No, not a blue whale or an elephant.
A mushroom. A giant ass mushroom.

The armillaria ostoyae, or the honey fungus, it's a common mushroom and you probably even have one in your garden!

'But if it's a giant ass mushroom, I'm sure I don't have one! I don't even have enough space for a small koy pond, let alone a giant ass anything!' - You may say.

Listen, I'm not using that adjective lightly! The largest ever recorded specimen, in Malheur National forest, in Oregon, covers 890 hectares (2,200 acres), and is between 2,000 and 8,000 years old!

This enormous fungus was originally thought to grow in different clusters around the forest, but researchers have confirmed it's in fact one very, very large single organism!

The majority of this organism is under ground of course, in the form of a massive mat of mycelia, its roots.

But anyway, for me, this honey fungus thing can grow wherever it wants, the only mushrooms I'm concern about are those right here!

Hmmmm....Mushrooms....

Wonder about that!

If I'm going to talk about pills, you know what kind of reference I'm going to pull right?
Matrix.

So, Neo had to choose between the blue pill that would have put him back to sleep in the boring world of cubicles, and the red pill that would wake him up to the industrial womb factory world.
If you missed that, red pill wakes you up, blue pill makes you sleep!

Now, what colors are the sleeping pills? Yep, be it the package or the pill itself, all you see there is blue! And that's no coincidence; researchers have found that the color of a pill makes a difference in how it works.

In a study, patients were given the exact same sedative, but some received it in a blue pill and others in an orange one. The blue pill takers reported falling asleep 30 minutes faster and sleeping 30 minutes longer than the orange pill takers.

It's another weird manifestation of the placebo effect. How you perceive effectiveness, affects effectiveness.

In a different experiment, subjects were told they were going to get a sedative or a stimulant, when in fact they were getting placebos. Yet 66% of the subjects who took the blue pills reported feeling less alert compared to 26% of those who took pink pills.

And in another study, researchers put fake medicine packages in front of subjects, who picked certain color of boxes over others. It seems warm colors like brown and red were perceived as more potent; green and yellow on the other hand, might as well have been mentos as far as they were concerned.


So, this is why heart medicine are often red or brown, while skin medicines are yellow, sleeping pills blue or green, and painkillers are often white.

Wonder about that!

Yep, you read that right.
Fishbowls.

Apparently, in Monza, Italy, the issues of modern society escalated a bit. Forget the poverty and starvation, the unemployment and politics, the environment, crime spree, STD's, etc.
In this town, they don't have time to worry about unimportant stuff like that; they're too busy dealing with serious and intense problems like what happens to a fish if you keep it in a fishbowl.

So, do you know what happens to a fish if you keep it in a fishbowl? Do you?!

See? The people in Monza are the one who have this thing all figured out!
It seems that if you keep a fish in a fishbowl, the poor animal will see the world all messed up, that's what!

According to the town council, a fishbowl provides "a distorted view of reality"; and they're not having any of that crap there!

So, yeah, the council has banned the bowls in favor of square aquariums which represent an accurate and heart-warming fashion of the reality of the fish.

Wonder about that!

The origins of April Fool's Day are a mystery.

The most popular theory is that France changed its calendar in the 1500s so that the New Year would begin in January to match the Roman calendar instead of beginning at the start of spring, early April. However word of the change traveled slowly and some people continued to celebrate the New Year in that date. These dwellers became known as "April fools".

Some disagree with this interpretation believing that April Fool's Day simply grew out of age-old European spring festivals of renewal, in which pranks and camouflaging one's identity are common.

There's also some that believed that the idea came from Roman jesters during the time of Constantine I in the third and fourth centuries A.D. As the story goes, jesters successfully petitioned the ruler to allow one of their elected members to be king for a day. So, on April first, Constantine handed over the reins of the Roman Empire for one day to King Kugel, his jester. Kugel decreed that the day forever would be a day of absurdity.

Nowadays, the April Fool's Day goes beyond just switching out the sugar with salt. Here is a list of the top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes!


Wonder about that!

So according to popular believe, if your friend or whoever avoids social interaction, they're antisocial, 'cause if they don't want to do something social, they must be anti social!

Yeaaah...No.

