The delicious mixture of soup and rice called gumbo is enjoyed in New Orleans and across Louisiana, as well as anywhere else gumbo fans live. But where did the Creole recipe originate? The answer depends on which ingredient you like most! Gumbo as we know it is a cosmopolitan product with contributions from African-Americans, the French, Choctaw tribesmen, the Canadian immigrants who came to be called Cajuns, Spaniards, Italians, and even Germans.

Its name is generally agreed to derive from ki ngombo, the term for okra in the Central Bantu dialect of West Africa, the homeland of many of the slaves brought to colonial Louisiana. Okra stews, served with rice, were a staple food among those slaves. And okra is the main thickening agent in many (though not all) varieties of gumbo. So it seems reasonable to conclude, as many culinary historians have, that the dish itself also bears some African heritage.

Nevertheless, a debate about gumbo's precise origins has raged for decades, framed by Louisiana's legacy of colonialism and complicated by the vast range of gumbo-preparation techniques practiced by the different peoples who make up the region's complex ethnic fabric. Most gumbos achieve their thickness, color, and texture partly from the use of a roux, the mixture of flour and oil employed by French cooks as early as the 14th century. This French technique has sometimes been used to bolster the theory that gumbo derived not from African okra stews, but from French bouillabaisse. Another theory contends that gumbo originated with Native Americans. That idea draws support from the use of the ground sassafras called filé powder as a thickening agent in some gumbos. According to this account, filé was introduced to the French by the Choctaws, whose word for sassafras was kombo.

Of course, like most Louisiana recipes, the ingredients you use depends on what's in season and in your cupboard. Link

(image credit: Justin Vogt)

Who knew there were so many volcanoes in the news? If you were a volcano blogger like Dr. Erik Klemetti, you'd keep up with these kinds of things. Now he's posted the volcanic activity from each month of 2009. Shown is the eruption of Mayon in the Philippines in December. Link

Most explanations of Darwinian evolution refer to genetic material as the manner in which changes are passed down to one's descendants. Now, a study by Jiali Li of the Scripps Institute in Florida finds that prions, the proteins that cause diseases like mad cow disease evolve in response to their environment. Prions have no genes, no chromosomes, and no DNA or RNA at all!

Prions are rogue version of a protein called PrP. Like all proteins, they are made up of chains of amino acids that fold into a complex three-dimensional structure. Prions are versions of PrP that have folded incorrectly and this misfolded form, called PrPSc, is social, evangelical and murderous. It converts normal prion proteins into a likeness of its abnormal self, and it rapidly gathers together in large clumps that damage and kill surrounding tissues.

Li has found that variation can creep into populations of initially identical prions. Their amino acid sequence stays the same but their already abnormal structures become increasingly twisted. These "mutant" forms have varying degrees of success in different environments. Some do well in brain tissue; others thrive in other types of cell. In each case, natural selection culls the least successful ones. The survivors pass on their structure to the "next generation", by altering the folds of normal prion proteins.

Scientists are not ready to classify prions as living things, even though this discovery may lead to some refinements in the definition of life. Link

Could anything be cuter than a baby panda climbing out of a crib? I don't think so. Wen Li the cub tried her great escape at the Chengdu Giant Panda Research Institute in China.

Unfortunately, her sense of balance is still a bit wobbly and she toppled over the side, ending up with little more than an upside-down view of the inside of her pen.

The failed attempt did not appear to deter Wen Li, however. She was later spotted in what seems to be her favourite position once more - dangling from the edge of her playpen again.

Go see the whole series of pictures. Link -via Unique Daily

Anatidaephobia is the fear that a duck is watching you. The term was coined by Gary Larson, author of the comic The Far Side, who profited from ducks watching people. In these days of contextual advertising, the fear may be well-founded. Link to larger screenshot. Link to text article. -via Bits and Pieces

In the Yamal penninsula of Siberia, resources are few, but the nomadic Nenets tribes survive by using the one resource as tough as they are: reindeer.

Their main occupation is reindeer breeding and all they have are reindeer, because they build houses of reindeer skin and make their clothes of it. There are a few thousand of herdsmen on the peninsula who have more than 500,000 reindeer. But presently their traditional occupation is at stake owing to global warming and climate change.

See a collection of pictures of the Nenets people at English Russia. Link -via Mothertrip

The staff at the Great Yarmouth Sea Life Centre in Norfolk, England learned their lesson last year, when farting turtles set off overflow alarms at another aquarium. The turtles get a Christmas treat of Brussels sprouts, which cause gas in turtles as they do in humans. When feeding sprouts to the turtles this year, the Norfolk aquarium lowered the water level to keep the expected bubbles from splashing water and setting off sensors.

