up<a href="https://cdn-image.realsimple.com/sites/default/files/styles/rs_medium_image/public/ketchup-pour.jpg?itok=PKAtgKb4" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="776" height="200" src="https://cdn-image.realsimple.com/sites/default/files/styles/rs_medium_image/public/ketchup-pour.jpg?itok=PKAtgKb4" width="193" /></a><br />
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Ketchup is an American icon. Ketchup is so versatile, being put on and/or dipped into with fries, hamburgers, chicken tenders, hot dogs, meatloaf, onion rings, baked beans and <a href="https://www.maxim.com/entertainment/100-foods-eat-ketchup" target="_blank">93 other things</a>. Ketchup is a potato chip flavor now. And these days you can find sriracha ketchup, curry ketchup, bacon ketchup, mango ketchup, Whataburger's delicious spicy ketchup, and if you had the privilege of being a 90's kid, back in the day you could find ketchup in blue, green, and purple. Ketchup is great at making food taste better. Up until recently, I hated tomatoes, but ketchup has always been my #1 condiment. According to <i>Mobile Cuisine</i>, 97% of Americans have ketchup in their kitchen, and June 5th is National Ketchup Day. Heinz alone sells over 650 million bottles a year. While ketchup is considered a pinnacle of American diets, it actually is not American, nor did ketchup originally come from tomatoes.</div>
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As early as 300 BC, texts documented using soybeans, fish entrails, and meat to create an early ketchup-ish <a href="https://www.history.com/news/ketchup-surprising-ancient-history" target="_blank">concoction</a>. According to <i>National Geographic</i>, the word "ketchup" comes from the Chinese word "ke-tsiap", which is the name of a sauce that was made from - fermented fish organs, coming from Vietnam in the 1600's. Yes, ketchup did not come from America or tomatoes, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/food/the-plate/2014/04/21/how-was-ketchup-invented/#close" target="_blank">it came from</a> jarred Southeast Asian fish bladder. The British, of course, encountered this fish sauce while in Southeast Asia and began to try to replicate it in the 17th and 18th centuries. Those early British ketchups used everything but tomatoes; mushrooms, anchovies, oysters, and even walnuts. The British had already been introduced to tomatoes thanks to South America, but many in England saw them as <a href="https://www.history.com/news/ketchup-surprising-ancient-history" target="_blank">poisonous</a>. Around 1801 is when the first tomato ketchup recipe was <a href="https://www.thespruceeats.com/ketchup-catsup-history-1807618" target="_blank">published</a>. This recipe contained brandy and spices, but still no sugar or vinegar. Ketchup evolved over the next few decades with Jonas Yerkes being the first to begin selling bottles of tomato ketchup in 1837.</div>
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With ketchup connoisseurs not knowing how to properly store ketchup early on, plus public health concerns over additives led to the ketchup movement almost failing. One boujee, but right cookbook author in 1866 called commercial ketchup "filthy, decomposed, and putrid." Because of all the additives and chemicals, ketchup was even lethal. The tomato growing season was short, meaning ketchup could only be made for a few months of the year, but because of supply and demand, ketchup needed to be able to be preserved year long. In an era before regulation, this often resulted in commercial ketchup being spoiled with bacteria, mold, and spores. And in an era before modern medicine, this often meant a lot of sick people as a result. "Death by ketchup" doesn't sound as great as you would think it would sound. </div>
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In came Henry J Heinz in 1876 who figured that using fresh ripe tomatoes, natural preservatives, and more vinegar was key; no more chemicals and tighter preservation methods. By the 1900's, commercial ketchup began to take over America. 1906 also saw the passing of the Pure Food and Drug Act, which in turn made ketchup less deadly. Before then, ketchup was found more in cookbooks than commercially. </div>
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Not only has ketchup served as America's condiment, at one point it was seen as medicine. In 1834, a physician from Ohio named Dr. John Cook Bennett declared that tomatoes could be used to treat indigestion and diarrhea. Dr. Bennett published tomato ketchup recipes, which were turned into pills.</div>
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Ketchup has had a colorful history and it goes to show how food can amazingly evolve over time. Early ketchup was salty and bitter, but now it's sweet and savory. From fish stomachs left in the sun to tomatoes and vinegar, ketchup has came a long way to accompanying our chicken nuggets.</div>
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Also a side, the "57 varieties" in Heinz means nothing. The "5" was Heinz' lucky number and the "7" was his wife's. When Heinz decided to put that on bottles, his company was already producing over 60 products anyway. Also, if you happen to be in the Collinsville, Illinois area anytime soon, be sure to pull over and get an Instagram selfie with the <a href="https://www.catsupbottle.com/" target="_blank">World's Largest Catsup (Ketchup) Bottle</a>.</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">*Maxim, National Geographic, History, Mobile Cuisine, Smithsonian, The Spruce Eats, Fast Company</span>Jayson Blankenshiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16630207805831892920noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2042385153714179953.post-22126402676966146862019-07-29T19:05:00.002-04:002019-07-29T19:05:38.232-04:00Clear Purple Sky <br />
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<a href="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/10508/production/_104642866_d6bc46c1-f7a6-4b7e-968a-e4007759dfe5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="112" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/10508/production/_104642866_d6bc46c1-f7a6-4b7e-968a-e4007759dfe5.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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Ever taken a look at the sky during the day? Notice how it's blue? Good, so you're not crazy, but you are seeing things. While we have always perceived the daytime sky as "blue", according to scientists, the sky is actually in fact "purple." It's the ingenuity of the human eye and brain that makes us think and see otherwise.</div>
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As you already know, we receive our light from the Sun. While light appears "white", it is actually made up of a spectrum of colors. When that light is bent, those colors can be seen. This is why our sky appears blue and not red, yellow, or green. The light from the Sun is bent by molecules in our atmosphere, which causes the light to scatter. This is called Rayleigh scattering and it is more prominent with the blue/violet end of thespectrum. The fact that we even have a daytime and a colored sky is because Earth has an atmosphere. Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, is completely dark because there is no atmosphere to bend and scatter light.v Red light contains longer wavelengths while blue and violet light are shorter. Shorter wavelengths are scattered more, so during the day, the blue wins. Sunsets and sunrises appear red because the Sun is magnified being so close to the horizon, which means the waves of red light win. This <a href="https://img.purch.com/h/1400/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5saXZlc2NpZW5jZS5jb20vaW1hZ2VzL2kvMDAwLzAxNC8xNDYvb3JpZ2luYWwvc2t5X2JsdWVfZ3JhcGhpY18wMy5qcGc/MTI5NzIxMzc5Nw==">picture</a> from <i>Live Science</i> simply explains it.</div>
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So since the shorter the wavelength means the more scattered the light, wouldn't purple win out over blue? Correct, and is does; the sky is purple, but the reason we don't see it that way is simply the structure of our eyes. According to <i>Forbes </i>and the Rochester Institute of Technology, our eyes contain rods and cones which allow us to process light and color. The cones in our eyes are most sensitive to short, medium, and long wavelengths, which is the same as saying blue, green, and red. </div>
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Our blue-sensitive cones would be stimulated the most by blue light, but the green and red cones experience a little stimulation as well. If the sky truly was blue, then to our eyes it would appear as greenish-blue. While violet is the most scattered color in the sky, our eyes are <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/briankoberlein/2017/01/11/earths-skies-are-violet-we-just-see-them-as-blue/#202190cc735f">not as sensitive</a> to violet as they are blue. Yet our red cones are actually more sensitive to violent than blue, so if red cones dominated our eyes, violet with a tinge of red is what we'd. When all 3 types of colors are combined: the reddish tinge of violent, the bluish green tinge, and blue and violent, it all equals a pale blue sky that we have come to know and love. This all also means that animals perceive colors differently as well since the types of rods and cones vary among animals. </div>
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Don't freak out now and think that you have been lied to all your life. The sky may in reality be purple, but it's likely not as deep of a purple that you would imagine. Most ultraviolet light is blocked by the atmosphere, and the Sun lets off less violet light than the other colors. Still, it's a fascinating phenomenon, and it's also not unique Earth. </div>
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*picture from BBC, links from Forbes, Rochester Institute of Technology, Live Science, HyperPhysicsJayson Blankenshiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16630207805831892920noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2042385153714179953.post-42969665251150609402018-05-29T20:52:00.000-04:002018-05-30T15:27:16.207-04:00Blue's Clue<br />
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<a href="http://images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/39400000/Blue-Jay-blue-jays-39433261-1600-1200.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/39400000/Blue-Jay-blue-jays-39433261-1600-1200.jpg" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" width="320" /></a>It's cool to be blue. According to <i>Digital Trends</i>, Instagram posts that contain majority blue objects or backgrounds get 24 percent more likes than any other color. Blue is a fascinating color that has played a role in science, religion, fashion, art, history, music, politics, culture, marketing, and even pants. Blue is seen as the color of comfort, harmony, and confidence. Blue is also seen as the color of sadness, masculinity, intelligence, concentration , mourning, and coldness. Blue is the world's <a href="https://today.yougov.com/topics/international/articles-reports/2015/05/12/why-blue-worlds-favorite-color" target="_blank">favorite</a> color (and mine), winning 23 to 33 percent of the vote. There's many reasons why blue is a miraculous color that's not the same as the others.</div>
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Color comes from the electromagnetic spectrum and from natural resources. Visible light, which contains the rainbow, is the only wavelength that humans can see. While the spectrum is how we <i>see</i> blue, pigments and dyes from flowers, rocks, and the roster of the periodic table is how we make it. Blue also gets free advertising from the sky and oceans. In reality, the sky is purple, but because of "Rayleigh scattering" and our brains, it appears blue to our eyes.</div>
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According to <i>AC Lens</i>, an estimated 8 percent of the world's population has blue eyes. Blue eyes are frequently found in people with northern European ancestry. Many scientists believe that blue eyes formed from a genetic mutation that affected the "<a href="https://www.livescience.com/9578-common-ancestor-blue-eyes.html" target="_blank">OCA2</a>" gene, which is involved in melanin production and eye, skin, and hair pigmentation. Blue eyes also aren't really blue - they appear blue because of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyndall_effect" target="_blank">Tyndall effect</a>, which is similar to Rayleigh scattering. The iris is the colored part of the eye, which is made up of two layers: the stroma and the epithelium. The epithelium contains black-brown pigment while the stroma is colorless collagen. People with blue eyes lack melanin in their stroma, which means that light is not absorbed in the iris. Instead, light is scattered, and like the sky, it's blue wavelengths that win. So there you have it, blue eyes aren't technically blue at all, who knew? "Atmospheric perspective" is another similar concept which explains why mountains in the distance appear blue. </div>
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Blue animals are rare. How many true blue animals can you name? There's blue jays, dart frogs, butterflies, crabs, peacocks, jellyfish, and Dory, but then it starts to get hard. According to <i>Mother Nature Network</i>, while plants can produce blue pigments due to anthocyanins, most animals cannot make blue pigment. Animals that do appear blue, such as the blue jay, is typically the result of structural effects such as reflection and iridescence (why bubbles appear multiple colors). The <i>Bangor Daily News</i> <a href="https://bangordailynews.com/2014/01/10/outdoors/blue-jays-blueness-is-a-trick-of-light-not-a-pigment/" target="_blank">agrees</a>: cardinals are red in the sense that their feathers really contain red pigment - carotenoids (which is also why carrots are orange). Yet blue jays are blue because of structures in their feathers that filters certain light, not because their feathers have blue pigment.</div>
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Blue pigment is also a hard color to find in food and coloring. Strawberries and cherries give off red. Peaches, bananas, lemons, and pineapples are yellow. Leafy greens, limes, and broccoli squeeze out green. Blueberries? While the berry may be blue, the juice is not. 23 years after introducing blue M&M's, Mars Foods is still trying to find a suitable natural blue dye for them. There is a search for one for Trix cereal too. In 2009, a grad student at Oregon State University accidentally <a href="https://www.npr.org/2016/07/16/485696248/a-chemist-accidentally-creates-a-new-blue-then-what" target="_blank">discovered</a> a new kind of blue pigment in the lab after mixing and heating chemicals, the first discovery in 200 years. Crayola has now <a href="http://www.wbur.org/npr/526808319/crayola-gives-the-people-what-they-want-a-new-blue-crayon" target="_blank">introduced</a> that new blue to their famous 24 pack, kicking out dandelion yellow.</div>
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One crazy thing that makes blue unique is that it is believed that it didn't "exist" to most people until modern times. As stated, blue is rarely found in nature, and even the sky isn't really "blue." And if you have no idea of what "blue" is, then is it really blue? Matter of fact, the mention of blue in language hasn't been found in texts older than <a href="http://www.iflscience.com/brain/when-did-humans-start-see-color-blue/" target="_blank">4,500</a> years old. In "The Odyssey", Homer describes the ocean (?) as "wine-dark." In 1858, William Gladstone analyzed "Odyssey" and found oddities such as honey being described as "green" and sheep as "violet." The color black was mentioned near 200 times and white 100 times. Red was mentioned fewer than 15 and yellow and green fewer than 10. Yet, no mention of blue. The word "blue" didn't really exist, which isn't that crazy considering how rare blue is in nature.</div>
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A philologist (studies languages) named Lazarus Geiger studied other cultural texts, such as Chinese, Arabic, Icelandic, and Jewish, and blue as we know it was not mentioned. Other than the Egyptians who had blue dye, blue was the last color to start to appear to be mentioned in cultures.</div>
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According to <i>Business Insider</i>, a study was done with the Himba tribe in Namibia who have no word for blue and don't distinguish between green and blue. They were show 12 squares: one blue and eleven green. None of the members of the tribe could immediately pick out the blue square, yet when shown 12 green squares, they could pick out the one that was subtly different than the rest. To put it another way, while we can differentiate between "true green" and "light green", the Himba tribe and many of our ancestors probably registered blue as just another shade of green instead of it's own color since they didn't know the concept of blue. Welsh, Japanese, and Chinese cultures also had words for the color "grue", but not blue itself. To everyone, it was just another shade of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-way-you-see-colour-depends-on-what-language-you-speak-94833" target="_blank">green</a>. </div>
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Another <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11759-russian-speakers-get-the-blues#.VPZtubOUdV8" target="_blank">study</a> done by MIT in 2007 showed that native Russian speakers who don't have a word for blue, but yet do for "light blue" and "dark blue" can pick out shades of blue much faster than English speakers. So basically, even if your eyes can see millions of colors, the language you speak can determine how you recognize color.</div>
