News
Transforming the Taco: The Origins of Taco Bell
I'll be honest, I had no idea Taco Bell was so old. I've actually never spent much time pondering the origins of various fast food franchises (which is clearly in the process of being remedied), but this one seemed appropriate to share for Taco Tuesday. Other fun taco facts: Querétaro currently holds the world record for biggest taco after making a carnitas taco in 2019 that was 330 ft long with 2500 lbs of tortillas and 3300 lbs of meat; the most expensive taco in the world is 25k a pop and has a gold-flaked corn tortilla, langoustines, Kobe beef, Almas beluga caviar, and black truffle Brie cheese; and the Choco Taco (in keeping with the ongoing ice cream theme) was tragically discontinued in 2022, although there are niche producers trying to recreate it (apparently the big struggle is how to keep the waffle cone shell from getting soggy over time.....I feel a food science rabbit hole coming on 🙃)
Curiology (EMOJI) with Various Emoji Experts
Do you know this podcast? It seems very up your alley, sorry if you've told me about it before and I didn't remember the name 😅 Obviously I don't listen to it, but they have really excellent transcripts and this one on emojis is interesting. It had literally never crossed my mind that the praying hands emoji might be interpreted as two people high-fiving instead. Also the way that emojis have different meanings based on where they're used and how different gestures are understood culturally (again, the praying hands example having a different context in Japan where it would almost exclusively be used as a please/thank you emoji). Unrelated to this episode, I also appreciate their layperson description of neuroparasitology as just "NATURE ZOMBIES."
A Brief History of Journalism: From Hieroglyphic Inscriptions to Bits and Bytes
The article itself is maybe not 100% peak journalism, but the fact that it's a high school newspaper makes up for it. It's just an interesting overview of how news and journalism has shifted over centuries, having it go from a public experience where you could only read the stone tablet in a group of people wherever it was set out to the current reality is fascinating. Also Helen Thomas working across 10(!) presidents is wild. From Kennedy all the way through Obama is kind of mind boggling to think about, and also her getting asked "any comments on Israel?" in 2010 when she was 89 and still working for Hearst Newspapers and her response of "tell them to get the hell out of Palestine," is iconic. And apparently when Fidel Castro was asked in the early 2000s what was the difference between democracy in Cuba and democracy in the United States, Castro reportedly replied, "I don't have to answer questions from Helen Thomas."
soap cubes 🧼
I feel like the sound is either a love it or hate it kind of thing, so I'm sorry if you hate it 😂 I do want to know who was the first person that thought this up, though. Like who was sitting there one day and went "You know what people want? For me to cut a million tiny cubes into this bar of soap and then get a really good microphone to record the audio while I slice all the cubes off."
10 of the most expensive chairs ever sold
I was intrigued by all of your talk of expensive chairs in chair museums (sorry, "extensive permanent exhibits) and realized this was a gap in my knowledge that needed to be remedied. And thus: expensive chair trivia! I do take issue with the Limited Edition Banqueted Chair being described as a structure of 100% steel since the stuffed pandas covering it are obviously NOT 100% steel, but maybe they meant it in the "made with 100% chicken" food advertising spirit?
THE NILE FLOWS NORTH
Okay so this started out because I was curious about stats for the percentage of rivers that flow north vs. south (I know it's illogical, but knowing that rivers pretty much only flow downhill it's just one of those things where it feels like they should more frequently flow south, even though I know that has nothing to do with downhill lol). So then I found this article, among others, but decided to share this one because wtf is happening in that comment section? This is the most random place I can think of to get targeted by bots, especially over a period of years. Anyways, he doesn't cover it here, but it turns out it is possible for rivers to flow uphill in niche cases, including one really unusual underground river in Antarctica.
the goat whisperer
I think this is basically just you, if some runaway goats magically came to visit you. The breathless "Ohhhh my god this is a dream come true" never gets old. (And they're almost certainly Nubian goats, in case you were wondering lol.)