English as we know it today is a mishmash of words that came from everywhere. Sure, the majority of it came from German and evolved through Old English and Middle English until we could no longer read or understand the source languages. Then along the way, we've added a ton of words from other languages. Many can be traced directly to Greek mythology, Latin used in the Roman Empire, and real Greek people and things. So when you say "It's Greek to me," you should be able to figure at least some of it out. A lot of that is because the Greek and Roman Empires were widely influential and rather well documented. Some words were filtered from Latin by the romance languages that descended from it: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, and Romanian. If you ever studied Latin, you can often figure out what new words might mean. And if you run across a Greek god you are unfamiliar with, you can often figure out their story by the modern word we took from their name. -via Digg

In 2011, NASA ended the space shuttle program, and the US began hitching rides to the International Space Station (ISS) in Russian spacecraft. What could possibly go wrong?

Astronaut Frank Rubio launched his mission to the ISS on a Soyuz space capsule on September 21, 2022. While docked, that capsule sprung a leak and Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, decided it was too risky to bring anyone back to earth. Rubio's planned six-month mission on the ISS was extended until he could get a slot on another spacecraft. Another Soyuz capsule went to the ISS and back, but carried Russian crew. Other ISS personnel arrived and departed on SpaceX vehicles, with all seats taken. So Rubio stayed in orbit, along with the two cosmonauts he arrived with.

As of today, Rubio has spent 355 consecutive days in orbit, most of it unplanned, longer than any other US astronaut. He is scheduled to return to earth on September 27th, and by that time will be the first NASA astronaut to spend more than a calendar year in space, with a total of 371 days. A statement from NASA said, in part:

“Your dedication is truly out of this world, Frank!”

It's amazing how much dedication you can muster when you have no choice. Rubio's record is only among NASA astronauts. The record for the longest consecutive time in space is held by cosmonaut Valery Polyakov, who stayed aboard the space station Mir for 437 consecutive days in 1994-95.

Incidentally, the investigation of the coolant leak in that docked Soyuz spacecraft determined it was caused by an external factor, such as space debris. Which brings up a whole other subject on the dangers of space travel.  -via Gizmodo

(Image credit: NASA)

A legal deposit library is one in which all printed materials are required to be deposited. The United States requires copies be sent to the US Copyright Office, but only if you want a copyright, and they don't retain materials forever. In the UK, there are six legal deposit libraries, but as of now, the only one a publisher is legally required to sent materials to is the British Library, and they keep it forever. As you can imagine, this collection is massive, requiring off-site warehouses. It's not easy to get a library card to do research among all those materials, but when an item is requested, they move heaven and earth to get it for you. This requires giant high-speed robots and an impressive archiving system that has evolved over time. It will have to evolve further, as they are now taking all UK materials published online as well. Tom Scott gives us an overview, and ends with some lucky timing.

Duolingo received a question from a reader: "Are there any words that all languages have in common?" It turns out that there are two of them. But first we are treated to several words that come close but still have a few exceptions. Of course, you could see "pineapple" coming a mile away. The word is "ananas" or some variant all over the world, but pineapple in English. However, it's also called "piña" in a few languages. After several neat stories about those words, we get to the universal ones. You may think (as I did) that these common words might tie all languages together and reveal what the world's oldest language really is, but alas, no. The reason that two words are universal is because they are things that originated in one place and were exported globally in a relatively short time. You might even be able to guess them before you check out the article at Duolingo. -via Kottke

Crystallization is when solids form from a liquid by organizing molecules into a predetermined structure. That by itself is mind-blowing, but when you use certain chemicals to start with, the colors and motion can be stunningly beautiful. German photographer Jens Heidler brings us a time-lapse video of the crystallization process of a mixture of vitamin C and the amino acid beta analin, along with water and alcohol. He varied the proportions of the ingredients and the temperature to get different sequences. Heidler lists the gear he used at the YouTube page. I would never pretend to understand the chemistry of it all, but it sure it pretty! -via Laughing Squid

The marri tree (Corymbia calophylla) grows in Western Australia where water is a precious commodity. Its sap has antiseptic properties, making it really valuable. Aboriginal cultures in the area have been caring for these trees for thousands of years, and developed a method for turning them into bowls to hold scarce rainwater! In the Menang language, the tree is called Gnaama Boorna, which means water tree.

