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What Does a “New Year” Really Mean?

Today is New Year’s Day, which simply means the earth has completed another journey around the sun. But how in the world do we know how long that takes? To answer the question, Phil Plat has “taken a simple concept like ‘years’ and turned it into a horrifying nightmare of nerdery and math.” Let’s take a look at the Earth from a distance. From our imaginary point in space, we look down and see the Earth and the Sun. The Earth is moving, orbiting the Sun. Of course it is, you think to yourself. But how do you measure that? For something to be moving, it has to be moving relative to something else. What can we use as a yardstick against which to measure the Earth’s motion? Well, we might notice as we float in space that we are surrounded by billions of pretty stars. We can use them! So we mark the position of the Earth and Sun using the stars as benchmarks, and then watch and wait. Some time later, the Earth has moved in a big circle and is back to where it started in reference to those stars. That’s called a “sidereal year” (sidus is the Latin word for star). How long did that take? Let’s say we used a stopwatch to measure the elapsed time. We’ll see that it took the Earth 31,558,149 seconds (some people like to approximate that as pi x 10 million = 31,415,926 seconds, which is an easy way to be pretty dang close). But how many days is that? Well, that’s a second complication. A “day” is how long it takes the Earth to rotate once, but we’re back to that measurement problem again. But hey, we used the stars once, let’s do it again! You stand on the Earth and define a day as the time it takes for a star to go from directly overhead to directly overhead again: a sidereal day. That takes 23 hours 56 minutes 4 seconds = 86,164 seconds. But wait a second (a sidereal second?)—shouldn’t that be exactly equal to 24 hours? What happened to those 3 minutes and 56 seconds? I was afraid you’d ask that—but this turns out to be important. And that’s only the beginning of the explanation of where we get the concepts and the measurements for a “day” and a “year.” Read the rest at Bad Astronomy. Link ( Image credit: ESA ©2009 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA )

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What Does a “New Year” Really Mean?

Ancient Roman Socks

These magnificently preserved socks date back to Roman Egypt, c. 250-420 A.D. Are they designed for two-toed people? Not quite: The big toe divided from the others suggest that the socks were probably meant to be worn with sandals. It is unclear whether the socks formed offerings to the dead or were used as foot coverings. Note that the holes have not laddered (though they have spread somewhat).  Link -via Curious History  | Photo: Victoria and Albert Museum

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Ancient Roman Socks

Lady Finds Chinese Worker’s Plea For Help Inside Product Bought At K-Mart

A clever Chinese worker smuggled the note above into a Halloween decoration which was later bought at a K-Mart store in Oregon, and the woman who discovered the note felt compelled to share it with the world. Whether this note is a fake or not is still being debated, but Sophie Richardson from the Human Rights Watch claims: We’re in no position to confirm the veracity or origin of this…. I think it is fair to say the conditions described in the letter certainly conform to what we know about conditions in…labor camps…. If this thing is the real deal, that’s somebody saying, “Please help me, please know about me, please react.” That’s our job. Link  –via 22Words

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Lady Finds Chinese Worker’s Plea For Help Inside Product Bought At K-Mart