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Blue may be just another wave on the length, but it's a special one, and not just because I'm bias. Don't take blue for granted. Those "blue eyes" you use to see "blue jays" zooming across that "blue" sky right before the "blue" moon could just as easy be one of the other ugly, not-blue colors.</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">*AC Lens, Live Science, NPR, WBUR, Science Alert, Wikipedia, You Gov, Mother Nature Network, Bangor Daily News, Business Insider, IFL Science, New Scientist, The Conversation, New York Times, Digital Trends</span>Jayson Blankenshiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16630207805831892920noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2042385153714179953.post-86593707796540035182018-05-03T00:00:00.000-04:002018-05-03T00:48:00.448-04:00World War Bacon <br />
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<a href="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/s3.ksfmfm.radio.com/s3fs-public/styles/delta__775x515/public/dreamstime_s_68868170.jpg?itok=-N3L1Grt&c=ae51a5233b79aeb94fb90afb0f51dc6a" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/s3.ksfmfm.radio.com/s3fs-public/styles/delta__775x515/public/dreamstime_s_68868170.jpg?itok=-N3L1Grt&c=ae51a5233b79aeb94fb90afb0f51dc6a" data-original-height="515" data-original-width="775" height="212" width="320" /></a></div>
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Bacon has been involved in a heavily contentious war for ages, and not just between carnivores and herbivores. The health community has been divided on whether bacon is a good, healthy food, inside and outside of breakfast. While the consensus used to lean towards bad, it seems the good side has had the stronger pull lately.</div>
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Everyone is aware that bacon contains fat, but as we've learned, not all fats are created equal. The three main types of fat are saturated fat, unsaturated fat, and trans fat. Trans fat is man made fat and is considered the big no-no by everyone. Unsaturated fat can be found in nuts, seeds, and fish, and is universally agreed on being the fat that your body always needs. Saturated fat, typically found in meat, used to be considered the devil, but now it is becoming more agreed upon that natural saturated fat shouldn't be actively avoided, though you shouldn't consume it as heavily as you would unsaturated fat. As it turns out, bacon is full of unsaturated and saturated fat, but contains no trans fats. This acceptance of saturated fat has led to an acceptance of bacon. According to <i>Healthline</i>, 50% of the fat in bacon is monounsaturated or "good" fat, which is also found in olive oil. 10% is polyunsaturated, which is also considered healthy, and the remaining 40% is saturated fat. The <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18726564" target="_blank">cholesterol</a> in bacon is also not seen as negatively today as it used to be.<br />
Nitrites and nitrates have been a concern, but according to <i>Healthline</i>, bacon contains less <a href="https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/is-bacon-bad-or-good#section5" target="_blank">nitrosamine</a>, a known carcinogen, than it did in the past. Vitamin C being added to bacon has also reduced the presence of nitrosamine, though it can still be dangerous in high quantities.</div>
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Another issue typically raised with bacon is the sodium. Because most commercial bacon is cured to preserve the meat, a lot of salt is used. Yet just like fat, the evils of sodium aren't seen as strongly today as in the past. You shouldn't eat a bowl of salt for breakfast, but completely steering clear of it is not good for you either. Sodium helps the brain, muscles, heart, and skin, and it helps your body remove carbon dioxide. That said, too much sodium can cause high blood pressure, water retention, bone loss, and more. <a href="http://www.myrecipes.com/extracrispy/whats-the-difference-between-cured-and-uncured-bacon" target="_blank">Uncured</a> bacon is out there if you want to avoid the sodium as much as possible, though taste may vary.</div>
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Typically not talked about by the anti-bacon coalition, bacon contains <a href="https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/is-bacon-bad-or-good#section3" target="_blank">vitamins</a> B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B12, phosphorous, and selenium. Iron, magnesium, zinc, and potassium can also be found in bacon. All are nutrients that your body needs. According to <i>Bacon is Magic </i>and <i>Bacon Today</i>, <a href="https://www.baconismagic.ca/guest-posts/bacon-is-healthy/" target="_blank">bacon</a> also improves your mood, protects your heart, fuels your brain, and can even power your <a href="https://bacontoday.com/top-10-reasons-bacon-is-actually-healthy-for-you/" target="_blank">car</a>. <i>HealthWire</i> <a href="https://www.myhealthwire.com/news/diet-nutrition/634" target="_blank">claims</a> that bacon can stop food cravings, provide you a low carb meal, and raise good cholesterol.<br />
While things are looking up for bacon, there are still some studies that say not so fast. One <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/16/bacon-male-fertility-semen-quality-sperm-count_n_4102091.html" target="_blank">study </a>claims bacon and other processed meats could be linked to a lower sperm count. Another study claims that factory farmed pigs are more likely to get you sick than free range, which is an issue considering many consumers don't take the time to compare brands. And a <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/07/processed-meat-cancer-heart-disease-death-risk_n_2829092.html" target="_blank">study</a> from the University of Zurich believes bacon could still contribute to heart disease and cancer.<br />
Bacon also needs to be cooked to perfection, aka done. Overcooking bacon can form polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heterocyclic amines or PAH's, which can increase cancer risk. Undercooking the bacon can expose you to pathogens, viruses, and foodborne illness. If you cook the meat fully, then you have nothing to worry about.<br />
If pork isn't your thing, but bacon still is, luckily bacon doesn't only have to come from pork. There are many alternatives to pork bacon, made from both meat and non-meat sources. <b>Turkey bacon</b> contains less fat than pork bacon, nor does it shrink. Conversely it doesn't have the same crunch or "bacony" taste. <b>Lamb bacon</b> comes from the belly like pork bacon, but the bacon strips are narrow and don't get too crispy. <b>Duck bacon</b> is very salty, but it's full of flavor, but it can also be tough as a carpet if it's overcooked. <b>Pancetta</b> is cured in salt, but it isn't smoked.<b> Shiitake bacon</b> and <b>tempeh bacon</b> are BINO's (bacon in name only). Made for vegetarians and vegans, shiitake bacon is made from shiitake mushrooms and roasted or fried. Tempeh bacon comes in strips, but it's not strips of meat. Tempeh is made from soybeans and the bacon is marinated in savory and sweet sauce. While you won't get that authentic bacon taste from these non-meats, I guess it's better than no bacon at all.<br />
While bacon is better than it was once believed to be, it's still a processed meat, so you still shouldn't order a big rig full of it to your house. Yet in moderation, bacon is a healthy treat and is much healthier than it looks when it's sizzling in a pool of fat. If you want to make brinner, go right ahead. If you want to journey to an all-bacon <a href="https://ny.eater.com/2017/11/17/16667038/bar-bacon-restaurant-east-village" target="_blank">restaurant</a>, sure, do it. Just...don't order bacon as the entree <i>and</i> the side.</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">*My Recipes, HealthWire, Healthline, Bacon Today, Bacon is Magic, Good Housekeeping, Prevention, Huffington Post, Eater, NCBI</span><br />
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<br />Jayson Blankenshiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16630207805831892920noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2042385153714179953.post-65618032903378864182018-03-20T21:28:00.003-04:002018-03-20T21:28:30.386-04:00Happy Feet <br />
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Picture this: you're sitting somewhere, waiting for a train, a plane, a class to start, or the doctor to come poking into the waiting room. You put in some headphones to pass the time and play your favorite Spotify playlist. About 15 seconds go by and you notice you're already tapping your feet, humming loudly, and nodding your head. You don't want to draw attention so you stop. 20 seconds later you're back at it again. Why do we do this? Are Metro's beats really that good?</div>
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Turns out that when you listen to music, quite a few things happen. Your heart rate increases, you feel desirable emotions, and <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/3022942/the-surprising-science-behind-what-music-does-to-our-brains" target="_blank">multiple</a> areas of the brain are stimulated. One <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/your-musical-self/201101/why-music-listening-makes-us-feel-good" target="_blank">study</a> done at McGill University showed that listening to music can release dopamine, the chemical that is responsible for making you feel good. Dancing is believed to have evolved from rhythmic movement, such as tapping feet.</div>
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According to a study posted in <i>Science Daily,</i> moving to music is a part of a human cognition called "motor theory of perception." According to the theory, when we listen to music, we have a habit of actively simulating the body movements that we believe went into making that sound. <a href="https://www.skyword.com/contentstandard/creativity/tap-feet-music-science-behind-sound-content-creation/" target="_blank">Researchers</a> at the University of Oslo also determined that people make sense of what they hear by mentally simulating it to make sense of it.</div>
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There's nothing wrong with being an incessant foot tapper. According to one study, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41897-2005Jan27.html" target="_blank">fidgeting</a> helps burn calories, up to 350 a day, and we hate those, right?</div>
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So tapping feet is cool and all, but what's up with humming? Well it's believed that humming has evolved over time and used to be the "contact call" of humans, which is a way animals communicate. <a href="http://www.josephjordania.com/files/57-Times-to-fight-and-times-to-relax-Kadmos.pdf" target="_blank">Humming</a> is also believed to be a type of relaxer for humans, since sitting in complete silence can be uncomfortable and seen as a sign of danger. Like breathing and putting our fingers in our mouths, humming seems to be something we do unconsciously without much thought.<br />
An earworm, or "stuck song syndrome" is the habit of humming or moving to a song that you're no longer listening too. You can easily "catch" an earworm: after listening to your new favorite song, seeing the same annoying commercial, or watching the intro to your favorite 90s sitcom. Even seeing something that reminds you of the sound. Who hasn't hummed the Disney theme after popping in the <i>Lion King </i>VHS tape?<br />
No one knows what causes them, though it's believed that 98% of people experience them. One study found that lyrical songs may account for 73.7% of earworms, while instrumental music may only account for 7.7%. A piano piece, or Bruno Mars? Hmm. It's also <a href="https://www.quora.com/Why-do-we-unconsciously-hum-the-last-song-we-heard" target="_blank">believed</a> that musicians and people with OCD suffer the most earworms. Earworms typically don't last more than 30 seconds and they're very forgettable. Humming is also believed to be contagious, just like yawning, and is also believed to have <a href="http://thehealthylivinglounge.com/2009/08/06/12-instant-benefits-of-humming-daily/" target="_blank">benefits</a> on the body and mind.<br />
Tapping your feet and nodding your head is natural. Music influences us and moving to it is what we're supposed to do. If tapping your feet or nodding your head does annoy you though, well hey it's at least better than tinnitus.</div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">*Fast Company, Washington Post, Science Daily, Psychology Today, Skyword, Scientific American, The Straight Dope, Quora, Rejuvenation Lounge, Joseph Jordania "Time to Fight and Times to Relax: Singing and Humming at the Beginnings of Human Evolutionary History."</span></div>
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<br />Jayson Blankenshiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16630207805831892920noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2042385153714179953.post-511617127178752712018-03-15T17:10:00.001-04:002020-01-04T13:57:22.141-05:00Arguing over Peanuts<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<a href="https://wonderopolis.org/_img?img=/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/jar-of-peanut-butter_shutterstock_27540928.jpg&transform=resizeCrop,720,450" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="720" height="200" src="https://wonderopolis.org/_img?img=/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/jar-of-peanut-butter_shutterstock_27540928.jpg&transform=resizeCrop,720,450" width="320" /></a></div>
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Peanut butter is a world delicacy. According to the <i>American Association of Agronomy</i>, we spend over $800 million a year on it. The average American child has 1,500 PB&J's before high school graduation. January 24 is National Peanut Butter Day in the US. We take peanut butter so seriously that according to <i>Atlas Obscura</i>, Stuart Parnell, the former CEO of the Peanut Corporation of America, was sentenced to 28 years in prison after knowingly shipping salmonella-tainted peanut butter in 2009. According to <i>Ad Age</i>, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are the <a href="http://adage.com/article/news/snickers-surging-top-global-candy-race/237349/" target="_blank">most popular</a> chocolate candy in America. Snickers, the world's #1 brand, contains peanuts as a main ingredient. <i>FiveThirtyEight</i> also ranked Reese's as the <a href="http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-ultimate-halloween-candy-power-ranking/" target="_blank">top</a> Halloween candy. And I mean, come on, it makes sense. Chocolate and peanut butter is the world's best match up. Name a better one, I'll wait. You can even get peanut butter colored <a href="https://www.homedepot.com/p/BEHR-Premium-Plus-8-oz-270F-4-Peanut-Butter-Interior-Exterior-Paint-Sample-270F-4PP/202179561" target="_blank">paint</a>, and peanut butter interior in your car.</div>
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As it turns out, for peanut butter to be considered "peanut butter" in the United States, it has to contain at least 90% peanuts. While that seems like common sense, it didn't always used to be that way.</div>
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In 1959, the <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/why-midcentury-lawyers-spent-12-years-arguing-about-peanut-butter" target="_blank">FDA revealed</a> that items labeled as "peanut butter" only contained 75% or so peanuts. Consumers weren't happy about it and started referring to peanut butter as "peanut flavored face cream." Manufacturers were altering recipes to cut costs, such as hydrogenated oils being used instead of peanut oil and using alternative sugars. For the next 12 years, the FDA and the peanut butter industry fought back and forth over how much peanut is enough peanut.</div>
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According to <i>Atlas Obscura</i>, the FDA wanted peanut butter to be 95% peanuts. Jif, Peter Pan, Skippy, and the rest of the brands said “no.” The FDA then said 90%, the PB industry said 87%. In 1964, both sides finally met to try to compromise in what was called the "Peanut Butter Hearings." A few years of peanut butter corporate legal jargon and 8,000 transcript pages later, the hearings ended in favor of the FDA. Regardless, peanut butter moves slow as it took 5 years until the 90% peanut rule became standard in 1971.</div>
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<a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2017/10/27/business/uncertain-hour/meet-ruth-desmond-concerned-citizen-who-changed-food-regulation" target="_blank">Ruth Desmond</a> was fundamental in the FDA landing the win. She was instrumental in getting changes implemented after the 1959 <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/95dec/lead/hencran.htm" target="_blank">Cranberry Crisis</a> that included cranberry sauce contaminated with weed killer. She eventually became known as "Peanut Butter Grandma" for her persistent fight.</div>
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The FDA is now more into fighting for accurate labeling than fighting for accurate food. Regardless, what exactly is in our food has become a hot topic as consumers have became more educated about food health.</div>
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From lies and misconceptions about the sugar content in cereal, to natural food being all-natural, to <a href="https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/top-11-biggest-lies-of-the-food-industry#section5" target="_blank">gluten-free</a> always being a healthier alternative, the list goes on with instances of consumers being misled. While peanut butter being 90% peanut vs 87% peanut might seem like a silly difference to argue over, it's the principle about not letting consumers be purposefully misled, and in that case, the FDA made the right push, no matter how silly "Peanut Butter Hearings" sounds.</div>
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If you're not a big peanut butter person, but still want to experience the peanut butter life, you can pick up some peanut spread instead, which is less than 90% peanuts.</div>
