Zoos, or at least animal menageries, have been around since at least Roman times when exotic animals were collected for the purpose of being used in battles in the coliseum. During medieval times, the greatest zoo around was actually contained in the Tower of London. It was opened to the public for the first time during the reign of Elizabeth I. During the 18^th century, guests could visit the zoo for only three half-pence, or they could come for free if they brought a dog or cat to feed to the lions. This animal collection was eventually moved into the world’s first official “zoo,” the London Zoological Gardens.

Over the years, zoos have moved from being collections of caged animals designed to please the public to expansive parks dedicated to maintaining ecological diversity and conservation. While modern day zoos are mostly safe places where the public can go to see wild, exotic animals, this isn’t always the case. Here are some weird stories relating to modern zoos in honor of Visit The Zoo Day on December 27.

Image Via www.theedinburghblog.com [Flickr]

Gaza’s Painted Donkeys

When the only two zebras in the Mara Land Zoo in Gaza Strip starved to death during the Israel-Hamas war, zoo officials knew they needed the popular creatures in order to entertain the crowds. Unfortunately, replacing the expensive attractions through the secret underground tunnels in the area was not an option for the financially strapped zoo. So keepers did what any good zoologists would do and just faked their zebra collection by painting donkeys to look like their stripped cousins. To give them the dye jobs, zoo keepers used masking tape and black hair dye to create “authentic” stripping patterns on the creatures. While it may sound like a bad solution, many of the zoo’s young guests had never seen a real zebra and were equally impressed by the frauds. I guess it is still better to see a mock wild animal than no wild animals.

Source Image Via Associated Press

The Loneliest Pig In the World

What’s exotic to one culture may just be a standard farm animal to another, as evidenced by Khanzir, the only known pig in all of Afghanistan. Because pork products are illegal in the country, the pig is a true rarity in the country, who received Khanzir as a gift from China. As if the poor pig wasn’t lonely enough grazing beside goats and deer, when fear of the swine flu hit the country, he was forced to spend his time in quarantine all by himself.

The zoo director, Mr Saqib explained the zoo’s decision to isolate the animal, despite the knowledge that it would not actually be able to infect the general public, "The only reason we moved him was because Afghan people don't have a lot of knowledge about swine flu, and so when they see a pig they get worried and think they will get ill."

Mr. Saqib does have hopes to alleviate the pig’s loneliness though, he says after the swine flu concerns die down, he would like to get Khanzir a female companion. Perhaps then, poor little Khanzir could at least be a member of the only pig family in the country.

Source #1, #2 Image Via BBC

In Case of Escaped Rhino…

If you’ve ever wondered how keepers prepare for the possibility of an animal escaping the zoo, you’re not alone. Fortunately, thanks to the miracle of the internet, a Japanese training session to get keepers prepared for a potential rhino escape has been caught on tape and made its way into your home. The “rhino” in this case is pretty darn terrifying, what with its eight legs and all. While the team’s efforts seem effective, you have to wonder if they would work nearly as well when the beast is actually 1 ton and angry as all heck.

Orangutan Escape

Perhaps those zoo keepers should have worked on their plans for escaped primates rather than escaped rhinos. A video seen on Animal Planet (sorry its not embedded, but they don't offer that service) demonstrates the terrifying things that happened when a four-hundred pound angry orangutan broke out of its cage and chased tourists and charged security guards. During his escapade in the outside world, Blacky also smashed some scooters and took control of a camera tripod hoping to use it as weapon against the guards who shot him with a tranquilizer dart.

In the shot, you see just how long it takes for a huge animal to fall after getting shot with a tranquilizer dart --meaning the rhino training exercise certainly was optimistic about that part of the procedure.

Nuts About Knut

In nature, it is not uncommon for a mother to abandon her cub. Some environmentalists claim that the best thing to do in these situations is to let nature take its course and let the cub die off. But when the animal is already affected by human intervention because it lives in a zoo, it seems more than a little cold-hearted to just abandon the cub. Zookeeper Thomas Dörflein agreed, which is why he saved a two newborn polar bears that were abandoned by their mother.



One of the bears died of an infection within four days, but the other, Knut, was hand raised by Dörflein, who provided the cub with around-the-clock care. Only a few months into little Knut’s life, a German tabloid carried an article about Knut that featured a quote by animal rights activist Frank Albrecht, who said the bear should have been left to die rather than be subjected to a life as “a domestic pet.” The director of another local zoo agreed with Albrect and said that keepers should have “had the courage to let the bear die.” To be fair, both of the people quoted said they were taken out of context and Dörflein has said that he was making a point about a German court's decision saying that it was OK for another zoo to have euthanized an abandoned cub in a similar situation.

