What's the difference between Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship?

Search: jefferson airplane

Why: Every time my brother hears "We Built This City," he calls to tell me that it was my favorite song when I was little. "No, no," he says, "You didn't just like it. You loved it." I have seen a Betamax tape of little me dancing around to it...

But I digress. What's the diff?

Answer: A short list of line-ups and singles:

Jefferson Airplane (1965-72, 1985-) - Grace Slick, Marty Balin, Jorma Kaukonen, Paul Kantner, Jack Casady, Spencer Dryden, Signe Toly Anderson, Bob Harvey, Jerry Peloquin, Skip Spence, Joey Covington, Papa John Creach, John Barbata, David Freiberg

• "Somebody to Love"(1967)
• "White Rabbit" (1967)
• "Volunteers" (1969)
• "Mexico" (1969)

Jefferson Starship (1974-84, 1992-) - Grace Slick, Paul Kantner, Jerry Garcia, Jack Casady, Joey Covington, David Crosby, David Freiberg, Mickey Hart, Peter Kaukonen, Bill Kreutzmann, Graham Nash, Harvey Brooks, Phill Sawyer, Craig Chaquico, Johnny Barbata, Papa John Creach - and all of these people

• "Miracles" (1975)
• "With Your Love" (1976)
• "Jane" (1979)

In June 1984, Paul Kantner, the last remaining founding member of Jefferson Airplane, left Jefferson Starship, and then took legal action over the Jefferson Starship name against his former bandmates. Kantner settled out of court and signed an agreement that neither party would use the names "Jefferson" or "Airplane" unless all members of Jefferson Airplane, Inc. agreed to it (Bill Thompson, Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, Jorma Kaukonen, Jack Casady). The band briefly changed its name to "Starship Jefferson" while legal proceedings occurred, but ultimately the name was reduced to simply "Starship."

Starship (1984-1990) - Grace Slick, Mickey Thomas, Craig Chaquico, Brett Bloomfield, Mark Morgan, Kenny Stayripolous, Christina Marie Saxton, Melisa Kary

• "We Built This City" (1985)
• "Sara" (1985)
• "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" (1987)
• "It's Not Over ('Til It's Over)" (1987)
• "It's Not Enough" (1989)
  

There is also a Jefferson Starship - The Next Generation. Who cares.

This is what Grace Slick looks like, btw.

Source: Wikipedia

The More You Know: My god, the 80s were righteous.

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Where do soft shell turtles live?

Search: soft shell turtle

Why: Jason posted this video of a soft shell turtle on a Roomba. It looks like it has webbed feet, aka needs to be in water.

Answer: In water!

In nature, most soft-shelled turtles reside in bodies of water with soft mud or sandy bottoms where they bury themselves and away passing prey.

Source: Chelonia.org

The More You Know: Soft-shell turtles are so-called because their carapace doesn't have horny scutes (scales), but instead is leathery and pliable. Varieties live in Africa, Asia, and Southeast Asia, and some were recently discovered in North America!! They can be kept as pets, but they require a ton of equipment. And they are weird looking.

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Who was the wedding band in "The Time Traveler's Wife"?

Search: time traveler's wife

Why: I watched that movie last night. The band was covering "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division which, jicydak, is probably the worst wedding song ever.

Answer: Broken Social Scene! which is weird because I really like them, but as I was watching that scene, I was thinking, "This band is awful."

But try this song! Clap along at 1:42.

Source: Wikipedia

The More You Know: I saw Broken Social Scene in 2006-ish in Boston, and Feist opened for them. I don't know if you know this, but she was one of the girl voices on their 2003 album You Forgot It In People, which Jake sent me when I was in Europe. She is also a butterface.

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Was Louis Braille always blind?

Search: louis braille

Why: On Learn Something Every Day:

Answer: Kinda! He was born near Paris in 1809 and was blind by the age of 3. But it wasn't genetic!

Louis became blind by accident, when he was 3 years old. Deep in his Dad's harness workshop, Louis tried to be like his Dad, but it went very wrong; he grabbed an awl, a sharp tool for making holes, and the tool slid and hurt his eye. The wound got infected, and the infection spread, and soon, Louis was blind in both eyes.

That is the answer to the question, but now you are probably wondering when he invented Braille. Get ready for some interesting information!

He stayed at his old school for 2 more years, but he couldn't learn everything just by listening. Louis got a scholarship to the Royal Institution for Blind Youth in Paris when he was 10. But even there, most of the teachers just talked at the students. The library had 14 huge books with raised letters that were very hard to read. Louis was impatient.