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And a peanut butter international fun fact: in the Netherlands, peanut butter cannot be called "peanut butter", because by law, butter has to be actual butter. Instead, it's "peanut cheese." Not kidding.</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">*sources: Atlas Obscura, photo from Wonderopolis, American Association of Agronomy, Business Insider, FiveThirtyEight, Healthline, The Atlantic Online, Marketplace</span>.</div>
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Jayson Blankenshiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16630207805831892920noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2042385153714179953.post-88344885333542351932017-10-31T16:45:00.000-04:002017-10-31T17:21:56.031-04:00M&M-igma<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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M&M's are America's <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/business/americas-favorite-chocolate-brand-snickers-678964" target="_blank">second</a> favorite chocolate. With milk chocolate, peanut, almond, and other delicious flavors, M&M's are a true assortment of delicious. Did you know though that M&M's have had a pretty colorful history? And much of it is due to science.</div>
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M&M's were introduced in 1941 by Mars and became a hit with Army soldiers. After World War II, they were here to stay. The original colors of M&M's were brown, yellow, green, red, and purple. In 1949, purple M&M's vanished and were replaced by tan. Red M&M's disappeared in 1976 and were replaced by orange. The popular red didn't return until 1986. And in 1995, tan M&M's bowed goodbye as they were replaced by blue.</div>
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The 1970's saw a surge of new public concerns over personal, common, and global health. The Environmental Protection Agency was formed in December 1970, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission formed in 1972. The Marine Mammal Protection Act ('72), Endangered Species Act ('73), Safe Water Drinking Act ('74), Clean Water Act ('77), and the Wilderness Act ('78) were all passed. Aerosols and lead-based paint were banned in 1978. Anti-smoking campaigns were full steam ahead. Red is a popular color and is commonly seen in food, so what was the big deal over red M&M's? Turns out it was all due to chemistry. In 1976, the FDA pulled red dye no.2 over carcinogen concerns, and Mars <a href="https://www.livescience.com/33017-why-were-red-mms-discontinued-for-a-decade.html" target="_blank">pulled</a> red M&M's in response. </div>
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The dye was linked to cancer in a 1971 Russian study, and then after the FDA did their own study, decided to ban the dye in 1976. Turns out though, the red dye that was so controversial, actually wasn't used in M&M's, but to make consumers feel better and to quell any confusion, Mars pulled the red candies anyway. Orange replaced red, and then ten years later after the red dye panic had died down, Mars brought red back, but decided to keep orange along.</div>
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There's a saying that "today's kids will never understand..." and it's true. As a 90's baby, I shake my head at all of the great things in my youth that today's youth will never get to experience, such as Windows XP, flip phones, <a href="http://mentalfloss.com/article/55371/rise-and-fall-heinzs-green-ketchup" target="_blank">green and blue</a> ketchup, Game Boy's and Nintendo 64's, Disney movies on VHS tapes from Blockbuster, Lite Brites, and actually good cartoons on TV - and not watching them on 46'' flat screens either. Well that's how 70's and 80's kids feel about tan M&M's.</div>
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Tan M&M's were dropped by Mars in 1995 after a contest was held to bring in a new color, which blue won by a large margin. Yet unlike orange and red, tan M&M's didn't get to stick around when blue arrived. It seemed redundant to have brown, tan, and orange all in the same bag. Plus blue is such a better color anyway. Well why keep tan all those decades, then just <a href="https://www.bustle.com/articles/98194-whatever-happened-to-tan-mms-a-brief-history-of-the-most-basic-mm-color-ever" target="_blank">dump</a> it? Well that's the world of marketing. Sometimes brands need a refresher, so contests are held to bring a new face. Here's an M&M <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2VSNQCKlrc" target="_blank">commercial</a> from 1995 where the end began.</div>
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Organic chemistry is a real thing in the world of food. As <a href="http://www.nj.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2016/02/mars_to_remove_artificial_colors_from_mms.html" target="_blank">Mars</a> and other companies move to replace "artificial" colors with "natural" colors, more suitable ingredients have to be found. As it turns out, blue is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/10/09/magazine/blue-food-coloring-mars-company.html" target="_blank">not an easy color</a> to find in the wild. A blueberry is actually more red than blue, for instance. Even General Mills ran into the same problem, as they have not yet been able to find suitable blues and greens for Trix, and now have been forced to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/09/23/consumers-loved-all-natural-until-trix-cereal-lost-its-neon-bright-glow/?utm_term=.afd8e4429219" target="_blank">bring them back</a>. </div>
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Mars has looked into using spirulina algae to create natural blue, but they have hit roadblocks, from poor taste, poor coloring, and not enough spirulina. Other ingredients being considered to help make natural blue are red cabbage, berries, flowers, bacteria, fungi, sea sponges, and aged red wine. While blue dye has been a debacle and debate, some scientists think it should be given even more attention. In 2009, University of Rochester researchers claimed that blue dye in M&M's could possibly help <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/07/28/spinal.injury.blue.dye/" target="_blank">cure</a> spinal injuries, after running trials in rats. The only side effect was well, it temporarily turned the rats <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fki-LTswICw" target="_blank">blue</a>.</div>
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Not only does changing colors take a visual adjustment, as with Trix, but getting consumers on board with new taste can be a challenge - even if there wasn't actually a change in taste. It has been shown that colors in food can make us think we taste things that aren't really there. One 1980 study showed that adding red coloring could make food taste 10 percent sweeter. In the same study, a drink was given red dye and some subjects claimed to taste cherry. They were given the <i>same</i> drink with green coloring, and there were claims of a lemon-lime taste. Our brains have evolved to appreciate colors, so even the slightest change to our blue M&M's could create displeasure among consumers.</div>
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Making colorful candies takes more than just painting some rainbows on them. A lot of chemistry goes into M&M's and other candies, and there is a psychological science as well. "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory-specific_satiety" target="_blank">Sensory-specific satiety</a>" is the scientific phenomenon that the more variety in flavors or colors in food, the more you're going to eat and the more appealing it looks. This is possibly a reason Mars decided to give tan the boot in favor a more eye-popping and visually pleasing blue, pink, or purple.</div>
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While there may be a shortage of blue dye, and a complete shortage of tan M&M's, you won't ever have to worry about M&M's running out. The New Jersey factory makes 2 billion M&M's every 8 hours, or 69,000 every second, enough to fill every seat in the New England Patriot's <a href="http://www.patriots.com/sites/patriots.com/files/styles/borealis_article_image_respondlarge/public/field/image/20170330-gs-header.jpg?itok=FNO-nTfc" target="_blank">football stadium</a>. No wonder Tom Brady won't retire.</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">*NBC News, Live Science, Mental Floss, M&M commercials Youtube, Bustle, Washington Post, CNN, NJ.com, New England Patriots, Movieclips Youtube, New York Times</span></div>
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Jayson Blankenshiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16630207805831892920noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2042385153714179953.post-33763209258683033912017-10-27T11:14:00.001-04:002019-05-18T09:52:37.686-04:00Lucky Strikes<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/bb/7f/ff/bb7fff7eed76f38c5b33a099265606bd--struck-by-lightning-lightning-bolt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="427" height="320" src="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/bb/7f/ff/bb7fff7eed76f38c5b33a099265606bd--struck-by-lightning-lightning-bolt.jpg" width="169" /></a> Recently it was revealed by the World Meteorological Association that the <a href="http://www.livescience.com/56134-world-record-longest-lightning-bolt.html" target="_blank">longest</a> recorded lightning bolt to strike the world was half a mile short of 200 miles (322 km) long, occurring in Oklahoma. The June 20, 2007 bolt was so long, it spanned nearly three-fourths of Oklahoma - the 20th largest state by area. The organization also announced that the longest living strike ever recorded occurred in France on August 30, 2012, at 7.74 seconds long.</div>
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Lightning is one of the most fascinating phenomenon in the Solar System, but what is it? It's an electrostatic discharge. The same stuff that zaps you when the carpet and your socks get too comfortable.<br />
First off, you need warm and cold air, which help form clouds. Water droplets, ice crystals, and graupel (soft hail) collide in the cloud, creating positively charged particles at the top of the cloud and negatively charge particles at the bottom. An electric current called a stepped leader finds a path through the particles and the <a href="http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/lightning2.html" target="_blank">process</a> of a lightning strike begins. The average lightning flash is 0.2 seconds and is made up of several shorter strokes, which last less than a millisecond.<br />
70% of all lightning occurs in the tropics, and cloud-to-ground lighting, the most dramatic, is only about 25% of the lightning that occurs on Earth. </div>
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Lightning strikes the United States an average of 25 million times a year and the Democratic Republic of the Congo experiences the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distribution_of_lightning" target="_blank">most</a> strikes on Earth. Even the Empire State Building averages 23 strikes a year. An average of 49 people are killed in the United States every year by lightning. While the odds of getting struck by lightning in your lifetime is only 1 in 13,500 according to NOAA, you still shouldn't press your luck. Most people that are struck survive, but typically suffer permanent, life-long damage. Lightning may be cool to look at, but that's about all you want to do with it.<br />
Since lightning moves at the speed of light, which is too fast for our eyes and brain to process, the strikes that we see are actually the reflections of the initial stroke. We typically perceive lightning as blue-white, but in reality lightning can be blue, red, yellow, purple, green, etc. The <a href="http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2008/02/04/bolts-from-the-blue-the-electric-colors-of-lightning" target="_blank">color</a> of lightning depends on what is in the air, such as water vapor, hail, dust, pollution, etc. Latitude, humidity, winds, elevation, and seasons can also effect lightning. Lightning strikes are also around 5 times hotter than the surface of the Sun at around 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit.<br />
You actually have a <a href="http://wncn.com/2016/01/12/odds-of-winning-powerball-jackpot-less-than-being-hit-by-lightning-twice/" target="_blank">better chance</a> of getting struck by lightning twice than winning the Powerball, and whoever told you that lightning can't strike twice lied to you. Not only <i>can</i> lightning strike twice - it usually <i>does</i>. Have you ever heard of Roy Sullivan? Probably not, but he holds the record for "the most amount of times to be struck by lighting" with <a href="http://mentalfloss.com/article/66863/meet-man-struck-lightning-7-times" target="_blank">seven</a>. Yes, seven times over 35 years. Even his wife was struck once in his presence. Roy worked at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, so working around so many trees, which are lightning magnets (my neighbor's tree actually exploded from a strike), it makes sense. Still, the odds of getting struck seven times as he claimed? 4.15 in 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.</div>
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As stated earlier, lighting is not exclusive to Earth. Lightning has been observed on <a href="https://www.space.com/7102-lightning-detected-mars.html" target="_blank">Mars</a>, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn. Lightning does not exist on Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, because of its lack of a significant atmosphere. Scientists think they've even <a href="https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/news/archive/2016/title,485472,en.php" target="_blank">recorded</a> lightning on exoplanet HAT-P-11b. In 2009, a lightning storm was <a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/09/090915-saturn-lightning-storms.html" target="_blank">observed</a> on Saturn that had been going on for 9 months. And while it's very rare for lightning to strike the north and south poles of Earth, lightning has been clearly <a href="https://www.space.com/4447-jupiter-caught-rare-calm-period.html" target="_blank">observed</a> on Jupiter's. Lightning in the gas giants are believed to be hundreds to thousands of times more powerful than Earth's.<br />
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Ever heard of sprites? No not the soda, but the lightning? Sprites are electrical discharges that happen high above thunderstorms. <a href="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/HOLeZZVKpLU/maxresdefault.jpg" target="_blank">Sprites</a> typically appear reddish-orange, not lemon-lime, and occur in clusters 30-60 miles (50-90 km) above Earth. Elves and blue jets can't be left out either. All <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprite_(lightning)#/media/File:Upperatmoslight1.jpg" target="_blank">three</a> are different forms of upper-atmospheric lighting. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper-atmospheric_lightning#/media/File:BlueJet.jpg" target="_blank">Blue jets</a> are shaped like a cone and project from the top of cumulonimbus clouds 25-30 miles (40-50 km) above the Earth. Blue jets weren't recorded until 1989 and they are considered rare as less than 100 were seen between then and 2007. Elves are typically dim and flat and last for a millisecond. They occur in the ionosphere 62 miles (100 km) above the Earth. So are auroras technically lightning? Actually no, auroras are caused by solar wind in the magnetosphere, but I agree they look just as cool. </div>
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Heat lightning is actual lighting, the only difference is it is too far away for you to hear. You've most likely seen heat lightning before, even if you don't recall. And while we typically associate lightning with thunderstorms, it can actually form from volcanic <a href="https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1004/icevolcano_fulle.jpg" target="_blank">eruptions</a> and snow as well.</div>
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So remember, you may enjoy looking at lightning, but you don't want to go farther that. There are many myths out there about lightning, so study up and stay safe thanks to <a href="http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/myths.shtml" target="_blank">the NWS</a>, <a href="https://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/storms/10-lightning-myths.htm" target="_blank">How Stuff Works</a>, and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/debunked-5-lightning-myths-could-kill-you-n135971" target="_blank">NBC News</a>.</div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">*Live Science, WNCN, Mental Floss, Space, Science News For Students, National Geographic, OSU Volcano World, Encyclopedia of atmospheric science, Wikipedia, Museum Victoria, NWS, NBC News, Hyperphysics, How Stuff Works, University of St. Andrews, Astrology Today, Mental Floss, Colour Lovers, CBS North Carolina, NASA, picture from Weather Underground Pinterest</span>Jayson Blankenshiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16630207805831892920noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2042385153714179953.post-42421155095116608092017-05-15T14:21:00.000-04:002017-10-27T11:19:04.417-04:00Volcanoes 101<div style="text-align: justify;">
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Nothing on Earth has more awesome might than a volcano. Eruptive, hot, and violent, volcanoes have the ability and the power to shape, mold, create, and destroy our landscape, whether directly or indirectly. Volcanoes are typically mountains, hills, or bowls, but always include ruptures in Earth's crust that allows magma from the mantle to get through.</div>
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Ever wonder why there are no volcanoes hanging around New York or London? It's all because of plate tectonics. Volcanoes are located on major diverging and converging fault lines, or at hot spots. Neither are anywhere near New York or London, or the entire eastern United States for that matter. They can be found in western Europe, but not near the UK.</div>