Naturally, animal lovers everywhere rallied in support of the little bear and the Berlin Zoo vowed to keep him alive and care for him. As a result of the controversy, Knut became a worldwide celebrity and videos of the little cub with his zookeeper were loaded onto YouTube for everyone to marvel at. His fame brought so many visitors to the zoo that it soon experienced its most profitable year out of its entire 163 year history.

As Knut grew older, he continued to be a popular attraction for visitors and he is still living at the zoo. Unfortunately, Dörflein died of a heart attack in 2008, although he remains a hero to many residents of Berlin.

Source Image Via Jean-Luc [Wikipedia Commons]

Human Exhibits

A long time ago (actually as recent as 1958 in Brussels), it wasn’t uncommon for humans of other races to be displayed in zoos alongside exotic animals. While racism in that time is not unusual, having people live in a zoo these days certainly is. But in 2007, the Adelaide Zoo in Australia ran a zoo exhibit where humans were housed in a former ape enclosure (they did get to go home at night). Inhabitants took part in a number of exercises and the amused onlookers were then asked for donations towards a new enclosure for a new exhibit for the chimpanzees.

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I've always thought there was something magical about the Pixar Studio's compound located in the San Francisco Bay Area, but getting to see these cool pictures of the inside just confirmed my wildest fantasies about how awesome it is. Imagine working at a place loaded with giant cartoon characters, free food, pool tables, video games and more.

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If you've ever wondered what the financial or ecological costs of a bottle of water really are, then check out this great infographic detailing the facts of bottled water. Some of the things are really interesting, like the fact that 40% of all bottled water companies just get their water from tap water.

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By now we all know a little about the Titanic, but HowStuffWorks has a great list of things that were lost on the famous ship, many of which were news to me. Perhaps the most interesting one is some of the lost artworks on the ship:

Perhaps unsurprisingly, considering the wealth of many of its passengers, the Titanic was carrying a number of works of art, all of which were lost when the ship sank. The most spectacular of these was a jeweled copy of The Rubaiyat, a collection of about 1,000 poems by the 11th-century Persian mathematician and astronomer Omar Khayyam. The binding of this incredibly luxurious book contained 1,500 precious stones, each set in gold. It had been sold at auction in March 1912 to an American bidder for £405 or around $1,900 -- 15 years worth of wages for a junior crew member on the Titanic.

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By now we all know a little about the Titanic, but HowStuffWorks has a great list of things that were lost on the famous ship, many of which were news to me. Perhaps the most interesting one is some of the lost artworks on the ship:

Perhaps unsurprisingly, considering the wealth of many of its passengers, the Titanic was carrying a number of works of art, all of which were lost when the ship sank. The most spectacular of these was a jeweled copy of The Rubaiyat, a collection of about 1,000 poems by the 11th-century Persian mathematician and astronomer Omar Khayyam. The binding of this incredibly luxurious book contained 1,500 precious stones, each set in gold. It had been sold at auction in March 1912 to an American bidder for £405 or around $1,900 -- 15 years worth of wages for a junior crew member on the Titanic.

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Since the Internet began, people have been sharing lists of the weirdest laws in the world, even so, I can't get enough of these absolutely inane rules. Elistmania has a great top 10 of these terrible laws, the best of which may just be "Single women can’t parachute on Sundays in Florida."

Why in the world would this be a law, and how could it be legal to discriminate like this in modern times?

For more silliness, see the rest of the list.

Link Image Via Bloomsberries [Flickr]

Urlesque has a great collection up of the "webbiest papercrafts" aka papercrafts made from internet memes. Personally, I love the two lol cat ones, but if you prefer hamster on a piano, keyboard cat or spaghetti monster the best, I wouldn't blame you.

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George W. Hart has brought us a milestone in breakfast-related math feats, the mobius strip bagel. Directions for making your own are on the link. The author says these are superior to regular bagels for non-math-related reasons as well.

It is much more fun to put cream cheese on these bagels than on an ordinary bagel. In additional to the intellectual stimulation, you get more cream cheese, because there is slightly more surface area.