I get how people think that if someone who is reluctant to participate in social situations is categorized as antisocial. However, in fact, these people, the antisocial ones I mean, are often pro social, even unusually so!

Antisocial Personality Disorder is diagnosed in adults (18 years or more) who consistently disregard and ignore the rights, are impulsive, irresponsible, lie, or generally act recklessly with no concern for the safety of themselves or others. They are often extroverted and very much the opposite of the type of people who are so often called antisocial, who care about other people's feelings. These people are usually just shy or have social anxiety disorder or maybe avoidant personality disorder.

Wonder about that!

Maybe you think you've got a smart dog, I know I do. And maybe you've given him a tiny hat and a monocle, named him something like Sir Nicholas and taught him how to roll over and stuff like that.

But while you and Sir Nicholas were perfecting those tricks, the stray dogs of Moscow have mastered the city's subway system.

Since dog catching fell behind when the Soviet Union collapse, today there are around 35000 strays in that city. And, over several generations of breeding, those dogs have gotten very smart indeed.

Stray dogs have to rely on their skills to survive, and since only 3% of those strays survive long enough to breed, only the toughest and smartest end up procreating. Yeah Darwin, stop bragging already.

So, many of these streets dogs have taken up residence in the underground metro stations and have learned how to travel via subway train! Yep, you hear me alright!....Well, read me alright! they'll stand and wait for the train, just like the people, then sneak on and get off at their stops! Freaking awesome right? Right?!
Scientist figure they use smell and the recorded names of stations to navigate.

But wait! That's not all they've figured out! Yes, there's more! They have learned how to send out the smallest and cutest among them to beg for food, and the big ones to jump and bark at on a person eating a snack, making them drop it, then pouncing on the dropped food.

So, you know what this means, right?
...They're coming for us.

Wonder about that!

Hello everybody!
I apologize for the silence this weekend, but I wanted to post on this particular day. The day for the lovers, the chocolate and jewelry, the flowers and cards. Yep, Valentine's day.

So if you're in a relationship and you have time to spare, you're spending it with your better half and I doubt you're reading this today. If you're not in a relationship and you're feeling alone and with no one the give you some treats and all that, I'm gifting you some facts about this day...That, now that I think about it, will probably make you sadder.

#1 Valentine's day traces its roots to an ancient pagan holiday called Lupercalia, in which men stripped naked, grabbed whips and spanked young women in hopes of increasing their fertility.
...Which sounds a lot more fun than this thing we do nowadays..Just saying!

#2 Throughout history, there have been approximately 8 St. Valentines, 3 of them had special feast days in their honor. The 2 St. Valentines who most likely inspired Valentine's day are Valentine of Terni and Valentine of Rome.
St. Valentine is the patron saint of lovers and engaged couples; but he is also the patron saint of epilepsy (which he is said that to have suffered), plague, greetings, travelers, young people and bee keepers!

#3 The Christian martyr St. Valentine was beheaded on February 14th for performing marriages in secret. Also, the famous St. Valentine's day massacre, in which 7 Chicago gangsters were gunned down on February 14th, 1929, was one of the bloodiest in mob history.
My bloody Valentine indeed...

#4 The 1st Valentine's day card was sent by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife, while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London.

#5 Red hearts are a Valentine symbol. Red is traditionally associated with the color of blood.
At one time, people thought that the heart, which pumps bloods, was the part of the body that felt love. In fact, when the Egyptians mummified their dead for burial, they removed every organ but the heart because these hopeless romantics believed that the heart was the only part of the body necessary for the trip through eternity. (*awww*)


#6 40% of people have negative feelings towards Valentine's day.


#7 The saying "wearing you heart on your sleeve" is from the Middle Ages. Boys at this time would draw names of girls to see who would be their 'Valentine' and then wear the name pinned on their sleeve for a week.

#8 Engagements rings are often worn on the 4th finger of the left hand because the ancient Greeks maintained that that finger contains the vena amoris (vein of love) that runs straight to the heart.
And, speaking of rings, the 1st recorded wedding rings appeared in ancient Egypt, with the circle representing eternity as well as powerful sun and moon deities.



Wonder about that!