Then in 1821, a former soldier named Charles Barbier visited the school. Barbier shared his invention called "night writing," a code of 12 raised dots that let soldiers share top-secret information on the battlefield without even having to speak. Unfortunately, the code was too hard for the soldiers, but not for 12-year-old Louis!


Louis trimmed Barbier's 12 dots into 6, ironed out the system by the time he was 15, then published the first-ever braille book in 1829. But did he stop there? No way! In 1837, he added symbols for math and music. But since the public was skeptical, blind students had to study braille on their own. Even at the Royal Institution, where Louis taught after he graduated, braille wasn't taught until after his death. Braille began to spread worldwide in 1868, when a group of British men, now known as the Royal National Institute for the Blind, took up the cause.

Source: American Foundation for the Blind

The More You Know: I have a braille book called Jungle Animals in my closet. I will learn how to read it one day. Also Band-Aid boxes.

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I want to see a picture of Carla Bruni-Sarkozy

Search: carla bruni

Why: She is the First Lady of France. In The New Yorker:

She was wearing a tight black top, black pants, and a long black jacket ... “She’s beautiful,” Irina Makarova, a painter, said. “We were just gape-mouthed.”

Answer: Oh, she's a crazy hot Italian former model. She is now 42.

Source: Google Images

The More You Know: Bruni was among the 20 highest paid fashion models in the 1990s. She dated Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger (while he was married). She also lived with a French publisher, but had an affair with his married son, and had a son with him, and ended his marriage. She married Nicolas Sarkozy in February 2008.

She is also some sort of singer.

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Where do hops grow?

Search: where do hops grow; humulus

Why: I went to the Ghost River Brewing company the other day (I've been out of town!), and the guy said - among other things - that hops are what adds flavor to the beer, that there are more varieties of hops than there are of grapes, and ... I can't remember. They feed their beer waste to cows. Anyway, if all beer needs hops, are there farmers who just grow hops? Where does it grow naturally? Because people make beer all over the world.

Answer: All over! It is native to native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. On this list, there are varieties that grow in America, Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, New Zealand, Poland, and Slovenia. There is a Japanese hop, but it is used for ornamentation.

In America, there are hops farms and breeding programs in Oregon and Washington. One English variety is called the Fuggle.

These are in Belgium:

Source: Wikipedia

The More You Know: The hop is part of the family Cannabaceae, which also includes the genus Cannabis, which is I think you know what. Like that thing, only the female flowers are used.

Also, we tried the Saranac Summer Brew the other day and it was pretty good. It's real sweet, like honey in a cup. Get your paws on it.

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How far is San Francisco from the northern border of California?

Search: fort dick, ca

Why: Kim just called the Bay Area "Northern California," which seems weird, because - well, have you ever looked at a map?

It is, at most, maybe a third of the way down.

Answer: 365 miles, aka 6 hours 32 minutes by car! Or that is to Fort Dick, anyway, which is 15 miles south of the state line which - as far as I am concerned - is the same thing.

Also, Fort Dick is at latitude 41.868, and San Diego (at the bottom of CA) is at 32.49, which means the midpoint of California is at the 37.179 mark, here:

San Francisco is at 37.656. Just sayin.

Source: Google Maps

The More You Know: Well, turns out that if there are only 2 regions of California - Northern and Southern - then yes, San Francisco would fall into the former. Maybe it should be called just "Norther." There are 48 counties in Northern California, but only 10 in Southern California.

Also,

It is suggested that the word California may signify that it is a place that is "hot as an oven", because in Catalan, cal means "hot" and forn means "oven." (From the Latin roots calida > "hot," fornax > "oven").

Another suggested source is kali forno, an indigenous phrase meaning "high mountains."

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Where did Mary Jane shoes get their name?

Search: mary jane shoes origin

Why: I am wearing some sort of mary janes.

Answer: The comic strip Buster Brown! The strip was created by in 1902 by Richard Felton Outcault. Buster is a mischievous little dandy with beautiful blonde hair, and Mary Jane is his sister. They both wear Mary Jane-style shoes.

(That's not Mary Jane, but you can see their prissy little shoesies.)

In 1904, the Brown Shoe Company (est. 1893) purchased the rights to the Buster Brown name. The characters are still associated with the company today.

Glorious foot health! Enjoy it!

Source: ezine, Wikipedia

The More You Know: The comics usually ended in a panel with some sort of uplifting message like this. Wtf. (Read that shit.)

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What are passants for?

Search: passant

Why: They are a signature feature of Members Only jackets. Passants are those little straps on the shoulder:

Answer: To attach epaulettes! Or that's what they were originally for, anyway. Now, you can put anything there: a gun, a guitar, a Baby Björn , a purse... What a versatile ornament!

