Valentines Day, a day to celebrate love or even just the concept of love and romance. What better way to inspire those romantic feelings than cute critters kissing? Rue the Day has a collection of 14 pairs of animals smooching, plus a chance to enter a contest as well! Link
Not everyone has plans for a romantic date on Valentines Day, and those who don't might want to get their minds off all this love stuff. There are alternatives! Phil Haney has a roundup of activities and adventures that have nothing to do with Valentines Day, from arranging your own kidnapping to eating your heart out ...way to oblivion. Shown is Fat Dave, your guide to Famous Fat Dave's NYC Eating Tour. http://www.collegehumor.com/article:1813300
If you look, you can often find good advice on Twitter. And sometimes that advice gets illustrated as a Twaggie. This Tweet by @Dana_Barzilay was illustrated by David Barneda. Link
Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy Blog has a collection of astronomical images that display valentine heart shapes -which just goes to show you can find anything if you look heart, er, hard enough. This picture is of the W5 star-forming region taken by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). The gallery ends with an extremely geeky bit of graffiti. Link
Among the ancients, it was revered as "the elixir of the gods."
Today, it is the one sweet temptation that most of us find impossible to resist. Yet, for most of its 3,500-year history, it was not eaten but rather consumed as a beverage -and a cold one at that. Although its form and flavor have taken many twists and turns through the millennia, its appeal, once discovered, has been universal. So, why not treat yourself to a tour through the rich history of chocolate.
THE OLD GRIND
1500 B.C.: The Olmec civilization of Guatemala, the Chiapas and the Yucatan regions of Central America cultivate the cacao tree and make use of its products by grinding the beans and then mixing with water.
MONEY GROWS ON TREES
A.D. 200: The Olmecs have been overthrown by the Mayan civilization. The vast cacao plantations are used as a source of currency, with the little black beans being traded for goods or services. The bean is only consumed by the ruling classes. By now the process of mixing the drink has become more sophisticated -the beans are roasted and then ground with water before spices such as chili are added. The resulting mixture is shaken until it develops a frothy top, at which point it is ready to be enjoyed.
A HEAVENLY DRINK
A.D. 1200: The Mayans have been supplanted by the Aztecs who heartily embrace the product of the cacao tree, even incorporating it into their mythology. Their god Quetzalcoatl is said to have pilfered a cacao tree from the heavenly realms and deposited it on the Central American plains ready to be converted into a health elixir and power aphrodisiac. Famed Emperor Montezuma enjoys the drink so much that he reputedly downs 50 goblets full every day (the amount of time he spends on the royal lavatory as a result of such liquid overload is not recorded).
WRONG CURRENCY
1502: Christopher Columbus, on his fourth voyage to the New World, takes possession of a Mayan trading vessel containing what he takes to be almonds and which functions as a means of monetary exchange for the Native Americans. He thereby become the first European to encounter the cacao bean, though he scarcely gives it any attention and certainly never tastes it.
JUST A SPOONFUL OF SUGAR
1519-1544: Spanish explorer Hernando Cortes leads an expedition into the heart of Mexico in search of gold and silver. He is welcomed by the Aztecs and served their greatest delicacy -a cold, bitter drink they call "cacahuatl." Cortes introduces this strange new brew to the Spanish court. It becomes an instant hit, even more so when sweetened with sugar. The Spanish would keep the secret of chocolate to themselves for the next 75 years.
ENGLISH COOKING
1579: The English let the chocolate opportunity slip through their fingers when they seize a Spanish cargo ship on the high seas. The British Buccaneers are surprised to find the ship holds a cargo of what they take to be sheep droppings and set it on fire. Eight years later they got a second chance when another Spanish ship carrying cacao beans is seized. Again, however, they destroy the cargo, declaring it to be useless.
GOES A COURTING
1609-1643: The secret is out. Chocolate makes it way across Europe, causing a sensation among the royal courts who are first introduced to it. France's Sun King, Louis XIV is so taken with the delicacy that he appoints a representative to manufacture and sell it. The first book entirely devoted to chocolate is printed in Mexico. Throughout the French nobility, the aphrodisiac properties of the drink are highly regarded. Both Casanova and the Marquis de Sade are said to be prolific consumers.
FAST FOOD
1662: The Church of Rome declares that the consumption of chocolate, although highly nutritious and filling, is not considered to be food and can therefore be safely taken in its liquid form during periods of religious fasting.
JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED
1765: Chocolate, by now highly regarded as a liquid delicacy and a medicinal remedy in Europe, makes its way to the United States where Dr. James Baker of Massachusetts begins a chocolate manufacturing plant. Cacao beans are ground into chocolate liquid and pressed into cakes that can be dissolved in water or milk to make drinking chocolate. At the same time, James Watt invents the steam engine in Europe, which will soon be applied to the mechanized manufacture of chocolate.
WARRANT FOR HIS ASCENT
1824: James Cadbury opens a grocery in Birmingham, England, selling roasted cacao beans on the side. Very soon he is concentrating solely on the cacao beans and, in 1854, receives a Royal Warrant to be the sole provider of chocolate to Queen Victoria. A century later Cadbury is the largest food company in the world.
BAR KING
1847: The modern chocolate bar is born when British manufacturer Joseph Fry mixes melted cacao butter into a paste that is them pressed into a mold and sold as a solid bar. Soon the public has been educated to eat, rather than drink their chocolate.
1893: Milton Snavely Hershey enters the chocolate business. The world is introduced to the milk chocolate Hershey bar, followed by Hershey's kisses. His operations grow at such a rate that he takes over the entire town of Derry Church, Pennsylvania, renames it Hershey, and turns it into the chocolate capital of the world.