Link Via Popurls

Around the world, people constantly have the drive to be immortalized in the Guinness Book of Records. Some try to fit the most billiard balls in their mouth, while others work together to make the world's largest food of its type. Web Urbanist has a collection of the later and the results are somehow both sickening and mouth-watering.

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Every year, Harrods holds a pet fashion show featuring stylish dogs paired with their fashionable model counterparts. The Pet Sugar slide show is fantastically entertaining.

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Touch screen iPhones and other gadgets are cool, but if you can't use them with gloves, you might just get way too cold depending on where you live. Fortunately, Instructables has a detailed set of instructions for making your gloves conductive so they can still work with your touch screen devices.

Link Via Craftzine

Otters are fascinating species and the giant otter is no exception. These endangered critters are in serious danger of extinction, but veterinarian Lucy Spelman and other scientists are working to protect them. The process of rescuing these adorable animals is detailed on the Adventures in Climate Change website.

Link Via Discovery News Image by Lucy Spelman

Vampire kits used to be all the rage for travelers in Europe, but thanks to Twilight's spawning vampire trend, they are now popular tourist bait for Ripley's Believe It Or Not. The museums now boast that they have the largest collection of vampire kits and they intend to keep buying them. The kits are pretty neat, so if you get a chance to see one, check it out.

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Bruce and Melanie Rosenbaum of Massachusetts are pretty enthusiastic about steampunk. So much so that they have converted the entire interior of their home into a steampunk haven called Modvic (modern Victorian). The full-house effect is amazing, as can be seen in the photos on the linked page.

Link Via Acid Cow

These days, everyone’s heard of Michel de Nostredame, better known as Nostradamus, but most people just know that he was one of the most famous seers in history. Most people don’t really know about his specific predictions, his life or why he’s so famous. To help clear the air and to celebrate Nostradamus’ December 14 birthday, here’s a bit of info on the most famous psychic in history.

What You’ve Heard About His Life Is Probably Wrong

A lot of the books about Nostradamus’ prophecies also include pieces of his biography. Unfortunately, just as the prophecies suffer from poor or manipulated translations, his biographies in these texts are often based on rumors or complete fabrication. There are stories that he was educated by his grandfathers, who were both physicians to the court of Good King Rene of Provence, but there is no evidence of this at all.

The books also claim he obtained his medical doctorate from Montpellier University and that he then began lecturing at the school, but this is directly contradicted by the slim bit of documented facts about his life. Before attending the university, he traveled the countryside working as an apothecary, which led to his expulsion from the university after the administrators learned that he used to work as an apothecary, which was expressly banned by university rules. The University of Montpellier still has the expulsion documents related to the incidents in its library. Needless to say, it seems unlikely the university then hired him to work as a lecturer.

The Plague of Misinformation

Other tales about Nostradamus say that he cured the plague. While the plague was certainly a big part of his life (it resulted in his leaving his first formal school at University of Avignon after the college closed due to a plague outbreak and, later, it killed his first wife and their two children), I’m sure you already know that the seer did not make any major advances in curing the disease.

That’s not to say he didn’t try to cure the plague though. After his expulsion from the University of Montpellier, Nostradamus became well-known around the country for creating a rose pill that allegedly protected against the plague. If the pill worked though, his wife and kids may actually have survived.

He wrote about the methods he used to treat the plague in his medical book Traité des fardemens, where he admitted that none of his techniques, which included bloodletting, actually worked.

Moving Into His Future (Of Predicting The Future)

Later on, he started to move away from his work as a healer and towards the occult. As was common for seers in the time, he wrote an almanac in 1550. This was when he first changed his name from the French Nostredame to the Latin Nostradamus. The almanac did so well, that he started writing at least one annually after that.

The almanacs are known to contain over 6,000 prophecies and 11 annual calendars, which all start on January 1. The many biographies about him by his followers claim that he identified the future pope, but again, there is no evidence to suggest this was actually true. After his almanacs did so well, it wasn’t long before people started approaching him for horoscopes and psychic advice.

Other Astrologers Thought He Stunk

When Nostradamus did psychic readings, he often asked his clients to bring their own birth charts for him to base his predictions on, unlike professional astrologers who would have calculated their own charts. When he had to use common published tables of the time, he made many errors and never adjusted the predictions for his client’s birth dates or place, as astrologers were supposed to do.

When he started writing Prophecies, astrologers thought Nostradamus was a fool because he claimed to be able to predict the future by comparing past planetary configurations with the events that unfolded at the time to future planetary alignments.

