Domestic Ingenuity

Even if you've never used the expression “The greatest thing since sliced bread”, I'm pretty certain that you've heard it used.

Many expressions have a kernel of truth, and the sliced bread saying is no exception. But do you know when sliced bread was invented?

The first prototype for a machine that could slice a whole loaf at once was built in 1912, but it got destroyed in a fire. However in 1928 they became common, and sliced bread hit the market hard. So hard in fact that traditional bakers tried to make pre-sliced bread illegal, claiming that it was immoral.

Yeah, you read that right. Immoral... Now, it's no secret and I'm sure it's no surprise to anyone that existing businesses always try to strangle innovation. But immoral? Really?

Needless to say - but I'll say it anyway – sliced bread became popular enough to stay.

But how about canned food? You know, tin cans containing anything from axle grease to sliced pineapple. Baked beans to cat food, etc.

The humble tin can (mostly aluminum cans today) was first patented in 1810, with the first cannery opening in England in 1813. But it wasn't until 1858 that the first proper can opener was invented. Before then the cans had to be hammered open.

Staying in a domestic environment, let's discuss the vacuum cleaner. Care to guess when it was invented? No?

1868!

But for a person like me who hates to vacuum, this model created by Ives W. McGaffey, must have sucked to use. (Sorry, couldn't resist). You see, you had to push it around with one hand while operating a crank with the other. Talk about a chore...

Finally, after hammering open cans of food, crank-vacuuming the floor and having a slice of pre-cut bread, maybe you're thirsty. How about a soft drink to quench your withering thirst? Could you have one?

Yes, the first soft drinks (non carbonated though) were invented in France in the 17^th century. The first bubbly sodas came in the 1770's when carbon dioxide was added to the sweet drinks. But it wasn't until 1886 that Coca Cola was introduced to the American public (registered trademark since 1944).

So there you have it. Things you consume and use every week can be surprisingly old.

Until next week.

Civilized zombies?

I almost forgot to blog today, and there's a very good reason for it.

During the Steam Holiday Sale, I picked up two very good yet pretty different games.

First I bought Project Zomboid. This is a zombie survival horror game where you almost certainly will die. It's both challenging and exciting.

Although it looks pretty old-school, it hides some fairly advanced things under it's pixalated surface.

You create a survivor, and then you have to forage for everything. Food, water, bandages etc. you have to be careful not to eat raw or burned food. You have to cover the windows so the zombies don't see you and break in. You have to find something to do when you're hiding out.

Project Zomboid is still unfinished, but like so many good indie games, it'll constantly evolve in part thanks to it's mod base.

I'm looking forward to when the multiplayer gets implemented.

The other reason I nearly forgot to post today is Civilization V. as any player of the venerated Civ series knows, “just one more turn” can mean three hours gone.

So far I find Civ V to be as good as the first one was back in the day (1991), and I crave your indulgence dear readers, but I have to cut this short today. I have enemies to crush and greatness to achieve!

See you all next week.

Cya next year!

The New Year is upon us, and you better start thinking up New Year's Resolutions. You know, those self improvements that you intend to start, and abandon in March at the very latest.

I've never been too fond of those myself, but I got to thinking about when they were invented, and that in turn got me thinking about when other stuff was invented. And that's what the last post of 2013 is about.

The New Year's Resolution can be traced back all the way to ancient Babylon, although those were mainly promises to their gods to pay debts and return borrowed stuff. Seems the Babylonians weren't too fussed about loosing weight or quitting alcohol.

The phenomenon has been observed since in many cultures and religions throughout history, and even today they are popular. One source claims that today about 40% of all Americans make New Year's Resolutions.

Are you married, or thinking of getting married? I'm married, and we went through the whole rigamarole with the rings. Being a bit old fashioned, I didn't mind at all, but how old do you think the diamond engagement ring really is?

