Info Thursday
Saga of King Hrolf kraki

The old Norse saga above includes a Loathly Lady story that sounds a little more similar to the one I read because the lady asks to sleep in his bed and he reluctantly agrees and then she turns into a beautiful elf. Then her rapes her. Lesson: don't turn into a beautiful elf around strange men. The story I read as a child did not include rape, so this isn't it, but it's interesting. I do remember something about a house in the woods and she slept in the bed.

Info Thursday
Chancery

I am currently listening to Charles Dickens' Bleak House on audio book. The story is all about the Chancery Courts of England. I didn't know what these courts did, so I decided to look it up and according to Wikipedia it would seem they: "had jurisdiction over all matters of equity, including trusts, land law, the administration of the estates of lunatics and the guardianship of infants." Dickens critisizes their slow bureaucracy and he wasn't the only one as it seems the court was reforming even as he wrote Bleak House.

Info Thursday
How To Put On a Kimono / Yukata

I have yukata (a cotton kimono meant for summer), and I couldn't remember how to tie the obi or which side went over which (left over right--though, I did recall if I got it wrong, it symbolized death). So I looked up the following how-tos for the next time I want to wear it.

Text How-To:
http://www.japaneselifestyle.com.au/fashion/how_to_wear_yukata.html
http://www.japaneselifestyle.com.au/fashion/butterfly_obi.html

Video How-To:

Info Thursday

I knew Janus was a Roman God, but I had never previously known that January was named after him.

Info Thursday
Airport Insider

What the airports are currently doing for security measures is wrong, and if people choose not to travel by plane because of it, I don't blame them. However, some of us either don't have that option or would rather not give up traveling. For those people like myself, my friend encouraged me to give a suggestion that I gave her. Travel from low security airports who don't have the body scanners. But it is important to note that the TSA in any airport can still subject you to an an advanced pat down, so we still need to fight this entire idea in any way we can. Sadly, it may also become increasingly more difficult to avoid airports with body scanners with the recently passed spending bill that funded more body scanners. Here's a list of airports with body scanners. However, this is an older list (from November) and could change at a moment's notice, so it would probably be best to contact the airport to know for certain.

This doesn't necessarily mean the list will change for the worst, though. I've been led to believe that San Diego Airport, which is on the list, either no longer has body scanners or doesn't have them in every terminal. Specifically, the TSA at the terminal for Southwest Airlines told me they didn't have body scanners, though I was unclear if they simply meant at that checkpoint or in the entire airport. I was pulled aside for additional screening because I had forgotten to remove my toiletries from my bag. But all they did was test my hands for explosives by rubbing them with a cloth an putting that cloth through a machine. This was a minor hassle but far less invasive and far more practical than either body scanners or pat downs, and I would be in full support of airports doing this instead.

Sacramento Airport is already not on the list and did not have any scanners that I saw when I was traveling, nor did I see anyone pat down at either airport.

Unfortunately, the first anti-body scanner bill introduced by Representative Ron Paul unfortunately died in committee. But there are stirrings of a new similar bill. Hopefully, something will go through. I will also note this is the perfect issue to cross party lines as both Republicans and Democrats seem to dislike being felt up or goggled at in the nude. However, there do seem rather more Republicans speaking up... I would like the Democrats to step it up. I hate having to choose, but this issue is currently more important to me than health care because health care in the US has always been crummy, but travel hasn't always been this ridiculous and devoid of dignity.

Info Thursday
Low Blood Pressure, Postural Hypotension, and Salt Intake

I've known for a while that I had low blood pressure but never knew it was the cause of the frequent head rushes I get when standing. The official name for it is postural hypotension. A friend of mine mentioned today that she had the same condition because of low blood pressure, and the symptoms fit. It can also be treated with increased salt intake (though this is not recommended for those with preeisting heart conditions according to my research). This might explain my personal penchant for salty treats. It's not a serious condition but it's good to finally understand what causes it.

Sources:
http://www.medicinenet.com/low_blood_pressure/page6.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthostatic_hypotension

Info Thursday
Orcus and Vanth

A few weeks ago I posited on the question of Roman mythology before it was blended with the Greeks. In my readings I've been led to believe that the Romans were not particularly religious before. But this still baffles me as to why they would adopt a foreign religion.

In any event, I did find a God separate from the Greek pantheon, Orcus, an Italic god of the underworld thought to have originated with the Etruscans. While he was later equated to Hades and Pluto, it is notable that Orcus was initially a separate god and even later more related to the punishing side of Pluto.

Worship of Orcus even survived into the Middle Ages.

There was also a goddess of death by the name of Vanth who has no overlap in the Greek and later Roman pantheon.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orcus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanth

Info Thursday
Dog Days

On the onset of winter, I thought I'd remind us all of summer. So if you've ever heard the phrase "the dog days of summer," then you may (or may not) be interested to know that it refers to the ancient, and incorrect, belief that summer was caused by the proximity of Sirius, also known as the dog star, to the sun.