Source: Wikipedia

The More You Know: But what is an epaulette? From French épaule, "shoulder," it means "little shoulder" and is a type of ornamental shoulder piece or decoration used as insignia of rank by armed forces and other organizations. For some, the word is interchangeable with "passant" or "shoulder strap."

The epaulette is fastened to the shoulder by a small strap parallel to the shoulder seam or by laces on the underside of the epaulette, passing through holes in the shoulder of the coat. The placement of the epaulette, its color and the length and diameter of its bullion fringe are used to signify the wearer's rank (like King [of Pop]).

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I want to see the painting "The Toilers of the Sea"

Search: toilers of the sea ryder

Why: In The New Yorker Talk of the Town, Peter Wolf (lead singer of J. Geils Band, ...) says this painting by Albert Pinkham Ryder (1847-1917) inspired him when he first saw it in a magazine at 13.

"It had this elegant primitivism that I responded to very strongly," he said. At first glance, the picture looks like a seascape - a boat in the moonlight on a troubled sea - but on close study it departs from perspective and realism in subtle ways, and the effect is dreamlike... Somehow, the artist manages to illuminate the night without losing the feel of the darkest hour.

I'll be the judge of that.

Answer: Well, which is it?

I think the last one, since that's the one on the page of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is where the original painting is now. Also, this article has a lot of talk about the shade of yellow in it. But that other one sure does appear a lot. I don't know.

Source: Google Images

The More You Know: Peter Wolf was married to Faye Dunaway. As a boy, he studied painting with Norman Rockwell. He was also roommates with David Lynch at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Who knew?

He also released an album called Midnight Souvenirs a few weeks ago. It features Neko Case, Merle Haggard, and Shelby Lynne.

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What do colorblind people see?

Search: what do color blind people see

Why: Apparently Daniel, Marcel, and Mischa are all at least partially colorblind.

Answer: First, there are several different types of colorblindness or "color vision deficiencies." 5 to 8% of men (1 out of 12) and 0.5% of women (1 out of 200) of the world are born colorblind. 99% of them are either protans or deutans.

Protanomaly (1 out of 100 males) is referred to as "red-weakness." Red, orange, yellow, and yellow-green appear shifted in hue toward green, and they appear paler and less saturated than they do to the normal observer.

Deuteranomaly (5/100 males) is called "green-weakness." Red, orange, yellow, and yellow-green appear shifted in hue toward red. Deuternomalous people do not have the loss of "brightness."

Normal, protanomaly, deuteranomaly

Dichromacy (2/100 males) is divided into 2 groups:

• Protanopia (1/100 males) - The brightness of red, orange, and yellow is much reduced. It can be so pronounced that the protanope may confuse reds with black or dark grey, and red traffic lights may appear to be extinguished. Violet, lavender, and purple are indistinguishable from blue because their reddish components are so dimmed.
• Deuteranopia (1/100 males) - Also involves hue discrimination problems, but without the abnormal dimming. The deuteranope may not be able to distinguish red, orange, yellow, or green.

Normal, protanope, deuteranope

Source: ColorVisionTesting.com

The More You Know: Colorblindness is caused by certain cone cells misinterpreting the wavelengths that correspond to their respective colors.

Color normal vs. dichromat:

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How big was the biggest cat ever?

Search: fattest cat

Why: Ben's family claims their cat is 55 lbs.

Answer: On a list of the Top 15 Amazingly Fat Cats from 2006, the biggest one - Katy from Russia - was 50 lbs.

The next biggest - Iggy from Missouri - was 46 lbs.

The 3rd, Mikesch from Germany, was 41 lbs.

Maybe the 2010 edition of this list will feature #1 - Ben's Family's Cat at 55 lbs. Or maybe it's not 55 lbs.

Source: Neatorama, Crazy-Frankenstein

The More You Know: This one is fake:

And watch this ridiculous 40 lb. behemoth from Bulgaria. That's kind of what Maddie looks like when she walks.

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I want to watch that video with the 4 iPhones

Search: israeli band iphones

Why: It was on The Daily What the other day, but I don't have speakers at work and I don't want to hunt for it now.

Answer: Neat! "On My Way," and the band is called Izabo. They are from Israel:

What up, viral Apple ad.

Source: YouTube

The More You Know: Izabo's collaboration with Shotei Hanevuah produced the hit single Hu, which won the Music 24 (an Israeli music channel)'s Song of the Year. Get your ears on it here.

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Why do some mammals have litters?

Search: why do animals have litters

Why: I don't know. I think I had a nightmare about a horse placenta. Dogs and cats have litters, but horses and human ladies usually only have 1 or 2 babies at a time - unless they were having trouble conceiving and selfishly implanted themselves with fertilization treatments instead of adopting abandoned babies who are already alive.