They say the best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago, but a marri tree requires even more patience. Many generations of the Menang people cut the central branch off a young tree, then shape the peripheral branches up around it over years. By the time a tree is 150 years old, the central pruning spot would become a well to hold water. They also protect these precious trees, by cleaning brush from around them so they won't be destroyed by fire. Some living trees are 400 years old, and still collecting water when it's available. Read about the significance of the marri tree at ABC. -via Metafilter

(Image credit: David McCorquodale, CC BY 4.0)

The USS Enterprise is under attack, but any defense plan is derailed by Kirk using antiquated earth idioms. The bridge crew is very diverse, as the future Starfleet became more diverse every time a new Star Trek series launched. That means there are plenty of Enterprise officers on board who are offended by the things he says (and more than even the captain is aware of). Kirk starts to figure out a way out of the mess, but he throws a little too much mustard on his plan and it ends up taking longer than it should. Oh no, I've probably just offended a crew member from the planet Mustard.

This animated scene is from Casper Kelly, who gave us Too Many Cooks. It is the first of  a series of five videos called Very Short Treks that pay homage to Star Trek: the Animated Series for the series' 50th anniversary. We will be looking forward to seeing the rest!   

If you ever think of Fanta, you probably picture orange soda. Or possibly grape. I think they also have a red one, but Fanta is usually orange. Except for this fall, when there's a black Fanta available for a limited time. The flavor is a mystery, and we may never find out exactly what it's supposed to taste like. My wild guess is that it will taste like some marginally nostalgic ultra-processed artificial fruit flavor. Fanta's parent company Coco-Cola has been doing this with various sodas for a year now. They encourage people to try it and share their guess at the taste on social media. In other words, free advertising. The only hint at these mystery flavors is that they are designed to "fool the senses," so a black beverage could easily taste like egg nog.

But the real selling point for What The Fanta Zero Sugar is that the company says it will turn your tongue black, so if you get some, you will want to put at least one back for the night of your Halloween costume party. Or take some to school to share for guaranteed hilarity. -via Mental Floss

(Image credit: Fanta) 

So are you a comic book reader? Have you ever been one? Marvel or DC? Evan Puschak explains why we tend to cleave to one or the other, for several reasons that make sense. Like Puschak, I started reading DC comics because of a Superman TV show, but in my case it was Adventures of Superman starring George Reeves, which I only saw in reruns. Comic books were 15 cents each, and I had to carefully budget my allowance to buy one. The rivalry between the two major comic producers is the same today, although the prices have gone up. I'm sure allowances have, too.

Puschak explains how comic publishers go through cycles of storytelling with their superhero characters, in order to boost readership and make money. Every once in a while, the cycle has escalated to a point where it has to stop and start over again, with a death, retirement, resurrection, or reboot, but that's fine because over the years another generation becomes old enough to read and enjoy comics. It's happened for around a hundred years. But does the cycle of a comic book superhero story translate to movies and TV? The Marvel Cinematic Universe has dozen of movies, and they follow the same sort of cycle seen in publishing. DC appears to be doing that, too, although with fewer films. Only time will tell if they know when it's the right time to slow down, take a break, and start over again. -via Kottke

We Earthlings will be able to see a new comet coming this way, all the way from the Oort Cloud at the outer reaches of our solar system. Comet Nishimura might be making its very first journey around the sun, and if it survives the trip, it won't be back for hundreds of years. The comet was first discovered by amateur astronomer Hideo Nishimura just last month. Since then, it has been getting brighter. The comet will reach its perihelion, the point where it is closest to the sun, on September 18. Considering its icy source and frozen composition, there's a good possibility that Comet Nishimura will break apart by then.

If you want to see Comet Nishimura, your best chance will be on Tuesday, September 12, at least in the northern hemisphere. Stargazers in the southern hemisphere may be able to track it longer, unless the comet disintegrates. Read more about Comet Nishmura and how to see it at Inverse.