The Eggheaded, Noggin-Filling Story of Eggnog

There’s something deeply polarizing about eggnog. People either love it or hate it and of those that love it, even they are usually at opposing sides when it comes to homemade nog versus the commercial variety. Whether you love it have drank gallons of it this year or hate it and gag at the very thought of it, here is a little trivia about the milky treat. Image Via texascooking [Flickr] What the Heck is A Nog Anyway? The true origin of the drink is hotly debated, as is the reason for its name. Some, including Alton Brown explain that “nog” was a 17 th century slang for a strong beer brewed in East Anglia, England. Others say that the name was a combination of the words “egg” and “grog,” a term for a drink made with rum. When the words are put together to form “eggngrog,” it’s easy to see where “eggnog” would come from. As for the origin of the drink, it is believed to have come from posset, a medieval drink made with warm milk, booze and spices. One thing’s for sure though, before the drink came to America, it was popular with British aristocrats –but they called it an Egg Flip. Its Patriotic Roots in the New World In England, only the rich could afford the fresh eggs and milk required to make “egg flips,” but when the drink crossed the Atlantic, it soared in popularity as practically every American had access to these fresh ingredients and some kind of hard alcohol. Perhaps the biggest difference between the American eggnog and the British predecessor though is that brandy and sherry were the most common alcohols used in England, but these two items were heavily taxed in America so the locals instead turned to rum –which was particularly cheap thanks to a close trade association with the Caribbean. When the Revolutionary War made it more difficult for the colonists to find rum, they instead turned to using bourbon in its place –which is the most common alcohol used in eggnogs today. George Washington was a huge proponent of the creamy mixture and helped cement it into the nation’s history. In fact, he kept eggnog on hand all year long. Of course, his was not just any eggnog. White House records show that his recipe included rum, rye, whiskey, sherry and brandy. Need more proof of how important eggnog was in our fledgling nation? Look no further than the Eggnog Riot of 1926. It all started when some students at the West Point Military Academy, where alcohol was prohibited, smuggled some whiskey into their barracks to make eggnog for their Christmas party. As officials started to crack down on some of the drunk cadets, other drunken revelers started smashing and burning property at the school. By the time the riot was over, twenty cadets and one enlisted soldier were court-martialed. Amongst the many rioters, though he wasn’t court-martialed, was the future president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis. Image Via indigo_jones [Flickr] About the Drink Itself Eggnog is essentially a milk and egg custard and the base is almost identical to ice cream –except that the traditional alcoholic varieties have too much alcohol to freeze.  Those that cook their eggnog before serving it actually make a real custard. While the CDC says that you should always cook your eggnog prior to consumption in order to kill off any possible salmonella contamination, Alton Brown claims that if your mix contains at least 20% alcohol, is kept below 40 degrees and sits for at least a month, the alcohol will kill off any bacteria. The alcohol also managed to keep the milk from going sour and if you don’t cook the eggnog, it takes at least a month for the flavor to really develop. Alton Brown has a great booze-heavy recipe on Mental Floss if you want to make some of your own at home. Want the traditional eggnog flavor without alcohol and the risk of salmonella poisoning? Then try using the new pasteurized eggs available at most grocery stores. They’re pasteurized at a steady, low temperature to kill of bacteria without cooking the eggs themselves. Old School or New School As for the commercial varieties, there is a reason why real eggnog fans will always badmouth the store stuff. Under U.S. law, commercial eggnogs only need to contain at least 1% of a drink’s final weight to be made from egg yolk solids. If you buy the cheaper alternative “eggnog flavored milk,” it only has to have .5% egg yolk solids. Other than that, commercial eggnog can also contain milk, sugar, modified milk ingredients, glucose-fructose, water, carrageenan, guar gum, natural and artificial flavorings, spices, monoglycerides and colorings. Image Via chotda [Flickr] Need an Alternative? You lactose intolerant eggnog fans are in good company and people have been working for a long time to develop something you can drink without worry. In fact, nondairy eggnogs have been around at least since 1899, when Almeda Lambert printed a recipe for eggnog in her Guide for Nut Cookery that featured a drink made from coconut cream, eggs and sugar. I hope all you eggnog fans enjoyed this article, but before you celebrate too much, you’d better head to the store and grab a few more cartons –or get to mixing up some of your own, before it heads away for the season. Sources: Wikipedia #1 and #2 and Mental Floss #1 , and #2

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The Eggheaded, Noggin-Filling Story of Eggnog