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One way to think of volcanoes, although not a pretty way, is as a zit. The Earth's crust is like your skin, and a volcano is a zit. The same way you squeeze your zit to pop it, pressure from the heat squeezes magma under the crust until it becomes too much, and the volcano erupts. I know that wasn't a pretty analogy, but it works.<br />
We tend to think of volcanoes as cone-shaped mountains that spew lava, but there are actually a few different types. <i>Cinder cone</i> volcanoes are the most common type and are the smallest. <i>Stratovolcanoes</i> look like cones, but are much larger, rising up to 8,000 feet. Stratovolcanoes typically have the most violent eruptions. <i>Shield</i> volcanoes are gently sloping and are typically several miles in diameter. <i>Calderas</i> are bowl-shaped depressions. They do not look like your average volcano and typically form from previous catastrophic eruptions.</div>
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Over 70 percent of the Earth is covered in ocean, yet we tend to forget what's under it. Volcanoes are not restricted to land; there are undersea volcanoes as well. Those undersea volcanoes are how Hawaii and many other sea islands were and are formed. Just last year a <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-31848255" target="_blank">new island</a> was formed in the South Pacific thanks to the eruption on an undersea volcano called Hunga Tonga.<br />
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Volcanic eruptions have shaped our planet over time. Mount Vesuvius is a famous volcano in Italy that has erupted at least 30 times. Vesuvius buried the famous ancient city of Pompeii in 79 AD. Krakatoa erupted in 1883 in Indonesia with the power of 13,000 atomic bombs. Krakatoa's explosion is considered the loudest sound in history and was heard over 3,000 miles away on the African coast. Krakatoa's explosion was so powerful, it was suicide. The original volcano ended up sliding into the ocean. Mauna Loa, the worlds largest volcano, is a synonym for Hawaii. Mauna Loa is located in the middle of Hawaii's Big Island <span style="font-family: inherit;">and is 13,700 feet high and last erupted in 1984. The city of Hilo, Hawaii is partly built on 19th century lava flows from Mauna Loa. <span style="text-align: start;">Eyjafjallajokull is a volcano in Iceland that erupted in 2010 and cost the airline industry over $1 billion in interruptions. Mount Pelee in the Caribbean erupted in 1902 and miraculously killed 29,933 of the island's 29,937 residents.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-align: start;"> Mount Saint Helens is arguably the most famous volcano in the United States. Mount St Helens' last eruption was in 1980, so many Generation Xers and Baby Boomers likely remember it well. Geologists were aware that Mount Saint Helens would likely soon erupt, but they were not aware that it would be caused by a 5.1 magnitude earthquake, which created a landslide on the volcano, allowing built up pressure to escape and the volcano to erupt. </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Mount Saint Helens eruption was so spectacular that the northern face of the mountain was </span><a href="https://userscontent2.emaze.com/images/8cb1a8e8-f5e7-41ad-967d-aff637319fd4/ed595f0b6bf25a9933d6224e328bb33c.jpg" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">blown off</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">. Mount Saint Helens' elevation dropped from 9,677 feet to 8,363 feet. Mount Saint Helens also produced the worlds largest landslide.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"> Other famous volcanoes include Mount Fuji, Mount Rainier, Mauna Kea, Mount Tambora, Cotopaxi, and Yellowstone.</span></div>
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Yellowstone does not look like your average volcano. It is actually a caldera shaped supervolcano. Legend has it that a Yellowstone eruption could wipe out all life on Earth. It turns out that that is false, but that doesn't mean that an eruption wouldn't come with consequences. A Yellowstone eruption would be catastrophic for the world's health, agriculture, economy, and climate: Earth's average temperature could drop for a decade. Luckily, this is something we likely will not see in our lifetimes.</div>
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And volcanoes are not restricted to Earth either. The largest volcano in the Solar System can actually be found on Mars: <a href="http://www.space.com/20133-olympus-mons-giant-mountain-of-mars.html" target="_blank">Olympus Mons</a>. Olympus Mars is an estimated 72,000 feet high, or 13.6 miles, and is around the same size as Arizona.</div>
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Volcanoes are interesting things. They can create lightning, trigger tsunamis, mudslides, and even earthquakes, and they have the ability to change our climate. Some volcanoes erupt every millions of years, while others have been continuously erupting. Every day there are an estimated 20 volcanoes erupting at once, with the majority happening under the ocean.</div>
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If you're ever in Iceland and have $400 to spare, you can even join a tour and <a href="https://www.extremeiceland.is/en/activity-tours-iceland/caving-iceland/inside-the-volcano" target="_blank">go inside</a> a volcano. Now that's what you call hands on.</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">*TIME, Active Wild, Live Science, BBC News, Do Something, Universe Today, Wikipedia, Space, Extreme Iceland</span></div>
Jayson Blankenshiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16630207805831892920noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2042385153714179953.post-47692873080124197132016-12-16T15:58:00.005-05:002016-12-16T16:04:05.891-05:00Tears of the Sun<div style="text-align: justify;">
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The 20th century was arguably our most important. There were many new discoveries, innovations, and events such as World War II, that forever altered the course of history. When people think of the 20th century's mightiest inventions, people tend to think of color TV, the internet, commercial aviation, the Space Shuttle, traffic lights, or even the microwave. One invention that tends to get overlooked: the nuclear bomb. As sinister as they are, the amount of energy they could produce is baffling, and that's an understatement.</div>
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Everyone is aware of the two bombs that were dropped on Japan in 1945, but many people don't realize that actually over 2,000 bombs were dropped or detonated in history. Just like cars, jet engines, and new Iphones, bombs had to be tested and tested and tested. While no nation used the bomb for war after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, tests still went on for another 50+ years. The US and the Soviet Union came very close to nuclear war a few times. So while the Japan bombings led to no more being dropped on populations at the time, countries, mainly the USA and USSR, the two superpowers, still had them in stock, ready to let loose if need be. That's why it was called the Cold War after all.</div>
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The <a href="http://www.atomicheritage.org/history/science-behind-atom-bomb" target="_blank">science</a> of the bomb is what is truly remarkable. The nuclear bomb was invented before we had computers, or frisbees. Nuclear bombs worked through nuclear fission or fusion. With fission (atomic bomb), the nucleus of an atom split into two. Radioactive isotopes of uranium or plutonium (they just sound radioactive, don't they?) were used. Fusion (nuclear bomb) was the other method, where two atoms were brought together. Hydrogen or helium isotopes were used. A carefully timed chain reaction set off the fission or fusion process, which became incredibly hot - million of degrees actually, the same as the inside of the Sun - which in turn, well, blew up the bomb. Nuclear fusion is the same process that occurs in the Sun, or any star.</div>
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The detonation of a nuclear bomb would create a fireball and a shock wave, which would travel hundreds of miles per hour. And then there was the problem with nuclear fallout, which would be carried with the wind. Bombs had different "yields" and interior different designs. Some worked via implosion, while others worked like a gun ('Merica!, right?).</div>
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So why a mushroom cloud? Well there's actually science behind it, called the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh%E2%80%93Taylor_instability" target="_blank">Rayleigh-Taylor instability</a>, which is when is when two layers of different densities and/or matter react. This process creates the mushroom shape. When a nuclear bomb detonates, the hot air from the fireball and the cold air from the atmosphere meet. The heat from the explosion is so hot, it expands the surrounding air and it rises rapidly, which creates a vacuum. The cold air sinks, but with the vacuum, pushes the hot air inwards and the "stalk" is created. Eventually the surrounding atmosphere pushes the heat from the top sideways and back down. It cools as it sinks, but is sucked back into the hot center and rises and heats up again. This forms the "cap" shape. The rings that form are just condensation from the low pressure and the humid air. Mushroom clouds can form from volcanoes as well. As a side note: mushroom are gross, how do people eat them?</div>
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Some of the most famous detonations in history were <a href="http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/b/b4/FO4_Intro_slide_5.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20151110175308" target="_blank">Hiroshima</a> and <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e0/Nagasakibomb.jpg/220px-Nagasakibomb.jpg" target="_blank">Nagasak</a>i in 1945 and the only bombs used in war, the <a href="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/photo/2015/07/70-years-since-trinity-when-we-test/n22_57-089/main_900.jpg?1437073926" target="_blank">Trinity</a> test in 1945, which was the first ever, <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Crossroads_baker_explosion.jpg" target="_blank">Operation Crossroads</a> in 1946, which was the first underwater explosion, <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/%22Ivy_Mike%22_atmospheric_nuclear_test_-_November_1952_-_Flickr_-_The_Official_CTBTO_Photostream.jpg/250px-%22Ivy_Mike%22_atmospheric_nuclear_test_-_November_1952_-_Flickr_-_The_Official_CTBTO_Photostream.jpg" target="_blank">Ivy Mike</a> in 1952, which was the first fusion bomb test, <a href="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/T2I66dHbSRA/maxresdefault.jpg" target="_blank">Castle Bravo</a> in 1954, which was the largest test ever by the US at 15 megatons, and the <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c9/Tsar_photo11.jpg" target="_blank">Tsar Bomba</a> test in 1961, which was by far, the largest ever nuclear test in the world. The oceans, remote islands, deserts (including the states of Nevada and New Mexico), and mountain ranges were all used as test sites.</div>
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The most powerful bomb ever dropped was the 27-foot long <a href="http://gizmodo.com/5977824/the-biggest-bomb-in-the-history-of-the-world" target="_blank">Tsar Bomba</a>. It was detonated in October 1961 by the Soviet Union in remote Siberia. Tsar Bomba was so powerful, it had to be scaled down by 50%, and was <i>still</i> the equivalent of all the explosives used in World War II...multiplied by <i>ten</i>! It was 57 megatons, measured as a moderate earthquake on the Richter scale, and cracked windows 560 miles (900 kilometers) away. The flash from the explosion could be seen from 600 miles away, the distance from New York City to Detroit. That's a 10 hour car ride, man.</div>
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Tsar Bomba was so powerful that the crew that dropped it was nearly killed, even though the plane was 28 miles away when Bomba detonated. Matter of fact, Tsar Bomba needed a parachute, otherwise the crew surely would have perished.</div>
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No one knew exactly what Tsar Bomba was going to do, but when it finally did it, it did it in a way that hasn't been rivaled. The shock wave was so strong, it traveled across the Earth not one, but <i>three</i> times. Total destruction would have occurred within a 15 mile radius and 3rd degree burns would have occurred 64 miles away. This is a picture of the <span style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c9/Tsar_photo11.jpg" target="_blank">mushroom cloud</a>. That picture was taken 100 miles away and the cloud is 35 miles high. This <a href="https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/18cenqfab2yucjpg.jpg" target="_blank">illustration</a> best shows just how big the Tsar Bomba was. If you want something a little more sinister, then <a href="http://io9.gizmodo.com/5903879/this-insanely-sinister-infographic-illustrates-the-power-of-the-worlds-strongest-nuke" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;"> </span><span style="text-align: center;">One misconception about nuclear bombs is that they detonate after crashing with the ground, but most, if not all land-based bombs, were detonated in the sky. Tsar Bomba was detonated 2 miles above the ground and the Hiroshima bomb was 2,000 feet in the sky. </span>In order for a nuclear bomb to detonate, specific steps had to occur inside the bomb to create a chain reaction. Bombs also had safety mechanisms and most were detonated remotely or by barometric sensors, not by crashing into the ground. Some bombs did detonate if they crashed, while others did not. </div>
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In 1961, a B52 bomber disintegrated shortly after take off in <a href="http://restorationsystems.com/uncategorized/whoops-atomic-bomb-dropped-in-goldsboro-nc-swamp-neuse-huc-02/" target="_blank">Goldsboro</a>, North Carolina. The crew had two bombs and had to jettison both of them. One of the bombs floated gently into the swamp thanks to a parachute. The other bomb didn't. It landed in the swamp and was never fully found. An easement was placed around the swamp and the military said "leave it be." </div>
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To this day, the bomb is just lounging in the swamp in eastern North Carolina, likely encasted in mud and icky swamp stuff. Can it still detonate? Well, it can as it's still live, but it won't. The bomb has six safety mechanisms, and only five were activated during the fall. Had that six mechanism been activated, well, the Outer Banks definitely wouldn't be a hot vacation spot (and I likely wouldn't have been born as Goldsboro is where my dad was born, ironically). That's how close we played with fire, literally, as that wasn't the only accident. There are other "broken arrows", or accidental lost bombs in Greenland, Savannah, Georgia, the Atlantic, Pacific, and so on. The US DOD recognizes 32.</div>
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<span style="text-align: center;"> So why? Why did we obsess over nuclear weapons, especially bombs, so much? Well the threat of war was the biggest reason, but we also wanted to test our scientific capabilities and show off our power to other countries. While the USA and USSR were bitter competitors during the space race and race for communism vs democracy, the nuclear race was no different. The USA could make very precise missiles, but the USSR could not. So they made devices like the Tsar Bomba to flex their muscles. The Tsar was four times bigger than anything America has ever detonated, and the USSR carried out 8 of the 12 most powerful tests. Luckily, we never destroyed ourselves, and treaties and legislation were signed on nuclear weapons. There's even a <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Flag_of_IAEA.svg" target="_blank">flag</a>. While the destructive power of nuclear bombs are no laughing matter, they are true testimates to what man is capable of, and they helped show a contrasting side to how science can be used.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;"> So, I know you're dying to know - what would happen if you dropped a nuclear bomb into a volcano? Well, <a href="http://www.iflscience.com/environment/what-would-happen-if-you-dropped-bomb-volcano/" target="_blank">nothing</a>, actually. I know, I know, what a rip off.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;"> Bonus fact: nuclear weapons release X-rays, and one cameraman once used his hands to shield his eyes after a detonation, and he could actually see his bones through his eyelids. I know, I know, what a rip off.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">*Sources: Campaign for Nuclear Disarment, Restoration Systems, Quora, Atomic Heritage Foundation, SciShow, Gizmodo, Popular Mechanics, IFL Science, Restricted Data</span></span></div>
Jayson Blankenshiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16630207805831892920noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2042385153714179953.post-57907690519804551452016-10-03T23:34:00.000-04:002019-05-18T08:37:37.897-04:00This is Not a Circle<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a0/Circle_-_black_simple.svg/220px-Circle_-_black_simple.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a0/Circle_-_black_simple.svg/220px-Circle_-_black_simple.svg.png" /></a></div>
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That shape to the left? That is not a circle. I promise this is not a trick or a test, it really isn't a circle. So what is it then? A circleloid? No, it's actually a "megagon." No, that is not the name of a transformer, it is a polygon. A megagon is a polygon with one million sides. That is so many sides that it appears as a circle, but if you were to zoom far enough, you would eventually be able to see the edges. It would have to be a pretty intense zoom though because if you draw a megagon the size of Earth, it would still be pretty indistinguishable from a circle. Megagons are so large, it would take you over 11 and 1/2 <i>days</i> to draw one if you spent a second on each edge. Nobody has got time for that.</div>
