Fun Friday Fact - hope you respond weekly to give us all a smile

[awkward-yet-sweet]

@Heather Shay In Norse myth, Freyja's twin brother Freyr shared some of the same attributes/responsibilities.  Probably because Freyja was busy being the party goddess sleeping with everybody.  She's similar in some ways to the Roman Venus/Greek Aphrodite.   Russian/Slavic variations are Lado/Lada or Rado/Rada.  Sometimes the female has the name Ziva.  The names Rada and Ziva are cognates of Radha and Shiva, which are Hindu deities that again share some of the same attributes.  Amazing how folk myths have connections across cultures. 

 

 

 

 

[Heather Shay]

1. 'Mellifluous' is a sound that is pleasingly smooth and musical to hear.
2. Baby rabbits are called kits. Cute!
3. People are more creative in the shower. When we take a warm shower, we experience an increased dopamine flow that makes us more creative.
4. Competitive art used to be an Olympic sport. Between 1912 and 1948, the international sporting events awarded medals for music, painting, sculpture and architecture. Shame it didn't catch on, the famous pottery scene in Ghost could have won an Olympic medal as well as an Academy Award for the best screenplay.
5. Nutmeg is a hallucinogen. The spice contains myristicin, a natural compound that has mind-altering effects if ingested in large doses.
6. Japan has over 200 flavours of Kit Kats. They're exclusively created for different regions, cities, and seasons. There are some tasty-sounding ones like banana, blueberry cheesecake and Oreo ice cream, as well as some very questionable ones like baked potato, melon and cheese, wasabi, and vegetable juice.
7. All the clocks in Pulp Fiction are set to 4.20. Looks like we're going to have to rewatch the film to find out.

[Ivy]

3 hours ago, Heather Shay said:

All the clocks in Pulp Fiction are set to 4.20. 

Seriously?

I'm not sure what to think.

[Heather Shay]

 

The Cookie Monster has a real name.

Shutterstock

It's Sid. No, seriously.

[_Kira_]

20 hours ago, Heather Shay said:

 

The Cookie Monster has a real name.

Shutterstock

It's Sid. No, seriously.

That just blew my mind ‍

[Heather Shay]

1. All the electricity powering the internet weighs the same as an apricot.

 

2. A hippo’s jaw opens wide enough to fit a sports car inside.

 

3. It would take 19 minutes to fall from the North Pole to Earth’s core.

 

4. Every 4 minutes and 13 seconds, enough wool is produced around the world to make a jumper big enough for the Statue of Liberty to wear.

[Marcie Jensen]

55 minutes ago, Heather Shay said:

A hippo’s jaw opens wide enough to fit a sports car inside.

Hippos are also regarded as the most dangerous animal in Africa according to the late safari guide and big game hunter Pete Capstick.

[awkward-yet-sweet]

On 2/17/2023 at 3:58 AM, Heather Shay said:

1.  
2. Baby rabbits are called kits. 
3.  
4.  
5. Nutmeg is a hallucinogen.

Continuing the theme...

 

"Kit" is a shortened form of "kitten.". Many baby animals are called kits, such as beavers, ferrets, squirrels, raccoons, and wolverines.  And of course, foxes!

 

The human body's ability to process drugs can vary significantly from person to person.  Some people are relatively unaffected by the THC in cannabis, requiring large amounts to experience any effect.  Others are easily affected by the myristicin in nutmeg, requiring only small amounts of the common baking spice.  

 

[miz miranda]

Hippos are estimated to cause 3000 deaths per year, however, Mosquitos are considered the most dangerous as they are estimated to 1,000,000 deaths to year through diseases such as malaria or Yellow Fever. Mosquitos are also considered the most dangerous in the world.

 

Having recently been to South Africa, Hippos are not one of the so-called 'Big Five' of dangerous animals  to hunt in Africa;

 

Elephant, Cape Buffalo, Black Lion, Black Rhinoceros  and Leopard.

