T R I V I A L L Y A S T U T E

The greatest thing since...

nobody@vox.com(Trivially Astute) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:30:07 -0700

July 7th, 1928: sliced bread was sold for the first time in Chillicothe, Missouri by the Chillicothe Baking Company. The Rohwedder bread slicer holds U.S. Patent 1,867,377 and the Google Patent Search page has some a pretty nifty PDF of original sketches. Interestingly, sliced bread was banned briefly in the 1940s as a conservation measure during World War II. Madness ensued among American housewives and the ban was quickly lifted after three months' time.

And to answer the question that has been long burning in your mind, the greatest thing before sliced bread was apparently wrapped bread-- the Chillicothe company advertised their new sliced bread with the line "the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped."

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Today in history - June 26th, 1870

nobody@vox.com(Trivially Astute) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 22:41:53 -0700

Today in 1870, Christmas was declared a federal holiday in the United States. Christmas actually started out as the pagan holiday Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, or the day of the unconquered sun, a holiday in celebration of the solar gods Elah-Gabal, Sol, and Mithras. The idea that December 25th was the birth date of Jesus did not come until later, when it was suggested that Jesus was conceived during the spring equinox, therefore placing his date of birth near the winter solstice. The use of Christmas trees stems back to the pagan idea of introducing evergreen boughs into the home for worship of the winter solstice.

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Today in history - June 24th, 1947

nobody@vox.com(Trivially Astute) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:13:30 -0700

Washingtonian Kenneth Arnold was the first to make a widely reported claim of a UFO sighting near Mt. Rainier, Washington, describing the sight that he saw as a flat saucer or disc shape with erratic flashing lights, which gave rise to the idea of alien spaceships being referred to as flying saucers.

UFO

Another publicized UFO sightings from the same time period was the Hopeh incident a few years earlier in Hopeh, China. An unidentified flying object was seen flying over the town and a photograph from the incident shows the typical flying saucer shape. Witnesses argued that the sighting could have been a hat or an oddly shaped bird in the sky.

Hopeh incident

The existence of extra-terrestrial life is a highly disputed matter. Perhaps it stems from a love of science-fiction, but I sincerely hope (and truly believe) that there is life on other planets. After all, isn't it a bit selfish to think that Earth is the only planet with intelligent life?

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The Dance Epidemic of 1518

nobody@vox.com(Trivially Astute) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:57:00 -0700

Dance fever

For those of you who think that the French don't know how to party, you obviously haven't heard of the dance epidemic of 1518 in Strasbourg. Those affected were in a constant state of delirium and danced for nearly a month straight. The dancing continued until people began to die of heat exhaustion, stroke, and heart attacks as they danced themselves to death from a literal dance fever.

Claviceps growing on a rye plant

It has now been concluded that this strange behaviour came from ergot poisoning. Ergotamine is an alkaloid which is found naturally in Claviceps (an ascomycetous fungus) which grows on wheat and rye plants and is often baked into bread when undetected. Ergotamine is responsible for vasodilation, which reduces circulation and leads to intense hallucinations and seizures when the brain does not receive enough oxygen.

Another interesting fact about Ergotamine is that it is used to synthesize lysergic acid, which is famously known for being the precursor to the popular drug lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). Shown above is the structures of ergotamine, lysergic acid, and LSD.

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