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Circles themselves are pretty strange. They are a lot more complex than they look. And they're not traditional. Even though we pal them along with squares, quadrilaterals, triangles, pentagons, octagons,etc., circles are technically not polygons. Unlike every polygon in the geometric world, circles do not have a straight side. You could zoom into a circle close enough that the line would eventually look flat, but that's just your perspective. If you move far enough to the left or to the right, eventually you will notice curvature, even if it's microscopic. With squares and other polygons, you could zoom in on a flat side, and it would stay straight until you got to the edge. Then you'd just meet another straight line.</div>
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A square has 4 sides, a triangle 3. A pentagon has 5 sides and a decagon has 10. And of course a megagon has 1,000,000. How many sides does a circle have? Well that depends, but most mathematicians agree that it's either zero or infinity. Yep, a circle has zero sides. In order for a shape to have sides, it has to have <a href="https://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/images/vertex.gif" target="_blank">vertices</a>, which are the points (or corners) where the edges meet. A circle does not have that luxury. Yet a circle can also have infinite sides. See, infinity is not a number, so infinity and zero cannot conflict (in this case). Think of it this way: you know how sometimes you get bored waiting in the elevator and you roll along the wall? Image rolling along the edge of a triangle. Eventually you're going to encounter and roll over a pretty shape edge. Ow. Now picture a decagon with ten sides. As you roll, it'll feel like you're going over ten quirky speed bumps. A <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/51/Regular_polygon_100.svg/220px-Regular_polygon_100.svg.png" target="_blank">hectogon</a> has 100 sides and looks like a circle to the naked, unaided eye, but if you were to roll along a hectogon, it would be a very bumpy experience. And if you think that is bumpy, roll along the megagon. In fairness, there'd be so many bumps that you probably wouldn't notice, but nevertheless they're there. A circle's edge is infinite because there are no bumps. It would be a very smooth journey for you along Circle Ave the entire way around.</div>
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You can also think about it this way: a line segment is a line with two endpoints. A square is made of four segments. A triangle is made of three. An octagon with eight. With a circle, you can start the line anywhere and end it anywhere. With polygons, the segments will always be on the vertices were the edges meet. Since a circle has no vertices, you can make the starting and endpoints anywhere. You can change it and change it and change it, which makes it - infinite.</div>
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It's amazing something as simple looking as circle could be so complex, but it is. Kind of like cats.</div>
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Jayson Blankenshiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16630207805831892920noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2042385153714179953.post-14348972292097459842016-09-20T13:42:00.000-04:002016-09-20T13:51:31.483-04:00Dirty Money<br />
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<a href="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/dam/assets/160510150624-printing-money-100-dollar-bills-780x439.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/dam/assets/160510150624-printing-money-100-dollar-bills-780x439.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a> If you found a hamburger (still in the wrapper) on the floor of a public restroom, would you pick it up and eat it? I'm guessing your response would be a resounding no. Maybe even with a "hell" in front of it. What if you found a shoe? Nope. What about a cute gerbil? Nuh uh. What about a $100 bill? $100 just sitting there in all that public restroom glory: would you pick it up? Of course you would.<br />
We love holding money. It's valuable to us. Water, the Sun, air, food, gravity, and even honey bees may technically be more valuable to us, but money lets us buy things. According to the Federal Reserve, there are currently over 38 billion banknotes in circulation, including over 11 billion $1 bills. Considering there is only 323 million people in the United States, that leaves us outnumbered by green Washingtons, Lincolns, and Benjamins (which it's all about, right?). That means there is a lot of money for us to touch, hold, trade, count, and crumple. And since the purpose of money is to exchange it, it is always exchanging hands. The average $1 bill lasts 21 months, and the average currency in the world changes hands 55 times a year, which equals a little over once a week, according to <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2tKg3E53DM" target="_blank">Vsauce</a></i>.<br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"> In 2014, New York University studied $1 bills and found 3,000 different types of bacteria. Most of the bacteria is harmless</span><span style="text-align: justify;">, but 3,000 still sounds a <i>bit</i> excessive. While not all of the bacteria could be identified since some of them haven't been cataloged yet - researchers did find bacteria that lends a hand in everything from acne to ulcers to staph to pneumonia. Some estimates place the amount of cash containing dangerous bacteria at 7 percent. </span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"> In 2002, 94 percent of tested bills in a study contained traces of fecal matter. And it is believed that paper money is more germy than a toilet seat. According to a study in <i>Applied and Environmental Microbiology</i>, the flu virus can survive on bills from the length of 1 hour to 2 days. E-coli, anthrax, body fluids, and even horse, dog, and white rhino DNA have been found on banknotes as well. I'm not a zoologist, but I'm pretty sure America is not the best place to find a white rhino. Wright Patterson Medical Center <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=117433&page=1" target="_blank">analyzed</a> 68 bills from a grocery store and only four were relatively clean. </span></div>
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Other studies have concluded that 92 percent of banknotes contain traces of illegal drugs, most notably, cocaine. Does that mean that every cocaine dusted bill has been used for that purpose? No. A few contaminated bills put in normal circulation can affect others; essentially a "rotten apple spoils the bunch" situation. Banknotes contain small microfibers, and microscopic bits of cocaine can get wedged into these microfibers. It's pretty much impossible to remove such small traces from the dollar, but it is still enough to be detected by drug dogs. And not just banknotes: coins can carry the same germs.</div>
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So now you know just how dirty money is. So what should we do? Should we ban all paper currency and go completely electronic? That has been proposed, but there's plenty of reasons why it won't happen. Paper money is still super convenient, it adds cultural identity, and you don't have to worry about it being hacked.<br />
So what else could we do? Wash or disinfect our money? I mean, I guess you <i>could</i> wipe down your money with a wet-nap, but one: that's time consuming, two: it would look <i>ridiculous</i>, and three: that money is only temporary. Eventually you're going to give it up and get a fresh set of dollars in return.<br />
A more likely solution that has been proposed is to switch from paper money to plastic. I don't mean plastic like credit cards, but rather what is called "polymer banknotes." Australia switched in 1996, and Canada, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Romania, Vietnam, and Brunei have followed suit. The UK is next. Most studies have shown polymer-based money is more hygienic, but other studies claim that while the plastic money contains less bacteria, it can survive longer. There is a <a href="http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ie403307y" target="_blank">new fluid</a> being tested that can supposedly clean banknotes by superheating them while not damaging security features such as holograms.<br />
Yet the simplest solution is to just keep your hands clean. After you make it rain two dollars for a medium fry, sanitize or wash your hands. Don't put money in your mouth, otherwise you might as well lick the floor of a public city bus. Don't put money on your face either as bacteria can get into your pores, mouth, and eyes. Plus money is the last thing you need to use as a makeshift face wipe. Oh, and please stop licking your fingers while you count your money. Who even started that trend? What are their medical bills? This all sounds obvious, but unfortunately it's not to many people. </div>
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Don't freak out over germs and go all <a href="https://venmo.com/about/product/" target="_blank">Venmo</a> now. You've been using cash your entire life and yet you're fine. Everything is dirty: doorknobs, steering wheels, keyboards, remotes, countertops, air vents, and our <a href="http://info.debgroup.com/blog/bid/290652/Your-Mobile-Phone-Is-Dirtier-Than-You-Think" target="_blank">cell phones,</a> yet we still touch them (and then our faces) repeatedly. It's really not the biggest deal what's on the money in your pocket; if you just keep it off of your face and keep your hands properly clean, you'll be okay.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">*Wall Street Journal, Time, Vsauce, Debgroup, ACS Publications, Medical Daily, ABC News, Mass Appeal.</span></div>
Jayson Blankenshiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16630207805831892920noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2042385153714179953.post-47599673367935955352016-09-13T11:54:00.002-04:002016-09-13T12:12:53.003-04:00What Color Are Black Holes?<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Black holes - the only object that can stop light. <span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The same light that travels 186,000 miles per </span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">second</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Black holes are so unique, the laws of physics don’t apply inside of them, and once you fall in, you can't climb back out. As the saying goes, “what happens in the black hole, stays in the black hole.” </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">When it comes to black holes we tend to think of large, black circles that road trip through the universe and suck up everything, but there is much more to it than that. There are many misconceptions about black holes, from their size, formation, behavior, and color. Are they really <i>black</i>? I am going to pick those misconceptions apart, and deliver the truth about the mighty black hole.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="line-height: 1.2; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The primary force of black holes is gravity. We all know what gravity is. If an object has mass, it experiences gravity. Supermassive black holes have the strongest gravitational pull in the universe. So much matter is packed and squeezed into a black hole, it’s unfathomable. While we can’t fathom the density, we can analogize it. According to NASA, a star ten times more massive than our already massive Sun squeezed into a sphere the diameter of New York City would create a gravitational field so strong, it would qualify as a black hole. That is </span><span style="font-style: italic; line-height: 1.2; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a lot</span><span style="line-height: 1.2; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of matter in a ridiculously small space. The Sun is already 864,000 miles across. Now imagine that times 10, packed into an area of just 468 square miles. When it comes to black holes, density rules.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.2; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Black holes began forming after the birth of the universe. These black holes are thought to reside in the center of galaxies, including our own Milky Way. Yes, we may orbit one massive black hole. Today, black holes are formed from supernovas. Large stars collapse under their own gravity when they die, causing a supernova. The material from the supernova becomes tightly trapped, creating a strong gravitation pull, and there you have it, a black hole is born. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 1.2; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="line-height: 1.2; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">According to Dr. Chris Fragile, an old professor of mine, black holes range from as small as five times the mass of our Sun to over billions of times the mass of our Sun. Black holes range from the size of a mid-sized city to as big as our solar system. That is a quite a big range. </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.2; text-indent: 36pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thanks to science fiction, it is believed that if you put a black hole near an object, that object is a goner. Black holes have even been referred to as “cosmic vacuum cleaners." This isn't true. It all goes back to mass. A</span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.2; text-indent: 36pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> black holes gravitational pull is equal to its mass. If the Sun were replaced by a black hole and its mass was equal to the mass of the Sun, Earth would orbit as normal. If the Moon were replaced by a black hole of equal mass, tides would see the same effect as they do now. This is why our galaxy hasn’t been sucked into the black hole at the center. Since that black hole has kept the same mass since the beginning, the orbits of the stars have not and will not change, keeping the residents of the Milky Way safely positioned.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.2; text-indent: 36pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> While black holes can and do swallow everything, you would have to be really close to the event horizon to feel the gravitational effect. The event horizon is the “black” part of the black hole. It is still not certain what exactly happens inside of the event horizon, but one thing that is certain is that nothing can escape it. The flat, swirling disk that is typically seen in pictures is not the actual “black hole” itself, but the accretion disk. This disk is debris, gas, light, and other space particles that are swirled inwards towards the event horizon, but have not fallen in. Because of the intense speed, the particles become incredibly hot and the accretion disk glows and emits radiation. Think of the event horizon as Saturn, and the accretion disk as Saturn’s rings. The pull of the black hole is the same concept as a tornado. If you’re standing a mile away from a tornado, it’s not really a big deal, but if you’re standing next to a tornado, well good luck. The edge of the tornado is the event horizon and the debris flying around is the accretion disk. So black holes are not “cosmic vacuum cleaners.” While they can pick apart objects of the universe, it all depends on the mass of the black hole and how close you foolishly are to it. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.2; text-indent: 36pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> While the popular term “black hole” has been in use since 1967, it is not the most accurate. Black holes are technically not black. That’s right, we’ve all seen pictures of black holes and there’s always a black center, but they technically are not black. You see, it all goes back to <a href="http://saturnscience.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-lighter-side.html" target="_blank">light</a>. The radiation that stars and galaxies give off comprises the electromagnetic spectrum. The visible light wavelengths are the only wavelengths that human eyes can see. Since black holes suck in light, there is no visible light, making them invisible.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.2; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> So if they are invisible, how do we know they are there? Well, scientists have special equipment and telescopes that allow them to see all the wavelengths </span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.2; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">around</span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.2; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the black hole. The accretion disk and the cosmic object that is being consumed emit large amounts of radiation and light. Scientists can study the matter and motion of the objects and determine if a black hole is likely present. Scientists believe that a supermassive black hole is at the center of our galaxy because it has been discovered that inner galaxy stars orbit a lot faster than outer galaxy stars, meaning there is something at the center with a huge gravitational pull, likely a black hole. And as long as we've been studying black holes, scientists <i>may </i>have just witnessed a star collapsing into one for the <a href="http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/space/stories/astronomers-witness-star-collapsing-black-hole-first-time" target="_blank">first time</a> in real time.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.2; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> There are plenty of theories on what would happen if you fall into a black hole, but nothing is universally accepted. One theory is</span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.2; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that black holes could be used to time travel. The 2014 sci-fi film <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm8p5rlrSkY" target="_blank">Interstellar</a> </i>played on this. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.2; text-indent: 36pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">The classic theory of “spaghettification” states that your body would experience tidal forces and be stretched thin like spaghetti and snap apart, and this process would keep repeating until there is nothing left. And of course, you die. Newer theories suggest you would instantly catch on fire, and die. Other theories suggest a mix of both. According to Amanda Gefter of BBC, reality would split in two. You would fall unharmed in one reality and be incinerated instantly in the other, and you would fall forever because of the <a href="http://www.physicsoftheuniverse.com/topics_blackholes_singularities.html" target="_blank">singularity</a>. So while there is not a current agreement on the fate of black hole victims, it is pretty safe to assume it's not an experience you’ll be able to tell your friends about afterwards. There's even now a theory that black holes don't have an "inside", so you <a href="http://www.npr.org/2013/12/27/256897343/stretch-or-splat-how-a-black-hole-kills-you-matters-a-lot" target="_blank">can't fall in</a> (but you would still die).</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.2; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> So can a black hole travel to our orbit and suck up Earth? The answer is no. Black holes cannot randomly appear, and there are none near our solar system.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.2; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> You will likely never be able to take a tour bus to the nearest black hole and snap dazzling pictures for your Instagram account, but at least you now understand the truths. You'll never have to be afraid of waking up one morning and seeing a black hole in the sky ready to ruin your day. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 1.2; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">*Chris Fragile, Amanda Gefter, NASA, BBC, Mother Nature Network, NPR, Physics of the Universe</span><br />