[Marcie Jensen]

46 minutes ago, miz miranda said:

Hippos are estimated to cause 3000 deaths per year, however, Mosquitos are considered the most dangerous as they are estimated to 1,000,000 deaths to year through diseases such as malaria or Yellow Fever. Mosquitos are also considered the most dangerous in the world.

 

Having recently been to South Africa, Hippos are not one of the so-called 'Big Five' of dangerous animals  to hunt in Africa;

 

Elephant, Cape Buffalo, Black Lion, Black Rhinoceros  and Leopard.

You're right! I should have said "big game animals." Not surprised about South Africa as hippos are, I believe, indigenous to the Nile and Congo rivers.

 

Leopards are just plain scary. In Pete Capstick's book "Death in the Long Grass" he talks about how wounded leopards will use their own blood spoor to lure hunters into ambush and then pounce on them. Just plain scary.

[Hannah Renee]

5 hours ago, Heather Shay said:

 

3. It would take 19 minutes to fall from the North Pole to Earth’s core.

Would that be enough time to adapt to the extreme temperature change?

 

@Marcie JensenI loved reading Capstick's books and magazine articles. Good memories.

[miz miranda]

@Marcie JensenThe so called Big Five came from big game hunters. Hippos are generally in water so difficult to hunt so I can see why they weren't on the list. Hippos do require rivers to migrate and water in general. There are plenty of Hippos in South Africa as well as the southern part of the continent in general. The Zambezi river seem to be a primary habitat.

 

They can be very fast over a short distance, check out video below (video does contain a bit of profanity):

 

 

[Marcie Jensen]

Hey @miz miranda, thank you for the info and the very cool video.  And, I'd cuss too if I was being charged by a critter that big!

[Heather Shay]

The English name Friday comes from the Old English Frīġedæġ, meaning “Day of Frige.” This is as a result of the Old English goddess Frigg (an Anglo-Saxon interpretation of the Norse goddess Freya) being associated with the Roman goddess Venus.

 

In the U.K. and Australia, Friday is sometimes referred to by the acronym “POETS Day,” which stands for “Piss Off Early Tomorrow’s Saturday.”

 

Friday the 13^th, although considered lucky in some parts of the world, is often a day of superstition for most people in the western world, and the fear of Friday the 13^th is known as paraskavedekatriaphobia.

[_Kira_]

Never mind Friday the 13th, I'm afraid of the word for the phobia ‍

 

[Marcie Jensen]

And I'm afraid of being afraid. LOL.

 

In a side note, Friday the 13th being unlucky stems from early Christianity--it was deemed unlucky because of Jesus+the 12 disciples made 13, and the 13th one (Judas Iscariot) betrayed him as well as Jesus being crucified on a Friday.

[miz miranda]

Well, there may be some rationale for fearing Friday

 

The idea of Fridays being unlucky also seems to strangely lend itself to accident data from insurance companies. Research and data collation appears to suggest that more people have accidents on a Friday than any other day of the week.

 

Fridays are, statistically, supposed to be the days of the week where war is mostly likely to be declared. Seems as though leaders prefer starting conflicts at weekends, though we can’t really figure that logic out.

 

On the hand

Friday, on the whole, seems to be the most successful day to apply for a job. Therefore, it might be worth starting your weekend right and filing that application as soon as you can before you clock out. Unless you're afraid of work

 

[Heather Shay]

Prince's real name was Prince.

 

Born to two musical parents, Prince Rogers Nelson was named after his father's jazz combo.

Prince wrote a lot of hit songs for other artists.

In addition to penning several hundred songs for himself, Prince also composed music for other artists, including "Manic Monday" for the Bangles, "I Feel For You" for Chaka Khan, and "Nothing Compares 2 U" for Sinéad O'Connor.

[Heather Shay]

The word prison comes from the Latin “poenitentia,” meaning repentance or penance.

