10 Curious Facts About Marijuana

Now, I ordinarily wouldn't "sully" Easter with such a video, but it IS 4/20, after all.  I found this interesting and informative and learned quite a few things.  The most surprising thing was that it's not illegal in N. Korea and is smoked openly.  My first thought was that maybe it's encouraged to keep the populace under control, then I remembered the Ron Paul supporters who supported him mainly for his stance on drug decriminalization...they certainly were out of control. (and, IMHO, one of the biggest reasons he never got any traction with voters)

To Everyone

To my family, friends, regular and not-so-regular readers:

Carrot Skin

True or false?  Eating too many carrots can make your skin turn orange.

It's true.  Eating an excess of carrots can result in Carotenaemia, a benign condition most commonly occurring in vegetarians and young children but was also documented in British WWII fighter pilots and gunners who ate carrots thinking it would improve their eyesight. (which was actually propaganda intended for the Germans and to hide the fact that Great Britain was having success shooting down German aircraft at night due to advancements in radar technology)

It's a condition specific to humans, though.

dyad

dyad dy·ad [dahy-ad] noun

1. a group of two; couple; pair

2. Biology:
a. a secondary morphological unit, consisting of two monads: a chromosome dyad
b. the double chromosomes resulting from the separation of the four chromatids of a tetrad

3. Chemistry:  an element, atom, or group having a valence of two.

4. Mathematics:  two vectors with no symbol connecting them, usually considered as an operator

5. Sociology:
a. two persons involved in an ongoing relationship or interaction
b. the relationship or interaction itself

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I knew this word, even though it's not part of my every day vocabulary. I had to take an Interpersonal Communication class when I went back to school and I sat down at the first class thinking it was going to be a waste of time, but I changed my mind. I learned a dyad is, as the #5 definition says, the basic form of communication, being between two people.

I think the most important thing I learned about was how people play games and how nearly all of them are dishonest in nature. I wound up enjoying the class and learning a lot about communicating with others and even more about myself. The worst part was when we studied those games, this tune was in my head for a week.

Games People Play - Joe South

Carnivorous Plants

There are more than 600 species of carnivorous plants.

Todays bit of trivia comes from my daily trivia calendar, but it's also one of those coincidences that frequently happen to me. (and if they weren't so mundane, I'd think there was something more than coincidence to them.) I had just torn off yesterday's date to see this bit of trivia and not but a few minutes later, went to my Amazon shopping cart to add a bonus cash award I got from using Bing and saw a recommendation for the movie The Little Shop of Horrors - about a man-eating plant. I have the original, but not the remake.

I haven't seen them in a while, but I used to buy Venus Flytraps at the dime store when I was a kid;  they didn't live long and I always figured it was not only because I couldn't provide them the proper environment, but that I wore them out touching them to make their leaves shut.  Maybe I should buy one on Amazon and give it another try.

analphabetic

analphabetic  an·al·pha·bet·ic [an-al-fuh-bet-ik, an-al-]

adjective

1. not alphabetic: an analphabetic arrangement of letters.
2. unable to read or write; illiterate: analphabetic peoples.
3. Phonetics . of or constituting a system of phonetic transcription, as the one devised by Otto Jespersen, that for each sound indicates by separate sets of symbols the articulator, the point of articulation, and the size and shape of the mouth opening.

noun

4. an illiterate person; analphabet.

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A new word for me (and my spell checker, which has this word and its derivations underlined), but to be honest, I never would have guessed its meaning. I would've said it was someone who had to make sure all their letters were written at the same height and spacing...but that's because I saw the "anal" part first.

Annie's Song - John Denver

I never was a huge John Denver fan, but have always thought this was a lovely tune.  It brings tears to my eyes, which just goes to show how big of an emotional sap I am.