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_Days

Info Thursday
Being Thankful for My Sister Makes Me Unthankful for TSA

My sister has decided not to take the plane when we go to visit our family for the December holidays. The reason? She'd rather not be irradiated, shown nude, or rubbed down in all her intimate areas by TSA. Even though I don't personally have the same feelings, I do believe it should be someone's right not to have to endure this.

Plus, even I find the machines a little worrying. The back-scatter machines use X-Ray radiation. It's not very strong but some experts in the field point out that it's exposing your skin and not your bones to radiation, which puts you more at risk for skin cancer. Moreover, they just don't have enough research to prove it's safe to expose billions of people to this radiation.

The safe alternative are the millimeter-wave machines, but not all airports have these. Then my sister made a fair point that they're touching your privates with gloves that they sometimes forget to change from touching other people's privates which just is not sanitary.

But even if you don't believe it's a health risk, it still is a violation if people don't want to be touched there. Moreover, it's a violation to force TSA agents to touch people in places they don't want to touch! A bad situation all around.

I will still be traveling by plane but I will make it my mission to make TSA feel as uncomfortable and violated as they're making my sister feel. Intense eye contact, animal sounds, whatever it takes. I do feel immense sympathy for the TSA agents, but that's why I think they need to rise up and draw the line at what they will NOT do. They don't like doing it either. More importantly, it's not actually making us more safe (as proved in this video from Mythbuster Adam Savage). But there will always be too many passengers willing to travel no matter what, so it's the TSA that needs to draw the line at what they will and won't do to us. I understand we all want to keep our job in these hard times, but "I'm just following orders" is never an acceptable excuse.

Sources:
http://articles.cnn.com/2010-11-12/travel/body.scanning.radiation_1_backscatter-radiological-research-radiation/3?_s=PM:TRAVEL
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/11/17/whats-the-real-radiation-risk-of-the-tsas-full-body-x-ray-scans/

Info Thursday
The First King of France

Since last time I told you about the last King of France, this time I thought I'd tell you about the first King of France, Clovis. Clovis is supposed to be a precursor to the name Louis. Don't ask me how. Sometimes I think linguists are just crazy. Although, they do sound similar at the end. Maybe people just got tired of saying the C and sorta slurred the V. I guess they did drink a lot of alcohol in those days.

Anyway, Clovis, according to the legend, is the reason the Fleur de Lis is the symbol of the French monarchy. He was hiding in this body of water from his enemies and came across this water lily and used it to breathe. So the Fleur de Lis is famous for being a snorkel for the first French king.

Source:
My French History class

Info Thursday
The Last King of France

So due to John Green's terrific recap of the French Revolution (the first video of which is posted below) I was spurred to look up the last actual King of France. Because French history gets really murky, confusing, and bloody between 1792-1870. Basically Kings get killed, people revolt, they try to set up alternate governments, those fail, more people get killed, and then, before you know it, everyone's shouting--"Vive le Roi!"

So the last man to call himself King was Louis-Phillipe I, but the last monarch of France was Emperor Napoleon III. And, let's face it, an Emperor is just a King on steroids.

What I was shocked to discover is there are STILL people who are pretenders to the French throne. I mean, even if it was restored, seems like it wouldn't be the safest gig. Don't they know what happened to those other guys?



Sources:
John Green--as many times as he's been listed here it's probably safe to say I learn a lot from John Green. Although, I already knew a lot about the French Revolution, he rekindled my interest.

Wikipedia--but I'm reasonably confident it's true as they're simple facts and not conspiracy theories.

Info Thursday
Can You Take the Greek Out of the Roman?

So far I've only done some light Wikipedia research just to see if I can find a time BEFORE the Romans worshiped Greek gods. But I can't seem to. Even in the founding myth of Rome, Romulus and Remus are said to be related to Aeneas, who was the son of Venus (a.k.a the Greek goddess Aphrodite). My sister pointed out that this means the Romans think of their greatest hero as a really hot dude. Julius Caesar also claimed to be descendant from Venus, so I guess, even more than their warrior status, it was important to the Romans that people know how pretty they were.

Legend has the founding of Rome by Romulus and Remus as April 21st 753 BC. Pretty specific for a legend. This time period also coincides with a vast immigration of Greek peoples to the Italian peninsula which did lead to an influx of Hellenic culture (or Greek stuff). But while I know a few gods specific only to the Romans, I still cannot find any mention of their religion before the Greek's arrival. I know they were there, because in actuality, Rome developed from a federation of villages which were there long before the city and before the arrival of the Greeks. But on Wikipedia, at least, I am unable to find any mention of the religion of the original Latin tribe.