Although wedding rings are thought to have been invented by those pyramid loving Egyptians, the diamond engagement ring (not to mention the wedding ring) is very young. While it is true that the super rich did use them as early as the Renaissance, the De Beers diamond cartel started a campaign to promote the diamond engagement ring as late as 1938. In 1947 they came up with the slogan A diamond is forever, to make sure that everyone bought their diamonds and not just the rich. And it worked too. In '39 only about 10% bought diamond rings but in 1990 80% of us were suckered in. So the next time someone confuses a diamond ring with a dowry, claiming it's the mans duty to buy one because it has always been so, you can set them straight.

That's all I have for you today and this year. Join us next year as Eccentric Spheres continues to twirl around in interesting circles.

Happy New Year!

Odd Tactics

I'm sure it's no surprise to anyone who reads Eccentric Spheres, but I read a lot of WWII history. I don't read much about the battles as such, but more about the strange goings on that occurred in that grand conflict.

Today you get to share in some of these unusual occurrences and people.

First up is Nancy Wake, a.k.a. White Mouse.

Though by no means the only female SOE agent, she's in my opinion the most fascinating.

Born in New Zealand, she moved on her own to New York at the age of 16, to become a reporter for the Hearst papers. Then as Hearst's European correspondent, she saw first hand the atrocities the Nazis were capable of, and decided to do something about it.

To make a long story a lot shorter, she joined the British SOE, and between 1940 and 1945 raised merry hell for the Germans. The Gestapo gave her the nickname White Mouse for her ability to escape them time and time again, even thought they put up a 5 million franc bounty on her head.

She performed multiple jumps into France, successfully leading resistance fighters in raid after raid. In the last year of the war, thanks to her efforts (and a few others, I'm sure) her 7000+ fighters fought 22000 SS troops, killing 1400 while losing only 100 themselves.

In one raid, she killed an SS guard with one blow to the neck. In her own words:

"They'd taught this judo-chop stuff with the flat of the hand at SOE, and I practiced away at it. But this was the only time I used it -- whack -- and it killed him all right. I was really surprised."

There's more of course, but I won't put it all here. Follow the link if you want to know more about her. Believe me, it's worth it.

But the French Resistance is not the only group who knew how to stick it to the Nazis. The Norwegian freedom fighters, though not as famous, were just as good, and probably a lot meaner. Not just probably...

In 1943, the Special Operations Executive (SOE) decided to wage a mass demoralization campaign using itching powder. This powder was distributed to resistance groups all over Europe to be put in German uniforms. And it was pretty effective. It's hard to fight when your skin feels like it's on fire.

But the Norwegians decided to go that extra mile, and pretty soon the hospitals in Trondheim filled up with very upset German troops, because the resistance put the itching powder in the soldiers condoms...

Later on, the Nazi collaborating government in Norway (see Quisling) confiscated the entire years

sardine catch to supply the German military. This naturally upset the resistance a great deal. But thanks to some intelligence they got from a mole, they soon put in a request to SOE for a laxative that would dissolve without a trace in vegetable oil. No doubt impressed by the itching powder initiative, the British happily complied, and the Norwegians went to work.

You see, what the mole had discovered was that the best sardines were to be delivered to the U-boat crews.

Imagine that, boys and girls. You're trapped in a steel tube roughly 67 meters long, 6 meters wide at best and 9 meters high. You are in there with, give or take, 50 guys, and the whole place reeks of diesel fuel and unwashed bodies at the best of times. Now, add uncontrollable diarrhea for the whole crew, and you can truly say that war is hell.

That's all folks, have a very merry Christmas or your own equivalent thereof.

Cheers!

This week we're taking a break from facts, in order to take a look at the dangers of booze. I don't want to be preachy, so I decided to let the comedy geniuses David Mitchell and Robert Webb do all the work for me.




That's it folks, drink safely and have a great week!

Fate has an odd sense of humor

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned the sad, but funny fate of the Swedish King who ate himself to death on dessert. So in keeping with our recent themes, I thought we'd explore other rulers who croaked in interesting ways.