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Jayson Blankenshiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16630207805831892920noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2042385153714179953.post-35191937144535922852016-09-12T17:48:00.001-04:002016-09-13T10:35:27.495-04:00Deepwater Surprises<div style="text-align: justify;">
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70 percent of the Earth is covered by oceans: the Atlantic, Indian, Pacific, Arctic, and depending on who you ask - Southern. These oceans dominate the Earth in area not just above the surface, but also in the volume below. Since most people spend 100 percent of their lives above ground, we sometimes tend to forget everything that is below the wavy surface. 44 percent of the world's population lives within 93 miles (150 kilometers) of the coast, so we're always peering at the sea, but we tend to forget what's all under it. Less than <i>five</i> percent of Earth's oceans have been explored after all.</div>
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The Texas-sized <a href="http://www.australia.com/content/australia/en_us/places/great-barrier-reef/jcr:content/hero/image.adapt.1663.medium.jpg" target="_blank">Great Barrier Reef</a> is the largest living structure on Earth. It's so large, it can be seen from the Moon. The Great Barrier Reef is so diverse, it contains 134 species of sharks alone. Although the most famous reef, the Great Barrier Reef is <a href="http://www.untamedscience.com/science/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/coralreef_map_large.jpg" target="_blank">not the only one</a>. While reefs account for less than 0.1 percent of the ocean surface, they're home to 25 percent of ocean species. Most reefs are located less than 164 feet (50 meters) below the surface.</div>
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Everyone knows the world's tallest mountain: Mount Everest. Standing at 29,029 feet (8,848 meters), Mount Everest goes as high as commercial jets do. Mount Everest is so tall that the oxygen at the top is 33 percent what it is at sea level. Yet did you know that Mount Everest really <i>isn't</i> the tallest mountain in the world? That honor truly belongs to <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Mauna_Kea_from_the_ocean.jpg" target="_blank">Muana Kea</a> in Hawaii. Looking at Muana Kea, it stands at a mighty 13,803 feet tall. So how is this "dormant" volcano taller than Mount Everest? Well it's because most of Muana Kea is <a href="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/556df2d369beddab61b23cfd-1100-413/7summits_v2.jpg" target="_blank">hidden</a> under the Pacific Ocean. Mount Everest is based on land, but Muana Kea is based on the sea floor. When taking this into account, the total height of Muana Kea is around 33,500 feet (10,210 meters), which would make it nearly a mile higher than Mount Everest. </div>
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Muana Kea is so high, 7 <a href="https://images.arcadis.com/media/4/E/7/%7B4E79D79B-9944-458F-8BCB-FF6D7C5FA566%7DBurjKhalifa-Image-2.jpg?width=1920&height=0&mode=crop&anchor=top" target="_blank">Burj Khalifas</a> (world's tallest building) or 16 <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9a/Empirestatebuildingfrombrooklynnewyork.jpg/220px-Empirestatebuildingfrombrooklynnewyork.jpg" target="_blank">Empire State Buildings </a>stacked on top of each other still wouldn't reach the <i>ocean surface</i>. Muana Kea in total is the height of a little over 12 Burj Khalifas, or <i>27</i> Empire State Buildings. That shows just how deep the ocean gets - but it gets deeper. </div>
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The deepest place on Earth is the Mariana Trench. The Mariana Trench is a 1,580 mile (2,550 kilometers) long trench stretching across the Pacific Ocean floor. The very deepest point is Challenger Deep, a depression in the trench that has a depth between 35,814 and 36,072 feet. That's 6.7 to 6.8 miles deep. If you were able to drive from the ocean surface to Challenger Deep going city highway speeds, it would take you around seven and a half minutes to go from surface to floor. You would <a href="http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/light_travel.html" target="_blank">run out</a> of noticeable sunlight before you were even 700 feet down.</div>
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Mountain ranges dot our landscape. The Rockies, Himalayas, Cascades, Alps, Andes, Ural, Carpathian, the list goes on. These mountains are <a href="http://static1.squarespace.com/static/547511d1e4b053539bed948b/t/55ca612fe4b05b9a72cf25a2/1439326512048/download+(2).jpeg" target="_blank">clearly visible</a> to us, unlike underwater mountains. It's hard to think of jagged mountains being underwater. We tend to the think of the ocean floor sloping until it reaches a smooth bottom, like a bathtub of sorts, but it turns out that the ocean floor can be as smooth as a pile of bricks. The longest known mountain chain in the <i>universe </i>is located under the ocean. While the Grand Canyon is well, grand, there's an even grander canyon underwater called Monterey Bay Submarine Canyon - holding more volume and depth. Our land museums house millions of amazing artifacts of history, but more are hidden in the museum called the "oceans." Just think of all the artifacts that have gotten lost at sea or to the sea over centuries, including the <i>Titanic</i>. Which museum do you see it hanging in, hmm?</div>
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Underwater volcanoes and hotspots are plentiful as well. Yellowstone, Krakatoa, Mount Saint Helens, Pompeii, and Vesuvius tend to get all the fame, but what about the underwater volcanoes that gave birth to Hawaii, Indonesia, the Alaskan island chain, the Polynesian islands, and others? This is a process that has been going on since plate tectonics began, and still goes on today. The Hunga Tonga volcano in the South Pacific Ocean formed a <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-31848255" target="_blank">new island</a> last year. The island is long enough that you could fit the Empire State Building across it and still have some room left. Another underwater volcano has given Japan some <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/03/150302-nishino-shima-japan-volcano-island-geology-science/" target="_blank">new real estate</a>. Formally called "<a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140103-niijima-nishino-shima-japan-island-volcanoes-science/" target="_blank">Snoopy Island</a>" because it resembled the famous Peanuts character, the island, with the volcano now above the surface, is still expanding. </div>
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Just like the atmosphere, the ocean has layers, or <a href="http://www.seasky.org/deep-sea/ocean-layers.html" target="_blank">zones</a>. The Epipelagic Zone is where the vast majority of sunlight and known sea creatures live. The Mesopelagic Zone is commonly referred to as the "twilight zone" because this is where sunlight is at it's faintest and bizarre looking fish begin to appear. The Bathypelagic Zone contains no sunlight or plant life. The only light you'd see is the light given off by bioluminescent fish. The Abyssopelagic Zone contains near freezing temperatures, intense pressure, invertebrates, and 3/4 of the ocean floor. The last but not least zone is the Hadalpelagic Zone (which means "hellish") where ocean trenches and canyons reside, but not much else. The pressure in this zone can equal the weight of 48 Boeing 747's.</div>
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Underwater mountains, volcanoes, reefs, sunken ships, and even fish that glow in the dark. There's enough water in the ocean to fill 342,670,000,000,000,000,000 (342 quintillion) gallon milk jugs, so it shouldn't be surprising that there's so much under the surface. </div>
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Oh yeah, and there's Atlantis.</div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">*Alan Arnett, Business Insider, NOAA, BBC, National Geographic, Sea and Sky, Adducation, Coastal Challenges, Australia, World Wild Life, Genetic Literacy Project, Arcadis, Mother Earth News, Untamed Science, SquareSpace. </span></div>
Jayson Blankenshiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16630207805831892920noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2042385153714179953.post-61841807304849427572016-08-29T23:06:00.001-04:002019-09-30T16:32:16.292-04:00Purrfect Landings <br />
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Cats are small, strange creatures. We've been domesticating them for thousands of years, yet we still don't fully understand them. I don't think they fully understand themselves. And while I'd much rather be a human than a cat, there is one trait that they possess that we can't help but be jealous of: landing on their feet.</div>
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It's called the cat righting reflex. It's an innate ability of cats to be able to orient themselves upright while in mid fall. Cats begin to showcase this ability at 3 to 4 weeks, and by 6 to 7 weeks it's purrfected. So why can cats do this? It's all in the backbone. Cats have an unusually flexible backbone, and no functioning collarbone, which allows them to easily roll. </div>
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It may sound like a paradox, but higher falls may actually be better for cats. Typically at least a foot (0.3 meters) is needed for cats to perform this ability safely, but higher stories give cats more time to to adjust for their impending impact than lower ones. Nevertheless, cats are not Superman. Cats still can break bones, land on their backs, die, etc, but walking away without any injury is what they're best at.</div>
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I'm telling you, cats are strange creatures; we think we know them, but do we really? We think they need milk - they just gotta have it, but in reality, they don't. Cats like milk (obviously), but they don't need it to stay nourished, and too much milk can mean some nasty carpet stains. I had no idea this was lore, but apparently it has been said that cats cannot get rabies. According to the Cat Fanciers Association, this is false. Most warm-blooded mammals can carry rabies, and cats fall under the "most" category.<br />
While those are a couple cats myths, here is a truth: they have stellar night vision. Just like cones in your eye process color, rods process light, and cats have six to eight times more rods than humans, according to <a href="http://www.livescience.com/40459-what-do-cats-see.html" target="_blank"><i>Live Science</i></a>. Cats only need 1/6 of the light that humans need to see in the dark. While their night vision is pretty good, their vision in general can be <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pictures-of-how-cats-see-the-world-2013-10" target="_blank">a bit messy</a> thanks their color blindness, nearsightedness, and lack of color saturation. On the plus side, the field of view for cats is 200 degrees, versus 180 for us measly humans.</div>
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I can't tell you what to do with your cat. I've never owned one myself, but here's another (inconvenient?) truth: declawing <u>hurts</u>. I'm curling my own toes just thinking about it. Claws in cats are not like our finger and toenails in humans. Claws and nails do not get equal rights. When you declaw a cat, you are amputating the first joint of each of the toes. To same it's humane, to others it's not. All I know is I cant stop curling my toes.</div>
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Night vision, being able to land on their feet, not having to bathe everyday: cats seem to have it made. Sure they can still get rabies, and they're not blessed with seeing all the rich colors that we can, also they have to sit through all those awful cat memes, but to be fair, us humans aren't necessarily saved from those things either.</div>
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I wonder if lions can land on all fours?</div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">*Sources: Kim Ballstock, The Cat Fanciers Association, Healthy Pets, Business Insider, Live Science.</span></div>
Jayson Blankenshiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16630207805831892920noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2042385153714179953.post-19810945254678804152016-08-22T22:56:00.000-04:002019-10-01T15:54:29.495-04:00Oreos Ononymous<span style="text-align: justify;"> </span><br />
<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b2/Nabisco-Double-Stuf-Oreos.jpg/260px-Nabisco-Double-Stuf-Oreos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="158" data-original-width="260" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b2/Nabisco-Double-Stuf-Oreos.jpg/260px-Nabisco-Double-Stuf-Oreos.jpg" /></a><span style="text-align: justify;"> Raise your hand if you love Oreos. Wow, the entire planet raised their hand. Oreos are delicious sandwich cookies that are made by Nabisco and have been around for over 100 years. If you weren't aware, Oreos are the best selling cookies on the planet. Even the Oreo Twitter account has over 820,00 followers. The mighty Doritos can't even match that. Sorry, Doritos - that's what happens when you can't be bitten</span><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="text-align: justify;"><i>and</i></span><span style="text-align: justify;"><i> </i>dunked. I bring this up about Oreos because recent studies have suggested that Oreos may be just as addicting as cocaine. Yes, coco. The "I'm in love wit da Coco" coco.</span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"> Researchers at Connecticut College used rats for their study. They had the rats go through mazes and choose Oreos or rice cakes. Of course the rice cakes lost. The rats were also given cocaine and morphine, and they spent just as much time on the cocaine side as they did the Oreo. The brain activity of the rats was measured and they found that neurons in the rats' brains were activated more by Oreos than by the cocaine. Joseph Schroeder, an associate professor at Connecticut College said "this correlated well with our behavioral results and lends support to the hypothesis that high-fat/high-sugar foods are addictive." </span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"> Now this does not mean that Oreos need to be classified by the DEA, but it does show there are possible correlations. </span><span style="text-align: justify;">One thing to keep in mind is how close sugar and cocaine actually are. The chemical formula of sugar is C17H21NO4. The formula for table sugar is C12H22O11. Both are white and powdery, with sugar sweet and cocaine bitter. How sugar has been placed in our food has come under fire, and for good reason. One doctor has gone as far to say that sugar is "</span><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3412497/Sugar-new-crack-cocaine-Doctor-warns-growing-addiction-sweet-stuff-dangerous-drugs-alcohol.html" style="text-align: justify;" target="_blank">the new crack cocaine</a><span style="text-align: justify;">." Another interesting finding of the study: the rats also preferred the creamy center of Oreos to the chocolate wafers as well. All of this shows how Oreos affect the the brain, and deal with our cravings. There is no real narcotic effect from Oreos.</span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"> So again, the DEA needs to stay away; Oreos are perfectly fine. While you want to eat them in moderation because they are junk food after all, you don't have to worry about failing that drug test.</span><br />
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Jayson Blankenshiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16630207805831892920noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2042385153714179953.post-26528779853872845412016-08-21T18:43:00.001-04:002016-09-13T13:05:23.695-04:00Make America Eclipse Again<div style="text-align: justify;">