Info Thursday
Greek Vs. Egyptian

I recently had an argument with my sister about the pervasiveness of Greek Mythology in modern times versus Egyptian Mythology. I argued that more people knew the stories and gods of the Greeks, whereas the archaeology, history, and culture of the Egyptians was more common knowledge than their mythology. My sister insisted I have actual data. Though I still think that the overwhelming presence of media for Greek myths, such as Hercules and Xena the TV shows, Hercules the Disney film, the Percy Jackson series, O Brother Where Art Thou, Clash of the Titans, Jason and the Argonauts, and a myriad of other things, not to mention the the many stories indirectly inspired by Greek hero myths. And, yes, all of these things have inaccuracies to the actual myths but the point is that we know Greek monsters and creatures like Medusa and centaurs much more readily than we could recognize Egyptian counterparts. I can't even give any because I don't know any off the top of my head. Yes, Stargate and the Mummy movies have taught us the names of the Egyptian gods--Osiris, Isis, Anubis, Horus, Ra....crazy crocodile dude who weighs your heart to see if it's light as a feather. But can we recite any of the stories other than maybe the one where Isis brings Osiris back from the dead? Do we know any of their heroes or mythical creatures other than their gods? Did they even have any? I don't know.

The reason I don't know is the reason I believe the majority of people don't know--they didn't teach it in school. They taught us the Greek Mythology and Egyptian Archaeology. Not the other way around. I don't know why, but I have my theories. For the purposes of my argument, however, I just needed numbers so I started with research but was unable to find any relevant studies (in my opinion because it's obvious!). Then I suggested a Facebook poll but I knew that it wouldn't be a significant data set so I asked my sister if that would count. She said yes.

It seems she changed her mind. Thank you to all my friends who voted, though.

Okay, I'll be fair on my sister, mostly she just decided she found a better way to check this theory with a much larger data-set. I'm just annoyed I didn't think of it first.

So she googled Greek Mythology and got over 3,000,000,000 hits. Then she googled Egyptian Mythology and only got over 700,000 hits. Even with the Google margin of error (i.e. llamas labeled "Greek mythology") this is certainly enough significant data for my sister and enough for me (possibly even if it hadn't proved me right).

Info Thursday
Logic Puzzles

So, yesterday my sister came into my room with several logic puzzles. I had told her previously that I wanted to try my hand at logic but I had forgotten about it until now. In any event, she gave me two if statements and said I was not supposed to assume anything not expressly written in the statement. The statement could also go contrary to reality but you still have to follow its logic and not reality's. One of the statements I did perfectly at but the other I made a fatal flaw. Below are the statements followed by the questions that pertained to them. See if you can guess which one I flubbed up on. Then, if not, I'll tell you, but I'm also curious if anyone makes the same mistake. So try the problems, IF YOU DARE...or, you know,...if you wanna...I won't make you or anything...

1. If an animal is a lion, it is a feline

i. An animal is not a lion. Is it a feline?
a. yes
b. no
c. can't tell

ii. An animal is not a feline. Is it a lion?
a. yes
b. no
c. can't tell

iii. An animal is a feline. Is it a lion?
a. yes
b. no
c. can't tell

2. If you eat your dinner, then you get dessert

i. You don't eat your dinner. Do you get dessert?
a. yes
b. no
c. can't tell
d. is it cookies?

ii. You don't get dessert. Did you eat your dinner?
a. yes
b. no
c. can't tell

iii. You get dessert. Did you eat your dinner?
a. yes
b. no
c. can't tell

Highlight the following for the answers: c, b, c - c, b, c

So which do you think I got wrong? It was the second one about dinner and dessert. It's because of the implied threat that I got the first and the third questions wrong since the logic is that it is possible that you could get dessert if you don't eat your dinner. In my experience, people don't usually say that unless it's different from the alternative, though, so I wasn't even consciously thinking it was an assumption.

Info Thursdays
The Political Situation in Nepal

I was watching a documentary called The Last Royals and when they mentioned the Nepalese King, King Gyanendra. That documentary was made in 2005. I recalled John Green talking about the political situation in Nepal back in 2007. So as an update to John, they did have the elections on April 10th, 2008, and the King became a commoner that same year, but now there's serious talk about taking back the king.

Sources:
The Last Royals
John Green
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyanendra_of_Nepal#cite_note-urges-16
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepal
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south-asia/Ex-Nepal-king-on-comeback-trail/articleshow/6536654.cms#ixzz10nFU0fzN

Info Thursday
Why Does Nutella Harden in the Refrigerator?

I was curious about this question, so I did some digging and found that palm oil, an ingredient in the US type of Nutella, hardens in a cold environment.