1900 to present: The creation of chocolate delicacies becomes an art form. In 1908, the Swiss Toblerone bar is offered, in 1922 the European Chocolate Kiss, chocolate-covered cherries in 1929, and that old favorite -the chunky bar filled with nuts and raisins in the mid 1930s. During World War II, chocolate bars become standard issue for the U.S. military. When man conquers Mt. Everest in 1953 and heads into space in the 1960s, the chocolate bar goes along. By the end of the 20th century, science acknowledges what the Aztecs knew all along -that chocolate is a powerful fighter against fatigue, giving the eater added strength and energy. But, the scientists found, that energy comes at a price- a one-and-a-half ounce chocolate bar contains 220 calories!
Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts.
Argentine illustrator Maxim Dalton created this poster with 35 well-known guitarists. How many do you recognize? Larger images are at his website, as well the names. Link -via Popped Culture
It's time for the Name That Weird Invention! contest. Steven M. Johnson comes up with all sorts of crazy ideas in his Museum of Possibilities posts. What should we name this one? The commenters suggesting the funniest and wittiest names will win a free T-shirt from the NeatoShop. Get creative and leave an entry in the comments.
Contest rules: one entry per comment, though you can enter as many as you like. Please make a selection of the T-shirt you want (may we suggest the Science T-shirt, Funny T-shirt, and Artist-designed T-shirt categories?) alongside your entry. If you don't select a shirt, then you forfeit the prize. Good luck!
Update: The first-place name selected was Yawn-mower, from kfd90. Second place went to chaise-lawn from Norris. Neither winner selected a t-shirt, which hints that maybe you guys enjoy playing these games with or without a prize!
The Smithsonian National Zoological Park has installed a streaming webcam in a cheetah's den, so that we can keep an eye on a mother cheetah and two cubs.
Female cheetah Zazi is raising a cub she gave birth to and another mother's cub, both born in December 2010. Cheetahs that give birth to only one cub, called a singleton, cannot produce enough milk to keep the cub alive. The cub born to Amani, a first-time mother, was hand-raised for 13 days before being placed with Zazi, creating a litter of two that will likely help stimulate milk production from Zazi. These cheetahs are at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) in Front Royal, Virginia.
If you don't see any action on the webcam, there is a gallery of baby cheetah pictures. http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/AfricanSavanna/cheetahsbornSCBI.cfm -via KTAR
Artist Elliot Quince made linocut prints of creepy/funny zombie valentines you can print out and give to someone you love -if they have a sense of humor! What better way to say "Happy Valintestines Day"? Link -via Laughing Squid
They must have done something to reproduce, considering they roamed the earth for millions of years. Yet they died out for one reason or another. And some dinosaurs, like the stegosaurus, were covered in armor and spikes, which doesn't lead one to think of intimacy.
Figuring out how Stegosaurus even could have mated is a prickly subject. Females were just as well-armored as males, and it is unlikely that males mounted the females from the back. A different technique was necessary. Perhaps they angled so that they faced belly to belly, some have guessed, or maybe, as suggested by Timothy Isles in a recent paper, males faced away from standing females and backed up (a rather tricky maneuver!). The simplest technique yet proposed is that the female lay down on her side and the male approached standing up, thereby avoiding all those plates and spikes. However the Stegosaurus pair accomplished the feat, though, it was most likely brief—only as long as was needed for the exchange of genetic material. All that energy and effort, from growing ornaments to impressing a prospective mate, just for a few fleeting moments to continue the life of the species.
Smithsonian has the details on what we know, and how we came to know it, on the subject of dinosaur sex. Link -via Boing Boing
It's a simple quiz game. It gives you a word, and you decide whether it's a cheese or font. How hard could this be? After all, I buy cheese at the grocery store and I have many fonts on my computer. Surprise! There are way more of both in the world than I realized. Link-Thanks, Ginny Turner!
It's been a while since we've seen a new YouTube video from Zach Anner, since he's been busy as a contestant on a TV show from Oprah Winfrey's new network. I started watching this and had to stop and clean the coffee off my screen when he mentioned Israel. -via reddit
Without even realizing it, I posted articles featuring eggplants, zucchinis, and fruit this week. I must be subconsciously dreaming of spring gardening. Or maybe I need more fiber in my diet.
In the Museum of Possibilities, Steven Johnson presented us with the Name That Weird Invention! contest. A t-shirt goes to Skribbler, who won first place with the entry “Soil-ent Whites”. The second place name was “Grampers” from joe satari, who did not select a shirt.
In the What Is It? game this week, I thought Jared was the first with the correct answer (the item is a bottle opener!) then it turns out that sandyra was actually earlier with the correct answer and I overlooked it. So, both are now winners! Wilbur's answer was the funniest: "These are used exclusively for constructing wooden spiral staircases. (too bad you don't have the hammer in the pic)..." All win t-shirts from the NeatoShop!
There are more ways to get your Neatorama fix: If you aren't checking our Facebook page every day, you're missing out on extra content, contests, discussions, and links you won't find here. Also, our Twitter feed will keep you updated on what's going around the web in real time. Oh, and have a happy Valentines Day on Monday!
The Big Picture blog has a historic collection of forty images from the past two days in Cairo. Demonstrators heard rumors that president Mubarak would step down Thursday. The Egyptian president then delivered a speech in which he announced he was staying in office. Finally, on Friday he resigned from the presidency. This picture was taken only hours ago, after Mubarak handed power over to the military. Link
Illustrator Sam Spratt puts rich detail into subjects you already know and love. In this picture, we see the world of Angry Birds from the poor pig's perspective. The painting is available as a wallpaper. http://samspratt.com/SamSpratt_AngryBirds_Pig_Painting.JPG -Thanks, Rosa Golijan!
