On October 26, 1825 first passage through the Erie Canal was opened from Lake Erie to New York City. We always wondered how the mules were able to hold their breath long enough to make it all that way.
Category: Fun
Does This Look Funny To You?
Pablo Picasso was born on this day in 1881. On Oct. 25, 1955 Tappan sold its first microwave oven. It cost $1,200. That same year Picasso painted this pitcher. It’s worth $8,000-12,000. If only he’d had access to a microwave, maybe he could have melted the actual pitcher and painted it the way it REALLY looked instead of having to use his imagination.
Here’s a super cool Picasso site from Texas A & M University.
O Mole Mio
National Mole Day is today. Please choose from the following the type of mole that is being recognized:
1) the kind that lives in the ground
2) the kind that lives on your skin
3) the kind who infiltrates an organization
4) a spicy sauce made with chilies and usually chocolate
5) a mass (in grams) whose number is equal to the atomic mass of the molecule
If you said #5 you would probably fall down laughing at this joke that passes for humor in chemistry circles:
Q: What did Avogadro teach his students in math class?
A: Moletiplication
Curl up by the fire with a book on molecular theory.
Archery, Schmarchery
The Eau Claire, WI city fathers have spoken: archery is no longer permitted in Archery park. The park on the Eau Claire river is decked out with an archery tower and is set among wooded hillsides to keep those pointy little suckers contained within the park grounds. However, several have escaped into the neighboring yards over the years, hence the kibosh. We see an opportunity for a major fast food emporium to move in and take over the grounds.
Pennies: What Are They Good For?
That well-respected bastion of urban legend de-bunk-ation, snopes.com, has a surprising number of reports of the magic power of pennies. Can rubbing a penny on a bee sting ease the pain? (No.) Can a penny remove a wart? (No.) Will sucking on a penny defeat a breathalyzer test? (No and this is just crazy.) However, one folk cure was proven here a couple of years ago in a now-famous un-blind experiment. One of our own librarians was relieved of her warts by the constant and rigorous application of duct tape to the afflicted areas. We were convinced, and should any others at the Mudd ever develop warts, we’ll jump onto the duct tape bandwagon, which would be an excellent name for a rock group. Our new motto: The Mudd – Now Wart Free.
There Is No “I” In Mudd
It’s National Boss Day! Unfortunately, the boss here at the Mudd is not at work today. But if he’s reading this, we’re starting out the day with calisthenics, then a quick shelf reading of the entire collection, followed by a rousing version of LU’s alma mater. Then lunch. This afternoon we’re re-arranging the reference books according to height and popularity, fixing the leak up on the 3rd floor and adding a coffee shop. If you don’t notice these changes when you get back, it’s because you were, uh, dropped into a parallel universe. Yeah, that’s it.
Crittercam, Vol. 2
He’s whimpering. He’s anxious. He can’t stay still. You hurry to the door and let him out. What dogs really do when they go outside.
Nietzsche is Pietzsche
Today marks the 163th anniversary of the birth of Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher extraordinaire and (who knew?) opera buff. He had definite opinions: Bizet, good; Wagner, bad. Of course, being a philosopher, he was a little more wordy than that. As quoted in his entry in Grove, the music in Carmen “is wicked, cunning, fatalistic: it remains at the same time popular … It is rich. It is precise. It constructs, organizes, finishes.” On the other hand, “Wagner’s art is sick.” Yikes.
If you’ve a hankering for the wicked and cunning, here’s Callas as Carmen. Sick art more your thing? How about a little Walküre with Kirsten Flagstad? Or read something by the man himself.
Surely You Remember Al Sinistra?
Everyone loves craigslist. You can procure just about anything: animal, vegetable, mineral, legal, illegal. We were intrigued by this posting. It’s a whole different world down there in the Southern Hemisphere. Or in Minnesota.
2007 Ig Noble Prizes
” The 17th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony announced and introduced the ten new Ig Nobel Prize winners. The winners are traveling to the ceremony, at their own expense, from several continents. The Prizes will be handed to them by a group of genuine, genuinely bemused Nobel Laureates, all before a standing-room only audience of 1200 people.” This years prizes include:
Linguistics
A University of Barcelona team for showing that rats are unable to tell the difference between a person speaking Japanese backwards and somebody speaking Dutch backwards.
Economics
Kuo Cheng Hsieh of Taiwan for patenting a device that can catch bank robbers by dropping a net over them.