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One year from now, Monday August 21, 2017, Americans will finally get to experience one of Earth's most unique phenomenons that hasn't occurred since 1979: a total solar eclipse. The last total solar eclipse that crossed the continental United States occurred on February 26, 1979, but that eclipse covered mostly rural land and the weather was rainy. The last eclipse that actually crossed a sizable amount of eyeballs was in 1970. And the last eclipse to travel most of the United States? 1918. </div>
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The 2017 eclipse will <a href="http://www.skyandtelescope.com/wp-content/uploads/TSE_2017_USA_track_hires.jpg" target="_blank">cross the states</a> of Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina. States outside of this path will still get to catch a peek of the eclipse, but they unfortunately won't get the full show. The states and regions outside of the path will only get a <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/1280px-partial_solar_eclipse_may_20_2012_minneapolis_minnesota_tlr1.jpg" target="_blank">partial eclipse</a>. For instance, only 97 percent of the Sun will be covered in Atlanta, 81 percent in Washington, DC, 78 percent in Miami, 76 percent in Dallas, 72 percent in New York City, and a paltry 62 percent in Los Angeles. Better book your plane tickets to Missouri now!<br />
Before modern astronomy, eclipses were thought to be the signs of dread. The British saw eclipses as bad signs for the monarchy. In Vietnam it was thought that the Sun was being eaten by a giant frog. The Vikings blamed wolves. China blamed dragons. Latin America saw a jaguar. Eskimos feared sickness. Ethiopians scarified animals. The Greeks saw eclipses as a sign of impending calamity. Inuits saw eclipses as the Sun god and Moon god fighting. In India there was belief that the atmosphere was poisonous. Some cultures saw evil spirits and banged pots and pans or shot off fireworks to scare them away.<br />
Christopher Columbus (who did not discover America) even tricked the native Jamaicans, telling them the Sun wouldn't come back if they didn't give in to him. The Sun returned (note this was a lunar eclipse, not solar), and the natives were swayed. Even today, superstition surrounding eclipses still exists. Some Christian evangelists use eclipses as signs of approaching doomsday. Others believe that solar eclipses are dangerous to pregnant women. Rest assure, all of this is baseless. Eclipses are just apart of a cosmic 18-year cycle, called a saros. Nothing more, nothing less. Eclipses weren't alone as many cultures felt the same about comets as well.</div>
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So other than the awful <i>Twilight</i> movie, what is an eclipse? Well a <a href="http://www.space.com/15689-lunar-eclipses.html" target="_blank">lunar eclipse</a> is when the Earth aligns perfectly <a href="https://airandspace.si.edu/sites/default/files/images/editoral-stories/thumbnails/WEB11715-2010_640.jpg" target="_blank">between</a> the Sun and the moon, which makes the Earth's shadow cast on the moon. The Moon appears red thanks to "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh_scattering" target="_blank">rayleigh scattering</a>." Since the Earth is positioned between the Earth and the Sun, a lunar eclipse can only occur during a full moon. Unlike solar eclipses, lunar eclipses are able to be viewed anywhere on the night side of Earth, and last for hours.</div>
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A <a href="http://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar-eclipse-types.html" target="_blank">solar eclipse</a> is when the Moon aligns perfectly <a href="http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/images/eclipses.jpg" target="_blank">between</a> the Sun and the Earth. Because of this, solar eclipses can only occur during a new moon. With a solar eclipse, the Moon casts a shadow on the Earth, called the umbra and the penumbra. There are three types of solar eclipses: total, partial, and annular. A <a href="http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/fa2737bff4f976f61bb535c962b6d2df3fd34e96/c=336-203-1678-1212&r=x404&c=534x401/local/-/media/2016/03/02/USATODAY/USATODAY/635925186082143379-AP-Australia-Solar-Eclipse.jpg" target="_blank">total</a> solar eclipse is when the Moon completely blocks out the Sun. <a href="https://userscontent2.emaze.com/images/5d45e6f5-fde3-40f8-93db-2c5710835dd3/55987f0a485c66f10b7a6da50f60b811.jpg" target="_blank">Annular</a> is when the Moon is to far to completely block out the Sun. An antumbra shadow is cast on the Earth. <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/1280px-partial_solar_eclipse_may_20_2012_minneapolis_minnesota_tlr1.jpg" target="_blank">Partial</a> is when the Sun and Moon don't perfectly align. There is a rare fourth kind called hybrid, which is when an annular eclipse turns into a total.<br />
So why aren't eclipses common? Well because the Moon's orbit isn't a perfect circle, and the Moon is not on the ecliptic plane (the imaginary path that the Sun travels on in the sky). If it was, we'd be blessed with solar eclipses every month. Unlike a lunar eclipse, looking directly at a solar eclipse is extremely dangerous and could essentially fry your eyes. Solar eclipses are also extremely short: the longest ever recorded lasting a little over 7 minutes. The maximum totality of the 2017 eclipse will only last 2 minutes and 40 seconds.</div>
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So why will next year's eclipse only be totally visible from Oregon to South Carolina? Why can't Florida, Texas, California, New York, and Ohio get in on the fun? Well, it's because of the Moon. The Moon is small, which means the <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Diagram_of_umbra,_penumbra_%26_antumbra.png" target="_blank">umbra</a>, or shadow, will travel along a narrower path. Florida and company will still get to view the eclipse, but only partially.<br />
Wherever you plan on viewing the eclipse, do not forget to bring protective eye wear with you. While the eclipse is completely safe to look at during totality, when it is not in totality, it can be extremely harmful. Expect stocks of eclipse glasses at Walmart and Target pretty soon. I'm sure they're on Amazon now if you just can't wait.<br />
The 2017 eclipse is expected to become the most viewed eclipse ever. Even though Salem, OR, Columbia, SC, Greenville, SC, Nashville, TN, and Charleston, SC are the only major US cities/metros that lie directly in the path of totality, the major cities of Atlanta, Charlotte, Louisville, Portland, Saint Louis, Kansas City, Memphis, Topeka, Birmingham, Savannah, Denver, Boise, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Jacksonville, Des Moines, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Omaha will be within reasonable driving distance. While Kansas City and Saint Louis don't lie in the path, parts of their metro areas do. Media coverage will be plentiful, and most of North America, from Canada to the Caribbean, will get to <a href="http://eclipsophile.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/penumbral-path-1024x650.png" target="_blank">view</a> the eclipse in some form.<br />
So the countdown begins now. We have one year left. Take off work, book plane tickets, set your alarm, move your surgery date, skip class, whatever you have to do to make sure you don't miss this event. Here's an amazing <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxBoVH0GQWw" target="_blank">time lapse</a> of the 2015 solar eclipse as seen from an airplane. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBoa81xEvNA" target="_blank">Here's a video</a> of a lucky group of people who got to experience this year's total solar eclipse (which spent most of it's time over the uninhabited Pacific Ocean) from an airplane. In these videos the shadow of the moon is clearly visible. <b><span style="color: red;">Warning</span>:</b> the voice of the "narrator" of the video is a just a tad distracting. Just a tad.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">*Astronomy, Wikipedia, Smithsonian, Space, Derekscope, Emaze, NASA, USA Today, Arstechnica, International Business TImes, Greymeter, Citybus Express, Time and Date, Sky and Telescope</span></div>
Jayson Blankenshiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16630207805831892920noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2042385153714179953.post-18870558467090355132016-08-20T16:36:00.001-04:002016-09-13T10:21:23.028-04:00So Many Tears<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Our eyes are strong, yet delicate. They allow us to see, but they must be well cared for. Our bodies know this, so we're equipped with a nifty tool called tears. Tears protect our eyes from dust, kept our eyes lubricated, and help showcase our emotions, but what purpose do tears serve when we yawn, sneeze, choke, vomit, or laugh? You can choke on a sour patch kid, spit it up, then spend what feels like ten minutes wiping tears from your eyes like windshield wipers against rain. Why though? Your eyes weren't in danger when that sour patch wouldn't budge. Nor are they in danger whenever you yawn or laugh. Typically your eyes are closed for most of that journey. So why do we tend to tear up when we yawn, sneeze, choke, laugh, and yes vomit? What exactly is the point?</div>
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Well first off, the scientific name for tearing is "lacrimation." This term comes from the lacrimal gland, which produces tears. Tears contain water, potassium, urea (yes, that urea), sodium, glucose, lysozymes, and few other bodily fluids. Produced in the lacrimal gland, tears travel across your eyes on thin layers of film to the tear ducts. Precorneal film coats your eyes and contains three layers: the lipid, aqueous, and mucous. The lipid layer contains oils and creates a hydrophobic barrier that keeps tears from spilling all over your cheeks (or tries to. Sometimes you just gotta let it spill). The aqueous layer contains water, electrolytes, and proteins, and promotes the spread of tear film. The mucous layer contains mucins, a protein, and is responsible for coating the cornea and providing an even distribution of tear film.<br />
Tears seem so general, but there's actually three different types: basal, psychic, and reflex. Who knew tears could be categorized? Basil tears are the tears that kept your cornea wet and clean. Reflex tears are formed when your eye is irritated. That irritation can be caused by pepper spray, <a href="http://rampages.us/ramirezms/wp-content/uploads/sites/2625/2014/10/Screen-Shot-2014-10-01-at-9.15.40-PM.png" target="_blank">onions</a>, wind, bright light, the list goes on. Psychic tears are produced when you are heavily emotional, stressed, or are in physical pain. Stub your toe? That's psychic tears. Have to finish that 50 page paper by midnight and it's currently 9:04 PM and you're on page six? Psychic tears strike. The chemical makeup of tears also varies based on the type. </div>
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So we know the three types of tears that exist, but that doesn't answer the original question. Why exactly do we tear when we cry, laugh, or yawn? What's the purpose? Well it may be your reflexes. Whenever you choke, your mouth secretes fluid to help whatever's in your throat to slide free. Because of reflexes, tears are produced and travel towards your throat, but the pressure from your constant coughing pushes those tears back up into your tear duct, thus they come out of your eyes. Insane. When you yawn, you squeeze your eyes shut. The lacrimal gland is above your eye and tear ducts are on your eyelids. When you close your eyes tightly, you cut the tears off from being able to travel to the tear ducts. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacrimal_punctum" target="_blank">punctum</a> on your eyelid that collects tears cannot, so those tears build up on your eye. This applies (and sorry to have to keep using this word) to vomiting as well. You squeeze your eyes super hard and you tend to cough a bit afterwards.<br />
According to Robert Provine, a University of Maryland at Baltimore psychologist, laughing and crying are both similar. "Both laughing and crying occur during states of high emotional arousal, and don't clearly turn on and off."<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "dejavu" serif , serif;"><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 24px;"> </span></span>Other possible reasons are that your tear ducts for instance get exposed to pressure and vibrations when you vigorously laugh. There also may be evidence that the same part of the brain is responsible for both crying and laughing. Research also shows that tears can be summoned by a variety of emotional responses, not just sadness. "Angry tears."<br />
And my nose? Why does my like to run after a cry? Well because your nose is <a href="http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/05/why-does-your-nose-run-when-you-cry/" target="_blank">connected</a>. Excess tears from your tear ducts, or your nasolacrimal duct drain into the inferior nasal meatus where you tears mix with mucus. The wateriness of tears causes your nose to run. Do you ever taste your tears? That is also why. Amazing.</div>
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While tears are important, there is a point to producing too many. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crocodile_tears" target="_blank">Crocodile tear syndrome</a>, also known as Bogorad's syndrome, is a when you can't help but produce tears when you eat or smell food. Dry eye syndrome is a common disorder that stems from an abnormality in the tear film, causing the eye to not being able to produce enough tears. A variety of other issues can cause this as well, form LASIK surgery to vitamin A deficiency to age to pregnancy. This is also common in dogs. And if you want to sound scholarly, you can call dry eyes by their scientific name: keratoconjunctivitis sicca.<br />
Who knew tears were so complicated. They're just as complicated as our emotions that summon them. They be an annoyance whenever you just want to have a laugh or yawn, but at least you know they don't do it to be annoying - it's reflexes. It's emotion. It's just that they wan't to see the world. (Get it?).<br />
Fun fact about onions: according to Prevention.com, the reason they are so bad at this is because when you cut them they release propanethial sulfoxide. This gas mixes with your tears and creates a mild does of sulfuric acid. And that stings. It's a defense mechanism. Who knew onions were so defensive?<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">*Sources: LasikMD, Naked Scientists, Wikipedia, Today I Found Out, and Prevention.</span></div>
Jayson Blankenshiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16630207805831892920noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2042385153714179953.post-89886376926666197842016-08-19T16:56:00.000-04:002017-11-01T00:49:06.862-04:00Who Owns the Internet?<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/598d6f_26ae86abc0a84eb8b367b7cc17ba05fa~mv2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="442" data-original-width="800" height="176" src="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/598d6f_26ae86abc0a84eb8b367b7cc17ba05fa~mv2.jpg" width="320" /></a> We hear of countries censoring the internet, we hear of people getting arrested for things they put on the internet, and we hear of sites being shut down because of what they have on the internet, but who has the ultimate authority? What even <i>is </i>the internet to begin with, and where is it? Ask someone "how old is the internet?" and they'll likely tell you about 20 years; mid-1990's. They're right, but they're wrong. </div>
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Around that time emerged the World Wide Web, which is not the internet. The internet came about in the 1960's through a United States military project called APRA-net (Advanced Research Protect Agency). APRA allowed the government to break up messages into packets and send them on designated routes for delivery to a computer system. ARPA-net sent the first cross-network message on October 29, 1969 (the same year we landed on the Moon and inaugurated Richard Nixon). UCLA sent the word "login" to Stanford. While only the "L" and the "O" arrived before the system crashed, it was still seen as a success.</div>
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The World Wide Web, or WWW for short, is not the internet, but it rather uses the internet. The web was invented by <a href="https://www.surfeasy.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/timbernerslee.jpg" target="_blank">Tim Berners-Lee</a> in 1989. Yep, that's right: one men invented the web. The WWW is basically a vast binary library. Content is written in HTML, Java, CSS, and other code, and that code is read and displayed by web browsers such as Chrome, Explorer, and Opera. Web browsers make the encoded content readable, otherwise every web page you visit would look like <a href="https://assets.techsmith.com/Images/content/ua-tutorials-camtasiaMac-02/embed-body-code.png" target="_blank">this</a>. A URL, or Uniform Resource Locator, is the domain name of the website and is how web content is identified. Domains can be purchased and owned. For instance: while you can create your own website, you can't name it "netflix.com", that's already taken. The links to websites are addressed through HTTP and HTTPS, also known as Hypertext Transfer Protocol.</div>
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Website information is stored on <a href="https://blog.softmart.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Server-Room.jpg" target="_blank">servers</a>. Your Facebook profile? All the movies (or really shows) in your Netflix queue? Your Yahoo emails? They're all sitting in a server somewhere. Whenever you try to access a website via the URL, your computer, which is a client, sends a request through your ISP, or internet service provider (aka the Xfinity you hate so much), to the addressed server for the content. That content from the server is broken down and sent back to your computer in "packets." When you retrieve the content, the packets are reassembled back into the content you requested.</div>