Scholars: English Is a Scandinavian Language

Two linguists argue that modern English isn’t really a West Germanic language, most similar to modern German, Dutch and Frisian, but a North Germanic language, such as Norwegian, Swedish and Danish: Their research and conclusions are brand new and break with those of earlier linguistic professors who believe English is rooted in “Old English,” also known as the Anglo-Saxon language believed brought to the British Isles by settlers from northwestern and central Europe. Faarlund claims Scandinavians settled in the area long before French-speaking Normans conquered the British Isles in 1066. Faarlund and Edmonds also contend that Old English and modern English are two very different languages. “We think Old English simply died out,” Faarlund told  Apollon . “Instead, the Nordic language survived, strongly influenced by Old English.” Scandinavian settlers, Faarlund notes, gained control towards the end of the 9th century of an area known as  Danelagen,  which forms parts of Scotland and England today. Faarlund stressed that “an extremely important geographic point in our research” is that the East Midlands in England, where he says the modern English language developed, was part of the relatively densely populated southern portion of Danelagen. Edmonds and Faarlund also contend that sentence structure in what developed into modern English is Scandinavian, not western Germanic as previously believed. Both today’s Scandinavian languages place the object after the verb, for example, unlike German and Dutch which place the verb at the end of a sentence. Possessive forms can also be the same in both the Scandinavian languages and English, which also can end sentences with a preposition and split infinitives. While that’s sometimes frowned upon in other variations of modern English such as American English, Faarlund argues it’s not possible in German, Dutch or Old English. Link -via TYWKIWDBI  | Image: Dik Browne

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Scholars: English Is a Scandinavian Language

A Field Guide to Tech Facial Hair

According to Wired, the secret to success in the field of programming is facial hair. Notable exceptions include women, of course, and Mark Zuckerberg. Of course, it may also be because those who are the best at what they do can get away with wearing their hair any way they like in the workplace. IT workers fall into different facial hair categories, some of which are shown here. There are twenty types of beards and/or mustaches illustrated in all, so if your profession is not represented here, you can see the rest at Wired. Link (Image credit: Kelsey Dake )

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A Field Guide to Tech Facial Hair

The Patron Saint of the Internet

Pope John Paul II nominated Saint Isidore of Seville to be the patron saint of the internet, although the Vatican has not officially designated him so …yet. These things take time. Why St. Saint Isidore? Saint Isidore wrote a 20 book opus Etymologies, also known as the Origins, in which he tried to record everything that was known. Published after his death in 636, it was for a thousand years considered the encyclopedia of all human knowledge. Written in simple Latin, it was all a man needed in order to have access to everything he wanted to know about the world but never dared to ask, from the 28 types of common noun to the names of women’s outer garments. It was a tool by those seeking wisdom much like the internet is used now. There’s even a prayer asking St. Isidore for guidance while surfing the net. Link   -via mental_floss

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The Patron Saint of the Internet

Energy from a Single Orange

Every time you bite into an orange, you are tasting the results of the sunshine that went into the plant. The same sensation comes with other fresh ripe fruits and vegetables. In the orange battery, citric acid reacts with the zinc in nails inserted in an orange to release light energy. But the glow you see is not all that bright -photographer Caleb Charland, who made the battery, said the photograph required 14 hours of exposure! Still, this beautiful picture was worth it. Link -via Colossal

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Energy from a Single Orange

Heartbeat-Powered Pacemaker

The idea proposed by reseachers at the University of Michigan is to harvest the energy released by a heartbeat to power the pacemaker regulating the same heart: Piezoelectric materials generate an electric charge when their shape is changed. They are used in some microphones to convert vibrations into an electrical signal. Researchers at the University of Michigan are trying to use the movement of the heart as a source of electricity. In tests designed to simulate a range of heartbeats, enough electricity was generated to power a pacemaker. The designers now want to test the device on a real heart and build it into a commercial pacemaker. Link -via Glenn Reynolds  | Photo: Heart Pencil Holder on sale at the NeatoShop

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Heartbeat-Powered Pacemaker

Ancient Egyptian D20 Die

Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art When ancient Egyptians play Dungeons & Dragons with this D20 die above, we betcha they played with real dungeons! The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a nifty collection of the Ptolemaic Period (304 – 30 B.C.) dice, carved out of serpentinite rock: Link – via CNET’s Crave

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Ancient Egyptian D20 Die