Scientists in Russia have developed techniques for successfully farming "bester" (a hybrid of beluga and sterlet) and successfully harvesting the roe without killing the sturgeon.
Rather than being culled, like elsewhere in the world, the female fish is what can best be called “milked”, gently and harmlessly. Each time a fish is milked it can produce up to a quarter of its weight in caviar. This approach not only makes caviar more accessible but also helps preserve this increasingly scarce and beautiful fish... Russia halted commercial harvesting in 2002. Five years later, the sale of sturgeon and black caviar were banned altogether. Poaching escalated, and so did the prices. Now, the country is trying to return to the heady days of Soviet caviar abundance.
A video at the link illustrates the process, which appears to be similar to that used in this country at state-sanctioned fisheries and trout farms. The photo comes from English Russia, which has a photoessay with several recipes utilizing caviar.
Controversy is brewing in the state of Maine over a proposal to designate the whoopie pie the official state dessert.
The designation, supporters say, would give Maine bakeries a marketing edge and raise awareness that the pies are more popular here than anywhere else in the country. But opponents say the legislation sends the wrong message at a time when the nation is struggling to fight childhood obesity, an issue the first lady has championed... Rep. Donald Pilon dismissed whoopies as "frosting delivery vehicles" and suggested that wild-blueberry pie deserves to be the state's official dessert.
The "pro-pie forces" claim the dessert "has ingredients that serve as antioxidants that relax blood pressure," and that it serves a useful function as a "comfort food" in times of economic hardship.
Those unfamiliar with this dessert may recognize it as a northern variant of the southern "moon pie." The origin of the name is uncertain; it dates from the same period as the "Making Whoopee" song in a 1928 musical. The cake component can be changed in a variety of ways; the shortening/sugar filling is reminiscent of that inside an Oreo cookie. Some examples are presented at The Nibble. This week the New York Times featured a history of the whoopie pie and noted that its popularity has spread far from its regional origins.
Now whoopie pies are migrating across the country, often appearing in the same specialty shops and grocery aisles that recently made room for cupcakes... Under the name “sweetie pies,” heart-shaped whoopie pies showed up in the February catalog from Williams-Sonoma. Baked in Maine with local butter and organic eggs, they sell for $49 a dozen.
An additional controversy has arisen in the state of Pennsylvania, whose residents claim to have been the originators of the whoopie pie, thought to have been a Pennsylvania Dutch creation which was only secondarily adopted by people in Maine. The Wall Street Journal has more details.
But back to the original controversy. Should "state foods" take nutritional value into consideration? A group of fourth-graders in Wisconsin are presently asking for cream puffs to be designated the official state dessert of Wisconsin. Other interesting state foods include Illinois' popcorn as a state snack food, Indiana's hoosier pie as a state pie, Massachusetts' Boston cream pie and chocolate chip cookies, and Oklahoma's sausages and gravy as the "state meal." Most states have designated milk as their state beverage (but one opted for whiskey, and another included Kool-Aid).
Story link, via. Photo credit Labadie's Bakery, via What's Cooking America, which has recipes for making your own whoopie pies.
Animal activists in China have raised objections to a stage performer's "magic trick" which appears to involve goldfish swimming in synchronized formations. Some allege that magnets or iron particles have been cruelly implanted in the fish (others suggests that these are not real fish at all...)
The performance is highly reminiscent of one first posted at Neatorama in 2007; that video has been removed, but another copy is available elsewhere on YouTube. And it's worth remembering that it is possible to train goldfish.
Edit: Updated with better video, found at BoingBoing.
"Flowers wilt. Chocolates melt. Roaches are forever."
That's the advice offered by the Bronx Zoo in conjunction with their limited-time Valentine's Day offer:
How better to express your appreciation for that special someone than to name a Madagascar hissing cockroach after them? Naming a roach in honor of someone near and dear to your heart shows that you've noticed how resilient, resourceful, and loyal that person is. Or maybe it's in recognition of your one and only's virility, or strength in the face of high radiation...
For a $10 donation, the Wildlife Conservation Society will name one of the hissing cockroaches after your loved one and send him or her a "truly memorable Certificate of Honor." About 1,700 names have been assigned during the first two days of this inspired promotion. Details at the link.
A Canadian geological statistician came to the realization that the numbers on some scratch lottery cards could not be random. “It wasn’t that hard,” Srivastava says. “I do the same kind of math all day long.”
"... I start looking at the tic-tac-toe game, and I begin to wonder how they make these things,” Srivastava says. “The tickets are clearly mass-produced, which means there must be some computer program that lays down the numbers. Of course, it would be really nice if the computer could just spit out random digits. But that’s not possible, since the lottery corporation needs to control the number of winning tickets. The game can’t be truly random. Instead, it has to generate the illusion of randomness while actually being carefully determined.”
He discovered that the numbers on the card before scratching provided information about the numbers underneath the latex. Specifically, he found that "singletons" - numbers present only once on a card - were likely to indicate the location of a successful scratch. After cracking the code, he calculated that he could win about $600/day if he spent full-time buying and scratching cards. Instead, he took his information to the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation.