(Image credit: Dan Bartlett via NASA)

While we tend to consider the 17th century as ancient history, the people of that time occasionally encountered even more ancient history. In 1653, a construction project in what is now Belgium unearthed a buried treasure of gold jewelry and other objects and human bones. Among them were 300 small bees made of gold, which may have been buttons of a sort. Archduke Leopold William took possession of the find, and enlisted his doctor to study them. Jean-Jacques Chifflet documented, illustrated, and identified the artifacts, and published a book about them. They were the possessions of King Childeric I (437 – 481 AD), the father of Clovis I who united the Frankish kingdoms and established the French monarchy. The workers on the construction site had stumbled upon his burial place.

That hoard of gold, including the 300 bees, had its own series of adventures after its excavation. It is the direct reason that Napoleon Bonaparte established the bee as his personal emblem. The collection was mostly destroyed after a heist, but thanks to Chifflet's efforts, we still know what it's all about. Read the chronicle of the golden bees at Just History Posts. -via Strange Company  

(Image credit: Unknown)

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KOTV Channel 6 news in Tulsa, Oklahoma, aired a human interest story about a June wedding in which a llama was a member of the wedding party. The animal, provided by Llama Adventures, looked very spiffy in his tuxedo and posed nicely for a full set of photographs. That will be a wedding to remember. 

The llama (named J) was funny enough, but the punch line came as the video clip ended and the chat commenced. His co-anchors could have brushed it off as a snarky remark, but they decided to throw him under the bus, and helpfully explained how a llama can stand up in a tuxedo. He's never going to live this down. -via reddit

Who would have guessed that U.S. Grant was a never-nude? It just goes to show that the psychological quirk is not a recent invention, it's just that we never heard of it before the internet. The US has seen 45 presidents (one served twice), and they all had parts of their lives that were private. Private parts that weren't covered by journalists, but were often exploited by rivals when the opportunity arose, and eventually made the history books. A trivia list about the weird private lives of some presidents is heavy on the rumored and confirmed adulterous affairs in presidential history (which isn't really all that odd), but also contains some fun facts that are just fun.

 
One has to wonder if the story may have been culturally nonsensical and the interpreter decided to smooth it over, or maybe the interpreter was just lazy. Not all presidents are covered, and some appear more than once. Some are stories you've heard over and over, and some are things you've never heard before. Read them all in a pictofacts list at Cracked.

In 2015, John Farrier introduced us to Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton, who helped 669 Jewish children escape from Czechoslovakia in 1938, then went back home to Britain and never spoke of it. Even his wife didn't know until 1988 when she found his scrapbook. We got to see a very touching television appearance from that year revealing Winton's secret war efforts. That video serves as the framework for the trailer for One Life, a new feature film about Winton, starring Anthony Hopkins as the older Winton and Johnny Flynn as the younger Winton. Let's watch that clip from the BBC show That's Life again.  



The part the video clip does not show is that after the survivors stood up, the host asked if there's anyone in the audience who was the child or grandchild of a survivor, and the entire auditorium stood up. One Life will premiere at the Toronto Film Festival later this month, and will open in theaters in the US on January first.   

An 18th century pirate named Black Caesar is a legend around south Florida. There's a display at Biscayne National Park telling his story. No one knew his exact origins, whether he came from Africa or escaped from a plantation in the Caribbean or the southern US. Black Caesar would hide his ship among the islands in Biscayne Bay and wait for another ship to pass by before terrorizing and looting it. It was said that his buried treasure is still hidden somewhere in the bay. There was even an artifact in an iron ring affixed to a rock, where Black Caesar would tie his ship.

Is there any truth the the story at all? Pirates made no effort to document their crimes, but a good story about buried treasure can be a selling point for a parcel of land in Florida. A good yarn will bring tourists into a bar, a marina, or a national park. Maritime archaeologist Joshua Marano followed the legend of Black Caesar to get to the bottom of the stories, and ended up with a story about a story. Read what he found at Atlas Obscura.

The more recent history behind the founding of Biscayne National Park is a much better story. Sir Lancelot Jones almost single-handedly made sure that Biscayne Bay would be remain a natural green spot in the metropolis that Miami-Dade County came to be.

(Image credit: U.S. National Park Service)