Interestingly, research has suggested this is not even how he made his predictions. Instead, he combined ancient end-of-the-world prophecies with references of historical events and omen report anthologies. Only then did he actually use any astrology to actually help project the events into the future. He mentions astrology only 43 times in his full prophecies, even though the predictions are supposedly based on this pseudoscience.

Plagiarism, Table of One

Speaking of shortcomings, Nostradamus was a bit of a plagiarizer. To be fair,  it was common for authors of the time to use the works of others and not credit them, but a lot of his books, even his predictions, were total rip-offs of other people’s ideas and works. A lot of his astrological references are almost word for word the same as the 1550 book Livre de l'estat et mutations des temps by Richard Roussat.

One of his biggest sources in prophecies was the Mirabilis liber of 1522, which had a wide range of prophecies from well-known seers. The book was widely successful when it came out, but because it was difficult to read due to its Latin text, Gothic script and difficult abbreviations, it had fallen out of favor by the time Nostradamus paraphrased it. Some experts believe this is why he is credited with many of these prophecies, even though they were known long before he wrote them.

Another of his sources, a book on Chaldean and Assyrian magic by a 4^th century Neo-Platonist called Iamblichus, was paraphrased almost word for word in a part of his Prophecies.

Critical Receptions

You may wonder how the Prophecies were received at the time. After all, it seems like the Catholic Church may have opposed anything occult and many biographies by his supporters claim he was afraid of the Inquisition. In reality though, prophecy and astrology were not considered heresy at the time and Nostradamus was careful to avoid practicing magic, which the church was against.

The Church actually had a good relationship with Nostradamus and they supported his work as both a healer and a prophet. He was temporarily imprisoned in 1561, but this was only because he published one of his almanacs without having permission from a bishop, which violated a recent royal decree.

Despite the Church’s support of his work though, some people still thought he was evil and Nostradamus worked to avoid persecution from religious fanatics by obscuring his works by mixing a variety of languages, including Greek, French, Italian and Latin, together. Of course, like today, other people believed he was purely a fraud.

Still, many people (often the elites) did enjoy his Prophecies and one of his biggest admirers was Queen Catherine de Médicis. In fact, she summoned him to Paris to explain his predictions from his 1555 almanac that hinted at threats to the royal family. While there, she had him draw up horoscopes for her children as well. When he was ordered to come to Paris, he said he was worried he was to be beheaded, but instead he found one of his greatest supporters. By the end of his life, eleven years later, he was the Counselor and Physician-in-Ordinary to the king, Henri II of France.

The End Is Nigh!

In 1566, Nostradamus realized that the gout he had long been suffering from would probably get the best of him soon. He summoned his lawyer and drew up a will for his wife and children. Again, many biographers took liberties with this point of his life, as many claim he gave his son a lost book of his prophetic paintings, but yet again, there is no evidence of this.

On July 1^st, claims say he told his secretary, “You will not find me alive at sunrise.” He was found dead the next morning.

He was buried in the local chapel (interestingly, part of this chapel is now incorporated into a restaurant), and many of his followers claim he was buried standing up, although he wasn’t. During the French revolution, his body was moved to the Collégiale Saint-Laurent. His followers claim that when his body was excavated he was wearing a medallion bearing that exact date. Needless to say, this was a complete fabrication.

Predicting the Past, Not So Hard Actually

Since his death, Nostradamus’ predictions have constantly been claimed as accurate immediately after a major world event has occurred. Those who translate his texts often do so inaccurately, so they can be used to predict past events. His works are retranslated constantly so they can be applied to new events that have happened.

Some of his followers even claim that he has coded his works with certain misspellings or punctuations, but this is completely wrong because the printing practices during his lifetime meant that no two editions of his original works are the exact same.

Events he has said to have predicted include the French Revolution, the Great London Fire, Napoleon’s rise, World War II, the challenger space shuttle’s crashing, and, most recently, September 11. Fortunately for his followers, none of his predictions are dated and they are all vague, so it’s easy to take loose translations of his prophecies and apply them to just about any of these events after they have happened. No one has ever been able to use one of his predictions to accurately predict an event before it happened.

The prophecies people most often use to refer to World War II include the word “Hister,” which is often wrongly translated directly to “Hitler.” However, Hister is a classic name for the lower Danube River. Some of his followers acknowledge this error and then try to claim that Nostradamus was still referring to Hitler because he was born near the lower Danube.