A sample card is shown at left. Details of his logic and calculations are explained at the Wired link.
Tired of your old dictionary? Do you find the OED to be just a little bit staid and conventional? If that's the case, then you might want to consider looking up your word in the OEDILF - the Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form. This is a crowdsourced project, seeking at least one limerick for every meaning of every word in the English language. Definitions are presented only in the five-line AABBA rhyme sequence. For aleuromancy, you would find three limericks, including these two by Seth Brown and S.A. McBurnie:
My occult divinations ain't fancy — I read flour; that's aleuromancy. You toss knuckles and bones, I'll just stick with my scones; Stealing dead people's fingers is chancy.
Want an augury, easy to swallow? Aleuromancy—go ask Apollo: Balls of flour, words inside. Mix 'em up, then divide. (Later on, fortune cookies would follow.)
Like the original OED, this is a very-long-term work-in-progress. They are currently accepting submissions "based on words beginning with the letters Aa- through Dr- inclusive ONLY." The estimated date for completion of the dictionary is 17 Oct 2035.
When we participate in the flipping of a coin, the command given is to predict the outcome as "heads or tails." For centuries most American and British coins have featured a bust or profile of a head of state on one side of the coin (two-cent pieces, three-cent pieces, and shield nickels would be exceptions). For the other side, the OED explains with a citation from 1810 that it is called a tail "without respect to the figure upon it."
When the coin flipped comes from another country, however, the terminology may change. When the kopeck above is flipped, the choice is "lattice or eagle." The figure on the obverse is a monogram of the ruler, but to the common people it was viewed as a lattice. Other countries offer other choices:
For a Hungarian it is so obvious to call this game fej vagy írás, “head or script” that he would not believe if somebody told him that no other people says it exactly like this. The Germans say Kopf oder Zahl, the Spaniards and Italians Cara o cruz and Testa o croce, the Poles – just like Russians, and obviously after the same kopeiki – Orze? czy reszka, the Irishmen Head or harps, the Greeks (crown or script), and the ancient Latins Navia aut caput (ship or head [of Janus]), depending on the actual designs of their coins.
What comparable phrases have readers of Neatorama encountered in their home countries?
Bojan Zarkovic - Serbians also use "head or script."
Joris Slob - the Dutch use "kop of munt" (head or coin) because the queen is on one side and the number of cents/euro on the other.
nunov - its "face or crown" in Portugal.
Informantxgirl - in Thailand, it's "heads or pinky (koy)" - the "pinky" side showing a building or monument.
Paavo Ojala - in Finnish its "kruuna vai klaava," words borrowed from Swedish ("krona eller klave"). Some people don't know which word means which side.
DW - in Mexico it's "aguila o sol" (eagle or sun).
Tom T - in Portguese it's "Cara ou Coroa" (Head or Crown) - even though there is no crown on current coins.
nadiv - in Hebrew it's Etz (tree) or Pali. "These two terms come for the time of the British mandate over Palestine. The English "heads" was transformed to Etz, even though there's currently no head or tree on that side of the coin. Pali comes from Palestine, the writing on the other side of the coins back then."
cforeroo - in Colombia: Cara o sello (face or seal); commonly the flip is called 'carisellazo.'
Anton aka LT - Russians call "oryol ili reshka" (eagle or face).
Stubb - in Norway, it's "kron eller mynt" (crown or coin/value).
Madmolf - the French say "pile ou face" (mark made by seal of the coinmaker vs. head).
Bex H - Aussies call "heads or tails." There are animals on the "tails" side of all coins except the newer $2 ones, which feature an aboriginal person; The Black Adder says when these are flipped, the call is "black or white."
Shrinath - in Tamil Nadu (a state in South India), it's called "poova thalaya," meaning "head or flower."
A hat tip to everyone above. I'll keep updating the addenda as more information arrives.
The title refers not to the report earlier this week of a fox shooting a hunter, but to an announcement that some hunting clubs in England have replaced the traditional quarry with... humans.
And although he started the day nursing a sore knee, 54-year-old Andy Kay and his fellow runners are putting up a fine chase, it has to be said, pausing occasionally to listen for the hounds in pursuit or to pull brambles from their hair. Despite the suction of the mud and the slight rasp that comes from inhaling frigid air, this fit crew of three men and two women, given a half-hour head start, is maintaining an exhilarating lead over the hounds....
There are several advantages to hunting men rather than hunting fox:
Hunting foxes can be a dangerous pastime, and not just for the fox. That's because foxes show so little concern for the welfare of their pursuers: They'll dart across major roads and leap over train tracks, with unwitting members of the pack following doggedly along behind. Sometimes to their doom...
Men, Budd argued, can be instructed to stay away from roads and railway tracks. They also avoid disturbing farmers' livestock. And they can choose to lead the hounds and horsemen on a challenging chase over the highest hedges and the triangular wooden fences known as tiger traps.
The Washington Post article at the link goes on to explain how the club overcomes the problem of the humans not being sufficiently malodorous, the pleasures derived from the humans by the sensation of being hunted, and what happens when the hounds catch the humans
Those who believe in astrology need to update their charts.