Sources:
http://www.nutellausa.com/ingredients.htm
http://www.americanpalmoil.com/publications/Guideline%20for%20Handling%20and%20Storage%20of%20Palm%20Oil%20Product.pdf
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=1753730
http://www.ehow.com/facts_5819492_palm-oil-biodiesel-disadvantages.html

Info Thursday
Eric Schmidt: CEO of Google

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Eric Schmidt
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes 2010 Election Fox News

When I saw Eric Schmidt's interview on the Colbert Report I was surprised because I knew the founders of Google were Larry Page and Sergey Brin (or, at least, I knew they were two young dudes), and I always just assumed they co-CEOed the company from thrones made of the carcasses of their enemies' servers, on a cloud of cotton candy, with humanoid androids serving their every whim. Okay, okay, that's a little fantastical. I mean, who would be Google's enemy, right? That's just silly. But apparently Schmidt, Page, and Brin, run the company as a triumvirate (first time I've heard that word). To show how little I've paid attention to one of the world's largest and most powerful companies, Schmidt became CEO way back in 2001 after a stint as chairman on the board. I guess, when Page and Brin are off fighting lightsaber duels with the demons of copyright law, Schmidt does the paperwork.

Info Thursdays
Introverted, Extroverted, Inverted?!

Today I read an article in the current issue of Psychology Today magazine about introversion and extroversion. I was frustrated to find that I could not wholly identify with either group from the definitions given by the article. For instance, introverts feel drained after working with a lot of people but sitting on desk at the library and answering reference questions was always one of my favorite activities. From the article's definition, that indicates extroversion. On the other hand, I hate large parties where I don't know anyone. I can socialize in those situations but it's something that I have to force. No distinction was drawn between informal and professional interactions being different in the article. Introverts were described as disliking both equally--although, they were happy to spend roughly the same amount of time with family and close friends as extroverts. But how can I happily deal with 100 strangers on desk in a work environment but feel overwhelmed by the same number of strangers in an unstructured environment?

The best I could understand from the article is I'm a shy extrovert. It seems like a contradiction of terms. Their definition of shy was also not particularly flattering, amounting to social awkwardness. I certainly hope that is not the case. It is simply that I feel uncomfortable in certain social situations, and therefore, don't enjoy in engaging in them. Still, I've often been told after such events that no one realized just how uncomfortable I was, so I have to guess, at least on those occasions, that I don't give the outward appearance of awkwardness.

In any event, I tried to get to the bottom of things by taking a an online Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) test. But I was warned by the site that the results are unscientific without professional evaluation. So perhaps I simply took it wrong because my supposed type of ENFJ didn't end up sounding much like me. But, if you're curious, feel free to click the link and try it yourself: http://www.personalitypathways.com/type_inventory.html

Info Thursdays
Penniless?

I originally called this research, but I like the sound of Info Thursdays, so there. Anyway, inspired by John Green's video and memories of a high-school friend of mine who was obsessed with the debate, I decided to look up the penny debate. My research is by no means exhaustive enough to answer all, or sadly, any of my questions. Actually, it only gave me more questions. But that's research for you. So I will tell you my questions, all of which are general questions or debate points and provide arguments I've found for both sides.

Will it make prices go up? This is the important and really divisive point, and I just can't get my mind around the argument that they won't. Probably because they don't provide the actual math for their argument. They usually just say "trust us, we've done studies." Whereas the math of paying an extra few cents for something over time meaning that you've paid more over time, makes perfect sense to me. So until someone comes up with the actual math to convince me otherwise, that is my sticking point.

Will the nation actually save money if we stop producing pennies? My other bone of contention is whether it would save the US money to stop producing pennies. No one argues that it costs more than a penny to make a penny. But it according to this argument, it costs significantly more to make a nickle. It claims "the Mint can make 5 pennies and still lose less money than making 1 nickel." It also claims that we would need more nickles if we got rid of pennies. To be honest, I'm not sure of this last assertion, but, if true, it would seem we're not actually saving. I've yet to see the opposing side address this other than some people (John Green being one) saying we should get rid of the nickle as well. They also talk about it costing us a lot of time to handle pennies. But what I want is numbers that I could understand and a reasonable method of having obtained these numbers.

If it really won't make prices go up or cost the nation more in nickle production, I'd be for it. But I would first need to be absolutely certain on both those counts. There is a sentimentality argument that we've always had the penny and it has Lincoln on it. This means nothing to me. I can't believe anyone who would want to have themselves taken seriously would ever give such an argument.

Sources:
http://www.retirethepenny.org/myths.html
http://coins.about.com/od/uscoins/i/penny_debate_2.htm
http://www.wfu.edu/wfunews/2006/2006.07.18.w.html
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Should+the+penny+be+retired%3F+It%27s+been+our+smallest-denomination+coin...-a0163393643