Nostradamus on September Eleventh

After the September 11 attacks, followers of the seer immediately went to work looking for verses that could be applied to the national tragedy. One of their favorite verses was:

In the City of God there will be a great thunder,
Two brothers torn apart by Chaos,
while the fortress endures,
the great leader will succumb,
The third big war will begin when the big city is burning

One of the variants of this quote actually was said to be signed by Nostradamus in 1654, when he would have been 150 years old. Funny enough, this verse was never even written by Nostradamus. The first four lines were constructed by Canadian grad student Neil Marshall, who was trying to make a point in a research paper about how vague statements by Nostradamus are often used retroactively to describe world events. Obviously, his point was pretty valid. The last line on the verse (notably longer than the others) was made by an anonymous internet user, who completely ignored Nostradamus’ writing style in his Prophecies.

Another verse used by the fans of the “seer” to prove he predicted the attacks said:

Five and forty degrees, the sky shall burn:
To great ‘New City’ shall the fire draw nigh.
With vehemence the flames shall spread and churn
When with the Normans they conclusions try.

This quote was at least by Nostradamus, but even so, it hardly proves the prophet was able to foresee the September 11 attacks. Followers say the “five and forty degrees” related to the latitude of New York City, but the latitude of the city is actually 40 degrees. Naturally, fans also say “New City” refers to New York, when it actually is literally any new city. The “Normans” line, of course, doesn’t make any sense to fit in with the attacks, so many people have conveniently just left them out when quoting his predictions.

Scholars that study Nostradamus say that these lines are merely future projections of the 1139 conquer of Naples by the Normans. The fire lines refer to a violent eruption of Mount Vesuvius that happened at the same time as the attack. In this case, 45 degrees actually is the latitude of Naples.

Hoaxes Gallore

The internet hoax about the 9-11 attacks were not the only time that someone has used a quote by someone else and used it in Nostradamus’ name. After the 2000 presidential election, the following quote was widely circulated as a Nostradamus prophecy:

Come the millennium, month 12
In the home of greatest power
The village idiot will come forth
To be acclaimed the leader.

Most scholars believe this one was actually written as a joke, but someone picked it up and decided to spread it as though it really was a prediction of the seer.

Source #1, #2, #3

Wanna send someone a postcard these holidays, but don't want to spend the 44 cents to actually send them something via snail mail? Google's got you covered. Right now, you can send anyone in the U.S. a free postcard courtesy of Gmail. There are six designs to choose from.

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Chris Peterson went to Montana's Glacier National Park for 100 days starting in May. Every day he took at least one amazing photo and posted it on his site. The result is amazing.

Link Via The Big Picture, Image by Chris Peterson

Simon Seeks has compiled a list of the most dangerous roads in the world. Many feature rock slide hazards, hair pin turns, steep cliffs and no guard rails. Still, it's amazing just how beautiful some of these deadly roads are --often because the views from these places are unbelievable.

Link Image Via Damian Morys [Flickr]

Web Urbanist has a great post of case mods on their recent post. The most awesome is disputably this beer dispenser mod. Even non-beer drinkers (like myself) can still appreciate the genius behind this creation.

Link Image Via Gizmodo

After Mussolini was executed, his body was strung up before being brought to the hospital for autopsy and eventually returned to the family members. So, when an eBay auction started for the brain and some blood samples of the deceased dictator, it was entirely possible that the remains (which started at around $22,000) were authentic. Fortunately, eBay has a policy of not allowing these sorts of things, so the auction was canceled a few hours in, before his granddaughter had even heard about the auction.

Link Image Via Euskalanato [Flickr]

Both Christmas and National Poinsettia Day (December 12) are coming up soon, which brings up some interesting questions you may never have considered before. For example, why is a flower indigenous to Mexico commonly recognized as an international symbol of Christmas? Or why is it so darn hard to keep your poinsettias alive and blooming once you’ve bought them at the store? You may have never thought too hard about the most popular potted plant in America, but here's your chance to learn about these fascinating blossoms.

Those Flowers, They Aren’t Really Flowers

Most people consider the bright red (or occasionally pale green, white, orange, cream, pink or marbled) areas on the plants to be the blooms, but in reality, these are just groupings of colored leaves called bracts. The actual flowers are those tiny little buds inside of the bracts (seen above) and these are called cyathias.

