Posts Tagged ‘whimsey’
What masterpieces am I playing?
May 16, 2016
What am I “watching?”
May 12, 2016
I love it – a Rube Goldberg device made of watch parts – view all the way to the end for the out-takes.
What am sappy bearcat blogging?
April 22, 2016
Arctictis binturong
Smells like buttered popcorn
“When nature employs smell, they’re either really nice or really bad, and it happens for a good reason: to lure things or to repel them away. But for bearcats, it’s quite a peculiar case, as their smell is rather… intriguing.
A joint team from several universities gave 33 bearcats routine physical examinations at the Carolina Tiger Rescue, a wildlife sanctuary in North Carolina. They took samples from the animals, including urine samples. The urine was analyzed with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, an instrumental technique through which complex mixtures of chemicals may be separated, identified and quantified.
They distinguished 29 compounds, and one of these compounds was 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (2-AP) – the very same chemical that gives buttered popcorn its unique smell. Just to make it clear, it’s not something that smells the same as buttered popcorn – it’s the same thing as buttered popcorn!
Researchers are not really sure how this happens without the very hot temperatures, but they have a hunch it could be caused by the bacteria the mammals have on their fur. As to why they’re doing this… it’s anyone’s guess.
Bearcats are mammals native to South and Southeast Asia. They spend most of their time in the foothills and hills with good tree cover. So if you find yourself in that area and feel a sudden smell of buttered popcorn… you’re probably surrounded by urine. I love nature.”
Story from ZME Science by Mihai Andrei
Photo by TassiloRau
What am I sappy teddy bear blogging?
April 15, 2016
What am I flying?
April 14, 2016
According to my calendar this is Go Fly a Kite day. Kites were, it is said, invented in China over 2000 years ago, where there were ample resources for kite building such as silk and bamboo.
Marco Polo in 1295 was one of the first people to document kite construction and use.
Kites have been employed throughout history for purposes of military strategy, in the 18th century they were used by meteorologists in weather forecasting, and for scientific experimentation by Ben Franklin.
Kite flying remains a popular pastime today and I found photographs of many interesting ones.
If you got this far in the post, I will just say, “gotcha” because this kite is really a bird, a swallow tailed kite, or Elanoides forficatus
What am I Lego-loving?
April 13, 2016
According to the producer, “This is a working particle accelerator built using LEGO bricks. I call it the LBC (Large Brick Collider). It can accelerate a LEGO soccer ball to just over 12.5 kilometers per hour.”
Thank you, HMS Defiant
What am I eating?
April 6, 2016
Twinkies introduced April 6, 1930
Twinkies were invented in Schiller Park, Illinois on April 6, 1930, by James Alexander Dewar, a baker for the Continental Baking Company. Realizing that several machines used to make cream-filled strawberry shortcake sat idle when strawberries were out of season, Dewar conceived a snack cake filled with banana cream, which he dubbed the Twinkie. The name came from a billboard he saw in St. Louis for “Twinkle Toe Shoes”. During World War II, bananas were rationed and the company was forced to switch to vanilla cream. This change proved popular, and banana-cream Twinkies were not widely re-introduced. The original flavor was occasionally found in limited-time promotions, but the company used strawberry cream for most Twinkies. In 1988, Fruit and Cream Twinkies were introduced with a strawberry filling swirled into the cream. The product was soon dropped. Vanilla’s dominance over banana flavoring would be challenged in 2005, following a month-long promotion of the movie King Kong. Hostess saw its Twinkie sales rise 20 percent during the promotion, and in 2007 restored the banana-cream Twinkie to its snack lineup. – Wikipedia
In addition to vanilla and banana cream filled Twinkies, limited editions have sometimes been found with strawberry, chocolate or blueberry fillings, and even a chocolate covered Twinkie with cherry filling.
What am I playing?
March 31, 2016
This is an Oscar winning short film on glass blowing. In this film, glass blowing – always fascinating to watch – traditional techniques are juxtaposed with more modern methods – all set to music. I love the way the man works with his pipe in his mouth and does not miss a beat.
Gunsmoke and Knitting 