Yep. Scientists have discovered that when we perform synchronized activities such as singing songs, reciting chants or even just walking together, we end up feeling more connected to the people we're performing these activities with. Although, it turns out it's not exactly what you're saying or singing that matters, it's just the fact that you're performing these activities in unison with other people.

In a faraway land, there is a scourge that few people dare mention out loud. It is not only nefarious, but..Well, there's no other way to say this, remarkably retarded! It is....Silly string!

For years and years, citizens faced each Halloween on Hollywood Boulevard like Anne Frank, hiding away and hoping for the madness to stop.

Finally, someone stood up to the terror of silly string and put an end to it, banning it under the penalty of a $1,000 fine.

That...Hmm..Hero was city councilor Tom LaBonge. And yes, as you can see, the ban is for just one night out of the year, the Halloween.

This resulted from complaints that random silly string sprayings originated fistfights during the usual Halloween street gatherings. Apparently, there were reports of people throwing the cans at each other.


What this tells me is that instead of a ban, maybe they should have simply offered classes on how to properly use silly string!


Wonder about that!

Similar to my last post, and since today is the new year's eve, I'm gonna let you know some facts about it!

#1 The Date: If you had lived in Mesopotamia and Babylon 4000 years ago, you probably would have celebrated the new year in mid.March, at the time of the Spring Equinox, and apparently their party lasted for eleven days!...Undoubtedly putting modern day New Year's Eve parties to shame...Although, if you were an Egyptian, your new year began with the Autumnal Equinox and the flooding of the Nile. And, if you were Greek, the Winter Solstice began your new year celebrations!
Julius Caeser was the first to set January 1st as the New Year, since it celebrated the beginning of the civil year and the festival of the god of gates and, eventually, the god of all beginnings, Janus, after whom January was named.

#2 Resolution: As it seems, "losing weight" is the most common New Year's resolution!

#3 Superstitions: Many cultures prepare New Year's foods that are believed to influence good fortune, or avoid dishes that might cause misfortune; much like the choice of the outfit worn in this day, particular the color of underwear!

Some cliche picture for New Year's Eve!

That's it for today! I apologize but I'm not gonna prolong my stay here, and you shouldn't either! Go prepare yourself for the party!

Wonder about that! And party on!

Today is Christmas day. All around the world people will be sitting down to special meals, giving gifts, singing, drinking and stuff like that. In honor of this great holiday, i have a gift for you, some Christmas facts!

#1 The Date: In the early Church, Christmas was not celebrated as a major feast. The first evidence of the Church attempting to put a date on the day of Christ's birth comes from 200 AD, when theologians in Alexandria decided it was the 20th of May. By the 380's, the Church in Rome was attempting to unite the various regions in using December 25th as the universal feast day, and eventually that was the day that stuck. The influence of the pagan feasts of Rome is clear, because December 25th was the festival for the birth of the sun.

#2 Gifts and such: Many of the Christmas traditions (gifts, drinks, cards, etc.) are not modern gifts of capitalism! They actually come to us via the Ancient Romans who exchanged all of those things on New Year's Day. This was initially shunned by the Church, but old habits die hard and it eventually transferred to Christmas.

#3 Xmas: That one small word causes anger amongst many people. Many Christians consider it to be disrespectful to replace Christ's name with an 'X'. However, Xmas is almost as old as the feast it refers to, the 'X' is actually the Greek letter chi which is the first letter of Christ's name in Greek.

#4 Christmas Tree: The first association of tree with Christmas comes from Saint Boniface in the 7th century AD, when he chopped down a tree sacred to Thor to prove to the local villagers that the Norse gods were not legitimate. By the 15th century people were cutting down trees and putting them in their homes to decorate with sugared fruit, candy and candles.

#5 Santa Claus: Santa Claus is actually based on the early Church Bishop Saint Nicholas. He was born during the 3rd century, in the village in Turkey, and was known for secretly giving gifts of money to the poor. The modern image of him as a jolly man in red most likely comes from the 1823 poem "A visit from St Nicholas" also known as "The Night before Christmas".