While we’re at it, most people think of poinsettias as red flowers, but as mentioned above, they can come in all the colors listed above. Still, over 74% of Americans prefer their poinsettias red, while 8% prefer white and 6% prefer pink.

Image Via Martin Heigan [Flickr]

What’s In A Name?

In Aztec times though, it was called “Cuetlaxochitl,” which means skin flower. In Chile and the Andes, it was known as the “Crown of the Andes.” According to legend, King Montezuma would have the flowers carried up to Mexico City because the flowers would not grow in such a high altitude.

Later on, German botanist Wilenow gave the plant its Latin name, Euphorbia pulcherrima, meaning "very beautiful." Soon after, it was introduced into the U.S. in 1828 by the first U.S. Minister to Mexico, Joel Roberts Poinsett. Years later, historian and horticulturalist William Prescott was asked to give the plant a new name. Having just written a book about Mexican history, he recalled Poinsett’s role in bringing the flowers into America. Prescott named the plant in Poinsett's honor. In modern Egypt, they still call the plant “Bent El Consul,” meaning “the consul’s daughter” after Mr. Poinsett.

In Spain, the flower is known as “flor de Pascua” or Easter flower. In Mexico and Guatemala, it is commonly called “Noche Buena” or “Christmas’ Eve.”

The Tropical Christmas Plant?

Speaking of Christmas, it seems rather strange that these New World plants would become synonymous with a holiday celebrating the birth of a Middle Eastern carpenter. Still, they are in fact the most popular holiday plant around, representing over 85% of all potted plant sales in the holiday season.

The reasons go all the way back to the 16th century, where a Mexican legend began spreading about a young girl who couldn’t afford a gift for Jesus' birthday. She was said to be told by an angel to gather weeds from the roadside and place them in front of the church altar. Soon after, crimson blossoms sprouted from the weeds and became poinsettias. Starting in the 17th century, Franciscan friars in Mexico began to include the plants in the Christmas celebrations.

Image Via Southern Pixel [Flickr]

Genetics, Marketing and Monopolies

Fast forward into America during the sixties and this Mexican tradition  started spreading across the U.S. thanks to Paul Ecke Jr. This young man was a marketing genius who started sending television networks free poinsettias for display on air between Thanksgiving and Christmas. He also appeared on programs like "The Tonight Show" and Bob Hope’s Christmas specials to help promote the plant. His efforts were highly successful and largely responsible for the association of poinsettias with Christmas outside of Mexico.

Lest you think Paul was simply an overly enthusiastic supporter of the flower, his intentions were mostly monetary. Paul was an heir of the Ecke family, owners of a virtual monopoly on our modern day idea of poinsettia flowers.

His German immigrant grandfather, Albert Ecke, started selling the plants from street stands after 1900. Paul Ecke the first, Albert’s son, developed a grafting method that resulted in a fuller, more compact plant than the wild plants (seen to the left). He additionally discovered a phytoplasma infection to the plant would induce it to produce far more flowers than its natural, weed-like cousin. The family held the secret to these techniques up until the 1990’s, giving them a monopoly on the poinsettia market up to that point.

In the nineties, a researcher discovered the Ecke’s method and published it, allowing for competitors to the company. These days, many companies in Latin America sell the flowers all over the world, but the Ecke’s family (who now exclusively uses farms outside the U.S.) still controls about 50% of the worldwide market.

Image Via Jiggs Images [Flickr]

Myths About Poison

In 1919, a completely unfounded story began to circulate that a two year-old child died after she ate a poinsettia leaf. Researchers who looked into the story found that it is all hearsay and about as truthful as the razors in candy apple stories that circulate around Halloween. Ohio State University researchers found that a 50 pound child would have to eat 500 bracts to even get a sore tummy. Despite this, the rumor continues to circulate that poinsettias are poisonous and should not be kept around pets or children.

On the other hand, the sap from poinsettias can cause temporary blindness when introduced directly in the eye and some people with latex allergies will have an allergic reaction to the plants. So the only people who need to be wary of the plants are those that have a latex allergy or anyone with a habit of putting things in their eyes for no reason.

Image Via distopiandreamgirl [Flickr]

Why Are They So Hard to Grow?

If you’ve ever bought poinsettias during the holiday season, you may have noticed just how finicky these beautiful plants can be. Even if you live in an area with a warmer climate that is suitable for the tropical buds, you still may not be able to get your plants to reflower the way they did when you bought them.