 American Psychologist Timothy Leary, upon his arrival at prison in 1971, was given a battery of psychological tests designed to aid in placing inmates in jobs that were best suited to them. Leary himself had designed a few of them and used that knowledge to get a gardening assignment, which he used to escape the prison shortly after.

[Marcie Jensen]

That's wild, Heather! Wasn't Timothy Leary one of the first to experimenr with LSD?

[LaurenA]

Timothy Leary's son Zack is now doing guided trips.

[Marcie Jensen]

13 minutes ago, LaurenA said:

Timothy Leary's son Zack is now doing guided trips.

Being of a warped sense of humor I've gotta ask, are they "tripping out?" And what constitutes a bad tip? 

[LaurenA]

3 hours ago, Marcie Jensen said:

Being of a warped sense of humor I've gotta ask, are they "tripping out?" And what constitutes a bad tip? 

As an answer to the first question...Yes

As far as an answer to the second... I've always felt anything less than 20% is a bad tip.

 

Bad trips on the other-hand are something else. That differs according to each person.  To some the visual experience becomes too much and it becomes a bad trip.  To others it's an internal physiological thing where feeling become too intense and more than they can handle.  And there are also the bad trips because some external person or experience triggers a negative response. 

 

All of these reasons are why a trip guide or mother should always be there.  The guide people tripping from a bad trip to one that is enjoyable, uplifting, and informative about yourself.  I have known several outstanding guides and will never trip again unless one is there with me.

 

And yes, I did meet Timothy Leary.  I regret that we didn't trip together.

[miz miranda]

Just trippin on some LS

 

LSD is so powerful that only a small amount produces long-lasting effects as opposed to other stimulants. Therefore, if measured in the extent of its effects, LSD is comparatively a cheaper drug. It’s cheaper in more populous cities on the east and west coasts, and more expensive in the Midwest.

 

It takes about 20-60 minutes to kick the LSD. The total trip on LSD lasts between 6.5 and 13 hours.

 

Once a group of scientists, funded by NASA, gave dolphins the hallucinogenic drug LSD. It was an attempt to communicate with dolphins. They found that more than 70% dolphins were more vocal after they were administered with LSD.

 

LSD has been interwoven with music since the Grateful Dead participated in the Merry Pranksters’ acid tests in the 1960s. Recently, a Swiss research team used lysergic acid to pinpoint the brain regions that attribute significance to music. They found that music appreciation is located in the part of the brain associated with sense of self. Aimed at the treatment of psychiatric illnesses, the study revealed which cells, chemicals, and brain regions “are involved when we perceive our environment as meaningful or relevant.”

Researchers noted that songs which were normally meaningless became charged with significance to listeners under the influence of LSD, due to the drug’s binding to the hardware involved in our sense of self. The effect was diminished in test subjects who were administered LSD and ketanserin, which counters the hallucinogen’s effect. The team believes that these revelations might be the key to treating psychosis, in which a patient loses touch with reality.

 

 

In March 2014, a Swiss psychiatrist published results of the first controlled trial of LSD in over 40 years. Dr. Peter Gasser was studying the effect of lysergic acid on talk therapy for 12 terminally ill patients. After LSD dosing, the patients reported that “their anxiety went down and stayed down.” Peter, a test subject with a degenerative spine condition, was happy with the therapy and believed that it created “mystical experiences.”

Using LSD to treat the anxiety of dying is not a new idea. In 1958, Aldus Huxley, the author of The Doors of Perception, advocated administering LSD to terminally ill cancer patients. The goal was to make death a “more spiritual, less strictly physiological process.” Five years later, Huxley’s wife, Laura, gave him a dose of acid on his deathbed in Los Angeles. She reported that his passing was “the most serene, the most beautiful death.”

 

[Ivy]

I've had some experience with street "acid" in my younger days.  All in all, I consider it a positive experience.  But there were some moments I did not enjoy.  To be honest, I would consider it again, but only in a safe environment.