The ancient Babylonians based zodiac signs on the constellation the sun was "in" on the day a person was born. During the ensuing millenniums, the moon's gravitational pull has made the Earth "wobble" around its axis, creating about a one-month bump in the stars' alignment...
Indeed, most horoscope readers who consider themselves Pisces are actually Aquarians. So instead of being sensitive, humane and idealistic, they actually are friendly, loyal and inventive. Or not.
At the link, the following new alignments are offered:
Astrology buffs should be using these dates, reflecting where the stars currently are aligned: Capricorn: Jan. 20-Feb. 16. Aquarius: Feb. 16-March 11. Pisces: March 11-April 18. Aries: April 18-May 13. Taurus: May 13-June 21. Gemini: June 21-July 20. Cancer: July 20-Aug. 10. Leo: Aug. 10-Sept. 16. Virgo: Sept. 16-Oct. 30. Libra: Oct. 30-Nov. 23. Scorpio: Nov. 23-29. Ophiuchus:* Nov. 29-Dec. 17. Sagittarius: Dec. 17-Jan. 20.
* Discarded by the Babylonians because they wanted 12 signs per year.
Cornell and other universities once incorporated live babies into their undergraduate teaching programs.
Once upon a time, infants were quietly removed from orphanages and delivered to the home economics programs at elite U.S. colleges, where young women were eager to learn the science of mothering. These infants became “practice babies,” living in “practice apartments,” where a gaggle of young “practice mothers” took turns caring for them...
Cornell’s program ran from 1919 to 1969 (which strikes me as incomprehensibly recent). At Cornell, eight female students at a time spent a full semester living in a fully-kitted out practice apartment. The women were there to learn the entire spectrum of homemaking skills...
Further details and a discussion of the "scientific method" of raising babies is at the PLoS Wonderland link, where it is noted that when the babies were returned to the orphanages after several years as teaching tools, they were in great demand by adoptive mothers.
The comedian featured in the poster is wearing a nurses' cap and a tunic which display a red cross.
In the letter the legal chief of the British Red Cross warned that the unauthorised use of the symbol could cost lives. The letter said: "Unauthorised use of the sign is an offence under the Geneva Conventions act 1957(section 6, 1a).
"The reason for the strict control is that the red cross emblem is an internationally agreed symbol of protection during armed conflicts. If the emblem is used for other purposes, its special significance will be diminished and potentially lives may be lost."
In response, the Glasgow Pavilion Theater management have changed his costume to feature a green cross.
The seemingly bizarre tintype shown above is an example of a nineteenth-century image created using the "hidden mother" technique, explained at Accidental Mysteries:
You see, most infants during that time were photographed with their mothers holding them. The intended picture was ultimately headed for a frame or mat, so the child would sit in the mothers lap for the photo. When the picture was taken, the mother simply was cropped out to serve as the backdrop.
An article at The Wall Street Journal discusses the growing trend of physicians having dogs in their offices to interact with patients.
Some patients pat Gus while they talk to Dr. Ramsey. A few talk to Gus instead. And if they get emotional, Gus provides physical comfort that therapists can't offer. "We can't hug patients, but patients can hug Gus..."
"Coming to this office can be unnerving for dementia patients, but when they see a dog, it's disarming. They feel comforted and safe," she says... Early in his practice, child psychologist Aubrey Fine treated a 9-year-old girl who was painfully withdrawn and refused to speak until his golden retriever, Puppy, laid her head in the girl's lap. The girl slowly began patting Puppy, smiled and spoke to her as her astonished parents looked on...
While there are no set requirements for having an animal assistant, most dogs who work with doctors have been trained in obedience and as therapy dogs... Of course, some patients are allergic or frightened around animals. Most doctors who practice with dogs inform patients before the first visit, and put the pup elsewhere for part of the day if necessary. But most find that practicing with a dog is a draw for patients, not a deterrent.
Much more at the link, including diagnostic skills attributed to dogs, and why dogs are better than cats in an office setting.
A Danish urban myth alleges that it is possible to get drunk by submerging one's feet in alcohol. Three physicians at Hillerød Hospital in Denmark tested this hypothesis on themselves in their office.
The primary end point was the concentration of plasma ethanol... measured every 30 minutes for three hours while feet were submerged in a washing-up bowl containing the contents of three 700 mL bottles of vodka. The secondary outcome was self assessment of intoxication related symptoms (self confidence, urge to speak, and number of spontaneous hugs), scored on a scale of 0 to 10.
They concluded that their feet were impermeable to alcohol.
With a major winter storm set to hit much of the U.S., this seems to be an appropriate time to share photos from The British Museum illustrating how mankind has coped with winter in earlier periods.
At the top are Eskimo-Aleut spectacles found at Southampton Island, crafted out of ivory. The center piece was created by Siberian craftsman, using leather, white metal, and beadwork. The bottom one comes from Salekhard, made of "metal, cloth, skin (reindeer, with fur), brass, beads, and buttons (brass)."