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With billions of users across the world, how do servers know which computer to send the content to? Your IP address. Every single thing that is connected to the internet has a unique IP address. This is how the government is able to find you when you use the internet to do something you probably shouldn't have. Your IP address can provide your true geographic location. This is also how web browsers know where you are when you log on. Creepy isn't it? Routers help direct packet traffic, getting the packets from point A to point B. Routers operate to make sure the content you want comes to you and not someone else. "Who is Mark, and why is his eHarmony profile on MY computer screen!?" Routers keep that from happening. A modem on the other hand is a modulator-demodulater. The modem connects to your telephone (if you still live in 2001), cable, fiber, or satellite line and converts those signals to code that your computer can understand.</div>
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The internet can be accessed through dial-up (yes, still), cable, satellite, optical fiber, and through cellular. Each method carries it's own pros and cons, and each varies in speed. The access type also depends on who's accessing it. If you live the simple life, you're probably fine with dial-up. The average American today prefers broadband (cable, satellite, etc) and cellular. The heavy duties access is typically reserved for companies and the like. Do you really need Infiniband EDR 12x at 300 gigabits per second? No, no you don't. So that's how internet arrives to your home or office, but what about your computer? Well you have two options: wired or wireless. </div>
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So to answer the original question: who owns the internet? The answer is no one. While ISP's can charge you to access the web and governments can arrest you for your content, no one psychically owns it. We all share the internet and we all share the space. This blog has a unique URL, it's mine. It's my little slice of the internet. That said, Google does technically owns this webpage and since it's sitting on their server.</div>
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The internet and WWW have really come a long way in revolutionizing our lives. We could live without the internet, but then we'd actually have to go to the movies, shop in the store, and check the weather in a newspaper...yikes. Well, no. You can still enjoy those things, and there will be things that the internet just can't replace, but to know what we are capable thanks to the internet, is mind-blowing. Also knowing that no President, dictator, council, or overload can claim it as there's is a precious feeling. Still, we have to be responsible. Terrorism, cyberbullying, invasion of privacy, hacking and stealing personal data, pirating, and other illegal and immoral activities are able to be committed over the web. Stay alert online, watch what you post, and make sure your information is stored in a secure place. Just because the web is not physical doesn't mean it's not dangerous.</div>
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There's already so much we can do with the internet - what's left? Maybe one day we'll be able to actually go inside and travel the information superhighway. Maybe not physically, but maybe in the future we won't need computers. Until then, surfs up. (Get it?)<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">*photo from Readingielts. Surfeasy, Softmart, Techsmith.</span></div>
Jayson Blankenshiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16630207805831892920noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2042385153714179953.post-26296863880510122032016-08-18T23:59:00.000-04:002018-03-21T15:03:19.785-04:00Midnight Sun<br />
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<span id="goog_1591380414"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a>Sunset in my opinion is the most peaceful time of the day. Sunsets are amazing, and we're lucking to have them. Sunset represents a transition from day to night, and the resulting gradual disappearance of the Sun drowns the sky in awing colors that we don't get to see during the day or at night. What exactly makes the sunset so pretty? Why doesn't the sky go from blue to dark blue? It's all based on how light interacts with our atmosphere. As the Sun heads towards the horizon, the Sun's light hits more molecules and scatters farther over the atmosphere, pushing out the shorter blue wavelengths and allowing us to see the longer wavelength reds, oranges, and yellows. You are closer to the Sun at midday, and blue reaches down to Earth better because blue wavelengths have a shorter distance to travel, but when the Sun is at the horizon, the sunlight has to travel a farther distance - as much as 30 times. The blue light can't handle the distance but the longer wavelength red light can; red travels farther and reaches our eyes. This phenomenon is called <a href="http://www.webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/14B.html" target="_blank">Rayleigh scattering</a>. The technical definition of a sunset is when the trailing edge of the Sun dips below the horizon. Once the Sun dips completely below the observable horizon, sunset ends and twilight begins. Twilight is that time period where the Sun can't be seen, yet there is still light in the sky. There are three recognized <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twilight#/media/File:Twilight_subcategories.svg" target="_blank">stages</a> of twilight: civil, nautical, and astronomical.<br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"> <a href="http://c.tadst.com/gfx/750x500/chicago-twilight.jpg?1" target="_blank">Civil</a> twilight occurs when the Sun is less than 6 degrees below the horizon. Many outdoor activities can typically still be carried on during civil twilight without the need for lights, including reading. Also during civil twilight, only the brightest objects in the sky can be seen. </span><span style="text-align: justify;">Once the Sun dips past 6 degrees below the horizon, nautical twilight begins. <a href="http://c.tadst.com/gfx/750x500/nautical-twilight-lake.jpg?1" target="_blank">Nautical</a> twilight occurs when the Sun is between 6 and 12 degrees below the horizon. The term "nautical" is used because sailors would use the stars to help navigate. The brighter stars can be seen during this phase, and the horizon is still barely visible. While you can typically still see objects outside during nautical twilight, lights are required for outdoor activities. </span><span style="text-align: justify;">When the Sun lands between 12 to 18 degrees below the horizon, <a href="http://c.tadst.com/gfx/750x500/nashville-twilight.jpg?1" target="_blank">astronomical</a> twilight is in play. </span><span style="text-align: justify;">If you live in a place that's abused by light pollution, you may not be able to tell the difference between astronomical twilight and night. </span><span style="text-align: justify;">Once the Sun dips past 18 degrees below the horizon, its light is no longer visible and true nighttime begins.</span></div>
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What time you experience sunset and when you get to enjoy twilight depends on where you live on Earth. The closer you are to the equator, typically the shorter the twilight. On June 21st, the summer solstice, twilight in Washington, DC (38.9 degrees N) lasts 3 hours and 59 minutes. Manaus, Brazil (3.1 degrees S) meanwhile only gets to experience 2 hours and 29 minutes of twilight. Reykjavic, Iceland, one of the highest latitude cities in the world at 64.1 degrees N, doesn't even experience nautical and astronomical twilight on June 21st; just 2 hours and 51 minutes of civil twilight. This is a consequence of being so close to the Arctic Circle, which is explained below.<br />
Places closer to the western end of their time zone will <a href="http://gizmodo.com/how-solar-time-compares-to-standard-time-around-the-wor-1535080399" target="_blank">experience later sunsets</a> as well. Boston, Massachusetts, one of the farthest east cities in the Eastern Time Zone will experience sunset tomorrow, August 19th, at 7:38 PM. Louisville, Kentucky on the other hand, one of the farthest west cities in the EST will experience sunset at 8:31 PM. While this may not be that much of an issue in the United States, in China it is problematic. Mainland China and the continental US are basically the same size. Even though they're size twins, the continental US has 4 times zones, but China <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/11/china-only-has-one-time-zone-and-thats-a-problem/281136/" target="_blank">only has one</a>, because they feel like it. Sunset in Shanghai, on China's east coast, will occur at 6:33 PM, but in the city of Kashgar, China, the Sun won't set until 9:46 PM...while in the same time zone. Kashgar should really be 2 hours behind Shanghai, if not 3, but I guess if Kashgar still gets to experience sunsets, then it's alright. Kind of.</div>
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If you happen to live near the poles of the Earth (which you probably don't), then you're in luck! You get to experience the phenomenon known as "<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Altafjord01.jpg" target="_blank">midnight Sun</a>." At the poles, the Sun only sets (and rises) one time a year. Six months of the year, the Sun is continuously in the sky, while for the other six months, the Sun is below the horizon, creating 24 hours of day and 24 hours of night. How? Well just do the math. 90 - 23.5 (the tilt of the Earth) = 66.5. This is the Arctic Circle.While there are periods of total nighttime darkness, most of the time the night is really just an <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Polar-Night_Longyearbyen.jpg" target="_blank">extended twilight</a>. All three twilights can be seen depending on location.<br />
Ever go outside at twilight and notice a pinkish band above the horizon? Say hello to the <a href="http://0e33611cb8e6da737d5c-e13b5a910e105e07f9070866adaae10b.r15.cf1.rackcdn.com/Jim-Tegerdine-BELT-OF-VENUS-JULY-14-B_1405400507_lg.jpg" target="_blank">Belt of Venus</a>. The Belt can be seen around sunset and sunrise, and hangs 10 to 20 degrees above the horizon. The belt of Venus is caused by red light from the sunset (or sunrise) being backscattered by dust particles.<br />
To me, sunset and twilight are the most peaceful times of day and the most exciting. Don't let them slip by, because as you see, they don't last all that long. And be sure to put seeing a midnight Sun and polar night on your bucket list. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twilight#/media/File:Twilight_subcategories.svg" target="_blank">Svalbard, Norway</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NmkDI5QO2o" target="_blank">Bodo, Noway</a> are waiting for you.</div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">*Sources: Time and Date, Wikipedia, Web Exhibits, The Atlantic, Gizmodo, Space Weather Gallery, How It Works, photo from Wikipedia Vberger</span></div>
Jayson Blankenshiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16630207805831892920noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2042385153714179953.post-3262624116143243822016-08-16T09:23:00.000-04:002019-10-01T14:58:31.380-04:00The Secret Life of Corn<div style="text-align: justify;">
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Corn is a pretty subtle thing. We know it's around, but don't ever really think about it (unless you live in Nebraska, of course). Corn is a grain, and whether you're getting your recommended daily amount of corn or not - you're never far away from it. Corn is used by people everyday and we don't even realize it. Now there is chemistry involved, so don't think about an ear of corn in every day products too literally, but nevertheless, it's still corn. Here's a list of things where you can find corn.</div>
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<b>Corn chips</b>. Duh. We love chips. Maybe a bit too much. I mean, who doesn't love chips? When we think of chips, we think of potatoes, but if you weren't aware: Doritos, Fritos, Cheetos, and Tostitos are corn based. The corn is processed, typically ground up and turned into a paste or dough, where it is then molded, cooked, and flavored into what you see in the bag.</div>
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<b>Gas</b><i>.</i> Many cars today use E85, which is essentially gas that is 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. While sugar cane can be used to make ethanol, American ethanol is dominated by corn (we have to let Nebraska shine).</div>
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<b>Tires</b>. Yes, you could be driving around on corn. Engineers have been able to turn that ear of corn into polymers, which can substitute for the rubber used for binding. The crazy thing about this? Corn-based tires are more fuel efficient, stronger, and cheaper. What's even more crazy about this? This is <a href="http://nypost.com/2001/02/28/a-maize-ing-new-tires-made-with-corn/" target="_blank">nothing new</a>.</div>
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<b>Hand soap</b>. We all use it - at least I hope we do. Yet, did you know the soap that you pump into your hand can contain up to 25 percent corn product?<br />
<b>Windex</b>. Look on the back lable. On it you'll find 2-hexoxyethanol, acetic acid, fragrances, and ethanolamine. All of these foreign sounding chemicals are derived from corn.</div>
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<b>Toothpaste</b>. We all know about fluoride, but what about sorbitol? Sorbitol provides sweetness and is typically derived artificially from corn syrup.</div>
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<b>Plastic</b>. To the average person, plastic is more precious than gold and diamonds. There are dozens of types of plastics, which include "bioplastic" - plastics made from renewable sources. This includes cornstarch. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polylactic_acid" target="_blank">Polyactic acid</a> is a plastic that is made from corn.</div>
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<b>Vegetables</b>. Face it, we're picky. Even if it hasn't passed the expiration date, we're not going to eat it if it doesn't look good. Why else would we put<a href="http://io9.gizmodo.com/farmed-salmon-is-dyed-from-gray-to-pink-so-consumers-wo-1691708715" target="_blank"> red dye</a> in our salmon? Same goes for vegetables. Many vegetables are treated with zein, a protein of corn, to help the vegetables keep their fresh appearance.</div>
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<b>Cosmetics, makeup, and perfume</b>. Everyone freaks out about all the things that makeup may or may not contain, but did you know one of those is corn? If you see "zea mays" on the back of your Sephora box or Pantene bottle, now you know.<br />
<b>Matches</b><i>.</i> A product that makes full use of cornstarch. Corn products are used during manufacturing of the matches and also helps keep the matchsticks rigid.</div>
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<b>Milk</b><i>.</i> Since many dairy cows are now fed corn, which is not what they naturally eat, their bodies must adapt. The vitamin A and D in milk use corn oil as a carrier.</div>
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<b>Glue and adhesives</b>. Thank that lovely cornstarch. From glue to the sticky stuff on envelopes, corn plays a role. PS, stop licking your envelopes.</div>
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<b>Diapers</b>. Corn-based polymers can be found in modern diapers to help keep your baby's stinkies at bay.</div>
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<i> </i><b>Crayons</b><i>.</i> Dextrin, derived from cornstarch, is used in the manufacturing process. Other corn products are used to help keep your kid's crayons from crumbling, which in turn keeps them from crying, which in turn keeps you sane. See, corn has psychological effects too.</div>
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<b>Drywall</b>. Cornstarch is used in the making of drywall, helping to prevent mold.<br />
<b>Aspirin</b>. Cellulose acetate phthalate. That's the coating on pills that make them easier to swallow and help them survive the horror of your stomach acid.</div>
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<b>Spark plugs</b>. The heat resistant porcelain in your spark plugs use corn-based product to help protect the spark plugs from excessive heat.</div>
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<b>Anything with high fructose corn syrup (aka half of the supermarket)</b>. Yogurt, cereal, salad dressing, fruit juice, cocktails, soda, mac and cheese, bread, and until now: <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/08/01/mcdonalds-removes-artificial-preservatives-from-chicken-mcnuggets/87915290/" target="_blank">McNuggets</a>. While high fructose corn syrup seems nearly impossible to avoid today, <a href="http://www.celestialhealing.net/foods_with_no_HFCS.htm" target="_blank">it's possible</a>.</div>
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<b>Gum</b>. There's a blog dedicated to <a href="http://www.livecornfree.com/2010/05/corn-free-chewing-gum-it-exists.html" target="_blank">corn-free </a>chewing gum, so...<br />
<b>Splenda</b>. You can run from the corn syrup, but you can't run from the corn. Splenda contains maltodextrin, which while typically derived of wheat in Europe, in the US it is derived of corn.<br />
<b>Corndogs</b>. That is all.</div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">*io9, Wikipedia, USA Today, Celestial Healing, Live Corn Free</span></div>
Jayson Blankenshiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16630207805831892920noreply@blogger.com0