Monday, February 27, 2006

Things I did not know

There once was a company called Anglo-Persian Oil that found a rich source of oil in Persia which became Anglo-Iranian Oil, which became British Petroleum, and is now known as BP.

When you step on a dirty rusty nail and go get a tetanus shot it's not because that nail is rusty. It's because you have a puncture wound. Tetanus is anaerobic. It won't survive in the open air but if your puncture wound closes up the tetanus has a nice warm airtight place in which to thrive.

In the 1800's there was a Regent in Korea who got suspicious of some Catholic missionaries. He thought they were starting some trouble and had them beheaded. Some of these Catholics were French and in response to this outrage the French sent some battleships to go kick some Korean ass. They were rebuffed. But not before they managed to steal the print plates for some very old books. It is called the French-Korean War.

People have done a whole analysis on the science relevant to boiling an egg.

Brown rice (unlike white rice) does not keep for long periods of time. The good stuff in the outer part of the seed will go rancid after about 6 months and so it's best to store your brown rice some where cold and use it in a timely manner.

Bottled water is a rapidly growing market in countries where tap water is safe to drink. A company in the Netherlands called Neau sells empty plastic bottles at bottled water prices and donates the profits to the water projects of Non-Governmental Organizations like UNICEF. The bottles contain informational flyers on why they are doing what they do. It's the activist version of the Emperor's New Clothes. story link their website (in dutch)

4 comments:

Lever said...

That Neau is such an excellent idea, especially coming from the Dutch, they're good people :) Talking of which I, a Scot living in Engalnd, bought a $5 American hat from a man in Holland today. He was French LOL

Talking of brown rice... did you know you can deter weevils by putting a bayleaf in your rice?

ergo said...

Lever: too funny. I didn't know that weevils were deterred by anything. I'll have to give that a try.

BeckyBumbleFuck said...

I like your explanation of the Neau water phenomonon. I also really dig their idea. I'd buy it... ;)

ergo said...

I'd buy a bottle of neau too.