The reason for this is encoded in the plant’s genes. In order to produce the vibrant, thick blooms the plant is known for, the plant needs to have two months of completely dark nights in the autumn. Even minor exposure to houselights can hamper flower production. If you really want your plants to reflower, you need to cover the plant with a light-proof bag between 5 pm and 8 am starting early October and stopping when the bracts begin to show colors --usually around mid-December. To make gardening the plant even more complex, you also have to be sure the nighttime temperatures are below 75 degrees Fahrenheit, but also not too cold. Failure to keep the plant in the right temperature can also result in decay or lack of flowers.

Personally, I love gardening and I love poinsettias, but the effort involved with trying to keep them reflowering is just way too much for me. Have any of you had better luck?

Image Via Property#1 [Flickr]

Source #1, #2

This cool staircase/slide combo is known by London architect Alex Michaelis. It's one of 15 awesome staircases featured on Web Urbanist.

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Looking to cuddle up with your own bit of disease? Try this breast cancer cell sculpture by Amyof Glitter, Vinyl and Thread. She was inspired by the beauty of the cancer cells and entered her creation in the Good Cause Challenge.

Link Via Craftzine Image Via Glitter, Vinyl and Thread

Because you Neatorama readers are so smart, you might already know how sickle cell anemia makes someone resistant to malaria. This apparent evolutionary disadvantage has actually survived through the generations because it makes individuals more fit for survival in other ways.

While sickle cell anemia is the best known of these evolutionary diseases, it is not the only one. Migraines, depression and bipolar disorder are all passed down genetically, and there’s a good reason these traits that seem to be negative haven’t been eradicated through the millenia.

Migraines

Migraines don’t just cause majorly painful headaches, they also stimulate the nervous system, making people far more sensitive to light and sound. While this doesn’t really help modern day migraine sufferers, it could help save someone’s life in prehistoric times. Scientists speculate that migraines allowed prehistoric men and women to be one step ahead of their predators and their prey, making them more fit for survival.

Source Image Via Migraine Chick [Flickr]

Depression

While between 30 to 50 percent of all people suffer from depression at some point, it doesn’t seem the condition would offer any advantages. Surprisingly, depression actually helps people focus on their problems and then think more clearly about the possible solution to the issues that are bothering them.

Studies show that people who are depressed tend to score better on complex problems in intelligence tests than those who are not. Side effects of depression, such as lack of sexual interest and lack of appetite, can even help prevent distractions from our problem solving abilities.

Source Image Via Darkwood67 [Flickr]

Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder works in a much different manner. When individuals inherit severe bipolar disorders, they can have a hard time concentrating, making sound decisions, feeling comfortable in social situations and organizing their time. But, when someone gets the right combination of the genes that cause bipolar disorder, they can see increased creativity, courage and productivity.

Source Image Via Ventolinmono [Flickr]

The Amalgamated Order of Real Bearded Santas is asking that costumed Santas be put on the priority list for swine flu vaccinations this year.

"I have heard across the country numerous Santas who have actually had the swine flu, but I have not heard reports back of any of our Santas being able to get the swine flu shot as of yet," said AORBS president Nicholas Trolli, who claims the shots will not only benefit the Santas, but the public at large.

Another major Santa group, Santa America, is ordering its members to wash their suits daily, rather than weekly and to stop wearing gloves to make hand washing easier.

Link Image Via Steve Rhodes [Flickr]

Did you know you can modify an old bumper car into an actual minicar? The results are pretty cool looking, as evidenced by these cars made by Tim Wright.

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Knitters around the net rejoice, Threadless is holding a new contest until January 18, 2010. Whoever makes the coolest knitted version of one of their shirts wins, so get your needles clicking.

Link Via Craftzine

Pet rocks are way too old school, but not anymore thanks to ThinkGeek's new USB powered pet rock. The rock with a glued-on USB cord will only run you around $10.

Link Via Foolish Gadgets

Ever think about which veggies look like our insides? This clever ad can help...not that you need to think about food anymore after your Thanksgiving feast.

Link Via Craftzine Image Via International Vegetarian Union

These little critters, known as puggles when they are babies, are notoriously hard to breed, but the Perth Zoo in Australia has managed to successfully breed them three years in a row. The zoo thinks it's now ready to start working on a reproduction program for their critically endangered cousins, the long-beaked echidna of New Guinea.

Link Images Via Lincoln Baker