Answer: For one thing, a litter helps protect the animal from predation, aka getting eaten by other animals. It's not that the baby animals won't get eaten (because they probably will), but like if a snake eats 3 baby bunnies, but there are still 5 left, its parents didn't waste a whole breeding season.

Another reason is because it helps natural selection or whatever. The strongest and healthiest baby animals compete most successfully for food and space, often leaving the weaklings and runts to die from lack of care. If there are 8 nipples and 12 baby mice, a few might just starve to death. The mother doesn't interfere.

Biologically, an animal that can have a litter has a bicornuate (two-horned) uterus designed to handle multiple embryos. In a human, this is considered a defect and can cause problems with fertility.

Source: Wikipedia, MadSci Network

The More You Know: In human multiple births, there is a weaker "runt," but human parents take care to make sure that both or all babies get the same equal start. The more babies, however, the more likely it is that there will be a noticeable physical difference in the runt. I'm looking at you, Aaden.

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What the hell is up with footbinding?

Search: foot binding

Why: Just admiring some of Lady Gaga's evening attire.

Answer: A brief history:

In 970 A.D., Emperor Li Yu watched his favorite concubine Yao-niang dance atop a specially built "golden lotus" pedestal. She had wrapped her feet in long strips of silk cloth, much like a ballerina in modern toe shoes. Li Yu was so overwhelmed with the beauty of her dancing that other court maidens followed suit. The "Golden Lotus" is now a euphemism for delicately bound feet in the pointed shape of a crescent moon. The style was gradually adopted as fashion among the upper class, and then it spread to all levels of society. When women lost social freedoms during the Song Dynasty (960 to 1276), footbinding became a means of controlling women, to keep them in the home and monitor their moral conduct.

As footbinding became more acceptable, tiny feet became "the essence of feminine beauty, a fanatical aesthetic and sexual mystique developed around them." Tiny deformed feet became the most erotic part of the female body, and wives, consorts, and prostitutes were chosen solely on the size and shape of their feet. Women spent their days making embroidered shoes to cover them, and poets wrote about "tender blossoms" stuffed into shoes and peeking out under clothing. Women rarely, if ever, unbound their feet. Girls started binding as young as 3 years old, usually closer to 8 or 10.

Footbinding remained a part of Chinese society well into the 20th century. The Manchu leaders of the Qing Dynasty (1644 to 1911) never adopted the custom, and tried with little success to stop its popularity. During the late 1800s reform-oriented scholars and western missionaries began speaking out against the brutal custom, yet it wasn"t until the 1920s that change finally began to take hold. Intellectuals plucked the issue of footbinding from the realm of morals and aesthetics and remolded it into a question of patriotism. Women were told the practice was not only harmful to their own physical and emotional health, but also a costly disability to the nation, retarding its political and economic development.

In 1928 the Nationalist government announced its plan to eradicate footbinding, requiring girls under the age of fifteen to let their feet grow naturally. Some local officials took a tougher stand, requiring that all women unbind their feet or be subject to fines and sometimes physical punishment.

Some did, and some didn't.

When asked about the purpose of footbinding the overwhelming majority of women responded very plainly that without bound feet it was impossible to find a husband.

They feared they would become social outcasts. Also, the process of letting the foot grow back into its natural shape was nearly as painful as the binding had been in the first place. You can read buttloads of stories told by these women starting here.

Source: History of Footbinding

The More You Know: But how did they do it!! Get ready to puke.

First, each foot would be soaked in a warm mixture of herbs and animal blood; this was intended to soften the foot and aid the binding. A long strip of cloth was wrapped over the four smaller toes, under the instep and around the heel. By tightening the cloth daily the heel became slender and the toes eventually broken under, flattened against the underside of the sole. Greater tension was slowly applied, sometimes coupled with the strength of a rope, to bring the heel forward to the ball of the foot, breaking the arch and forcing it upward.

Once the binding process had begun, regular rebinding became an integral part of personal hygiene for the rest of the girl's life. In the early stages the foot easily became swollen and filled with pus, and would frequently break open. Some women applied alum or washed in scented water to prevent strong odor and infection; others made it a practice to soak the feet in urine to make the skin more supple, relieve swelling, and prevent expansion of the compressed areas.

Even for women advanced in age the binding cloth is removed only for bathing and to rebind. Once the heel has been forced forward and the arch broken, the foot must be immediately rebound; it otherwise begins to lose its shape, causing excrutiating pain that many women said equals that of the original binding.

The resulting mutant feet are as small as 2.5 inches toe to heel. Even today, it is rare to find a woman over 60 with feet more than 4 inches long.

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