I won't include anyone who was killed in battle (a whole lot) or murdered or assassinated in a power play (also a whole lot). It's indeed good to be the king, but only if you survive.

Back in about 600 BCE, there was a Grecian ruler called Draco. Not to be confused with the little twerp from Harry Potter, this Draco was a really great guy. He worked very hard to write up laws that were both fair and just. And to stop people from inventing laws on the go.

So to celebrate his great work, they threw a party for Draco. Wasn't that nice? Unfortunately, they had a custom back then that consisted of throwing your cloak at the guy you were celebrating to show your respect. Odd habit I know, but aren't most customs a bit odd?

Anyway, it turned out Draco was SO popular that they threw way too many cloaks at him, and he suffocated under the mass off cloth they heaped upon him in his honor. At least they liked him, right?

Next up is the Roman Emperor Caracalla. He was as nasty as Draco was nice. Caracalla is known as one of the cruelest Emperors Rome ever had, and that's some stiff competition! Only Caligula was definitely worse.

One day, Caracalla was on his way to continue the war in Parthia (north-eastern Iran), when he had to answer Nature's Call. Even Emperors have to drain the lizard, to borrow a modern parlance. However, as Caracalla stood there contemplating whatever one thinks about at such times, one of his bodyguards stabbed him to death with a sword! Which might be why you've never seen a movie with this Emperor, cause how do you film that without making it into a comedy?

Finally for this week, we'll look at the demise of King George V of England. He died in 1925, after a long illness. I'm not going to go into his life here, follow the link if you're interested.

His death is what's fascinating. You see, although the King died in 1925 we only learned the true cause in 1986. Until then it was assumed natural causes did the job. But as it turned out, he was actually killed by his own doctor, Lord Dawson of Penn with a juicy cocktail of cocaine and morphine. That's right. The royal physician murdered the already dying King. And what was his motive? To save the Royal family the embarrassment of having to announce the King's death in the evening papers, of course!

What can we deduce from the fate of these three rulers?

1. You can be too nice.
2. Even Emperors need a toilet break.
3. If you're going to die, announce it in the morning papers.

That's it for this week. I'll see you all on Monday.

Truth is stranger than (science) fiction

Greetings boys and girls, another week is upon us, and I figured it wouldn't hurt to cram a bit more knowledge into our skulls while it's still 2013. Not that it means anything that it's 2013, it's really just a convenient excuse to share these wonderful facts with you.

For example, did you know that the University of Oxford was established earlier than The Aztec Empire? It's true, but it seems so incredibly unlikely, right?

And speaking of the olden times, consider that more time has passed between when the Egyptians started working on The Great Pyramids of Giza and the birth of Julius Caesar, than old Julius and us.

It's easy to forget how much happened in the relatively short period of time known as the 20th century, but Anne Frank and Martin Luther King Jr were born in the same year, yet we still tend to view them as belonging to completely different eras, even thought they were contemporaries.

Let's jump off planet for a moment and look at Venus, the planet closest to Earth in size. The pressure on the surface is 93 times higher than on earth, which would crush you in seconds. That's equivalent of one kilometer under the sea.

But the really weird fact is that Venus rotates on its axis only once every 243 Earth days but orbits the sun once every 224.65 Earth days. This means that on Venus, a day is longer than a year! Talk about having a looong day at work.

And finally, do you know your star sign? I bet you do, we all do. But whether you believe in astrology or not, your star sign is not your star sign at all!

You see, the Earth kind of wobbles a bit, which means that in the ca. 2000 years since the Babylonians invented the zodiac, we've shifted around enough to bump our star signs one step forward. So if you thought your sign is Virgo, you are actually a Libra. In other words, you don't know your sign at all...

That's all I wrote. It's a short post I know, but I've had a long day today, though not not Venusian long.

Take it easy, and have a great week!