#6 Candy Canes: In the late 1800s, a candy maker in Indiana wanted to express the meaning of Christmas through a symbol made of candy. He came up with the idea of bending one of his white candy sticks into the letter 'J', symbolizing the first letter in Jesus name. He incorporated several symbols of Christ's love and sacrifice through the Candy Cane. First, he used a plain whit peppermint stick, the color symbolizes the purity and sinless nature of Jesus. Next, he added three small stripes to symbolize the pain inflicted upon Jesus before his death on the cross - there are three of them to represent the Holy Trinity. He added a bold stripe to represent the blood Jesus shed for mankind. And finally, when looked at with the crook on top, it looks like a shepherd's staff because Jesus is the shepherd of man.

Wonder about that! And have jolly Christmas

This one is an awesome example of Darwin's Evolutionary Theory.

You see, when the international ban on the trade of ivory took effect in 1989, there were about a million elephants in Africa and about 7.5% of those were getting poached to death every year. Today, less than half of them are left, and we're still losing about 8% of elephants to ivory poachers. Pretty much everything we've done to protect our wild pachyderm friends has failed.

So elephants have decided to take matters into their own hands...or trunks or weirdly rounded three-toed feet or whatever. To make themselves less appealing to their greatest enemies (poachers), elephants all over the world have begun selecting against having tusks at all! For example, it used to be that only 2 to 5 percent of Asian male elephants were born without tusks, and by 2005, it was estimated that the tuskless population had risen to between 5 to 10 percent. And it's not just happening in Asia, either. One African national park estimated their number of elephants born without tusks was as high as 38%. It's natural selection in action! Either lady elephants are deliberately choosing tuskless mates, or the only boy elephants surviving into breeding time are the ones born without tusks. Either way, that tusklessness is getting passed on.

This is so incredible because it's not like tusks are the elephant version of wisdom teeth. They're weapons and tools, and they are needed to dig for water and roots and to battle for the love of a lady! Which means nature decided poachers are a greater threat to the elephant's existence than its diminished ability to forage or to score!

Wonder about that!

What the hell? Not water?

Nop! Not water! It's fat.
It's the fatty tissue in the humps of camels that it's used as an energy reserve, as it minimizes heat-trapping insulation throughout the rest of their bodies. When this tissue is metabolized, it acts as a source of energy.

The water is stored in their bodies, predominantly in their bloodstream, which makes them very good at avoiding dehydration. Camels can go seven days without drinking, but when they do drink, they really go for it! Up to 225 liters (50gallons) a time! Enough to easily keep a family of four satisfied on the driest of summer afternoons.

Bitch, I'm fabulous!

Wonder about that!

Yep. Chameleons change colors, not to blend into their background, but depending on a number of emotional states. They change color when frightened, mating, fighting, etc.

"But I've seen photos/videos of a chameleon blending into the background!" - Yeah, but that's because they change so often, that eventually they'll match their backgrounds!

A chameleon would have little use for blending in, because their main prey, insects, tend to have an eyesight unfit to spot them when they are still; and being an apex predator, chameleons don't tend to have any natural predators.

Wonder about that!

Indeed! As it seems, moths are not attracted to light, but instead, disorientated by them!

This is because they use natural light sources to determine what direction they should be facing and how to fly in a straight line, and when we come along with the artificial ones, it confuse them!

So there they are minding their own business, when BAM, artificial light comes up. "Oh this must be the right way!" - they think. And they rectify their direction, but "Oh no!" - the light source being so close, the only way to do this is to fly around in circles!

Oh, and by the way, moths don't eat cloths, their caterpillars do.

Wonder about that!

Irregardless
What you think it means? Spotless or as good as new
What it really means? Ancient, primeval, in a state virtually unchanged from the original

The sky wasn't blue?! So what, then?
Well, as a matter of fact, the sky in acient Greece was bronze! How? Because there was no word for blue in the acient Greek language.

The nearest words to blue were glaukos and kyanos which are expressions of relative light intensity. So when the Greek referred to the sky as bronze, they meant that it was dazzlingly bright.

"Oh but I need more proof!" - Well, ok, go read the 'Iliad' by Homer, where he keeps mentioning the sky as being bronze or red!

Wonder about that!

Honey is the only food that does not spoil. Proof? Archaeologists found honey in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs, as they paid their taxes in honey, and found it edible.