Now the Yarmouth turtle tank -12 feet in depth and width holding 250,000 litres of water along with George the 3ft long green turtle - has been partially emptied for the festive season.

Thousands of litres have been removed to lower the water by a six inches and keep the sensitive alarms clear.

Displays Supervisor Christine Pitcher said: ''Last time an aquariist had to dash to the centre in the middle of the night, so we're not going to take any chances.

''Sprouts are really healthy for green turtles.

''The high levels of calcium in them are great for their shells, the fibre is good for their digestion and they also contain lots of beneficial Vitamin C, sulphur and potassium.''

Link -via the Presurfer

(image credit: Flickr user pkingDesign)

You don't have to be actually driving a car to be arrested for drunk driving. People have been arrested while operating a horse-and-buggy, a golf cart, or even a couch.

In perhaps the most absurd DUI case ever recorded, Dennis LeRoy Anderson, a 62 year old Minnesota couch potato with far too much time on his hands, was charged with DUI after crashing his motorized La-Z-Boy couch into a parked car. On October 22nd, 2009, Anderson swigged down far too many beers before taking his hot rod couch out for a spin around town. The couch, which was powered by a lawn mower engine, came strapped with a music-pumping boom box, a living room lamp, and cup holders to store his beer while steering.

Link -via Gorilla Mask

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Giant salamanders can grow up to five feet long! Flood control programs in Japan are threatening their spawning grounds, so scientists have developed innovative ways to help the salamanders get upstream. -via Unique Daily

Anyone with a remote car lock has wondered at one time or another whether the signal is really one-of-a-kind. What are the chances that your keyless entry could unlock someone else's car? It turns out the odds are pretty slim.

Modern remote keyless entry systems are pretty secure, but there is a slight chance Jason could open another Camry if he wants to walk up to one and press the unlock button on his remote (assuming it uses a 40-bit code) one trillion, ninety-nine billion, five hundred eleven million, six hundred twenty-seven thousand, seven hundred and seventy-six times, running through all the possible codes his remote could transmit until one works (assuming he can hit the button once every second without taking any breaks, he’ll need just shy of 34,842 years to do so).

Mental_floss explains how the coded radio signals work on a keyless entry and why the odds of unlocking another car are so small. Link

Remember how envious you were of the lucky person who got the best job in the world? Ben Southall, who beat 35,000 job applicants to live in a luxury island home in Australia and blog about the Great Barrier Reef was stung this week by an Irukandji jellyfish.

Australia is well-known for its myriad deadly creatures, but the peanut-sized Irukandji remains rather mysterious. It is virtually impossible to see and is tiny enough to pass through nets meant to keep jellyfish away from popular swimming spots.

Its sting can lead to symptoms including shooting pains in the muscles and chest, vomiting, restlessness and anxiety. Some symptoms can last for more than a week, and the syndrome can occasionally lead to a rapid rise in blood pressure and heart failure.

In 2002, two tourists were killed in separate incidents after being stung by the tiny creatures off northeast Australia — the first recorded Irukandji fatalities.

Southall was taken to a hospital where he spent the night, but has recovered enough to enjoy the final week of his six month assignment. Link -via Buzzfeed

Socks for your chairs? Yes, and they make your chair look like any of several stereotypes based on the style of socks. Get them in argyle (male or female colors), sporty, or striped. Your chairs will never get cold feet again! Link -via J-Walk Blog

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Starbucks launched their campaign against AIDS in Africa by putting together singers from 156 countries in one video performing The Beatles' song All You Need is Love. http://www.starbucksloveproject.com/ -via Buzzfeed

This article about rabies surprised me a little.

See, we know how to prevent rabies, but we have absolutely no idea how to cure it. In fact, we don't even really know how it kills people. Despite (and, perhaps, because of) its status as one of the first viruses to be tamed by a vaccine, rabies remains a little-understood disease.

What about all those stories you hear of someone being bitten by a rabid animal and having to get painful shots? I thought that was the cure, but it turns out those shots are actually a vaccine after the fact.

"You think about flu, that's a very quick virus. You develop symptoms in a couple of days. In a week, it's passed. But rabies incubation is very long," said Zhen Fu, DVM Ph.D., professor of pathology in the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Georgia. "It may be weeks or even months before you develop an active infection. So we have enough time after a bite to immunize with normal vaccine and bring up the immune system."

New treatments for vaccine show promise, but with few cases to study, the results are not conclusive. Maggie Koerth-Baker researched the disease after she found a bat in her living room. Link

Weaving glass? It seems impossible until you think of it backwards from the finished product. In this piece, the glass warp is formed in the finished shape before it is woven to the weft. Here you'll find instructions for doing it yourself. http://www.weavezine.com/content/how-weave-glass -via Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories