Panda Pee

Males of most species have some odd habits when it comes to where and how they urinate and pandas are no exception. Pandas aren't really thought of as athletic since their diet restricts the amount of energy they have but when mating season comes around all bets are off. The males do handstands to allow them to urinate on trees which spreads their scent further in hope of a female who is suitable mate will seek out the male. The urine also contains gland secretions indicating the age and sex of the panda. With any luck this will help out the panda population which is down to around 1,600 in the wild and their environment is shrinking more by the day. 

 

Was Einstein Right?

 It seems like Einstein knew what he was talking about when he said, The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result." Which is exactly what humans are doing with their trips to the moon and other space adventures, they are leaving behind junk just like kids with no one to remind them to pick up after themselves and who knows what kind of harm it might be doing? There really is no way to tell at this point but it's a little scary considering the shape our planet is in. The following is a partial list of things left behind in space: vomit bags and human excreta, a bible, hammocks and blankets, 100 $2 bills, wrist mirrors, a family photo, used wet wipes, golf balls and last but certainly not least is a Tesla as a publicity stunt. NASA has 796 item catalog of the things left behind...so far. 

Name Change or Tattoo?

 This question seems like it could be an answer to, "What would you do for a Klondike bar?" but it's actually about both a current contest and last year's contest put on by Subway to promote their sandwiches. Last year Subway offered free sandwiches for life for tattoos of their foot long sandwich, one winner had one inked on his upper back while eight other people had 3 inch tattoos for a years worth of free sandwiches. This year the promo is asking people to change their first name to Subway for a lifetime supply of their products. The winner will be selected by a drawing on August 7th. They will pay the winner $750 to cover the cost of the name change plus $50,000 worth of Subway gift cards which may or may not be a lifetime supply depending on how frequently you eat at Subway and of course your age. 

Battle of the Nurdle

 Many of you are probably wondering what/where a nurdle is, the answer is on your toothbrush. A nurdle is the name for the squiggle of toothpaste that is artistically applied and displayed on toothpaste commercials. It might not seem like a big deal but there was an actual lawsuit over which company owned the rights to the nurdle which has been around since the 1970s. In 2010, GlaxoSmithCline ,the makers of Aquafresh,  applied to trademark the nurdle in any color. Colgate-Palmolive had also been using the nurdle so they sued to keep their nurdle image. They finally came to a confidential settlement. Now you know not only what a nurdle is but why it is important! 

Speak of the Devil

 A few days ago I did a post on fair food and a some strange twists that are going on but wait, there's more! Along with the previous fair food weirdness also happening in the Midwest now the Ohio Poultry Association is serving sweet deviled eggs. Lemon meringue deviled eggs made their debut last year and apparently had good reviews because this year they've brought more flavors on board, chocolate deviled eggs, s'mores deviled eggs, and cotton candy deviled eggs in addition to the lemon meringue deviled eggs. Maybe the lemon meringue would be okay but that's as far as I'm willing to go.  

Mmmm Mustard

 National Mustard Day is coming up on August 5th and this year French's Mustard partnered with Skittles to produce, drumroll...Mustard Skittles! Now for the good news/bad news depending on how you feel about Mustard Skittles, they're only going to be available in Atlanta, Washington, DC and New York City from French's Mustard Mobile and only for a limited time though if you feel like you can't live without tasting them go to French's.com and enter to win a package. This is the 5th year French's has celebrated with mustard creations, past years gave us mustard ice cream, mustard donuts, mustard hot dog buns and mustard beer. 

Quick Guac

 With all the debate about AI taking over too much of our day to day lives Autocado sounds like a pro side to the arguments. Chipotle is partnering with VEBU to develop a cobotic avocado processing unit that cuts, cores, and peels 25 lbs of avocados at once, then an employee takes the prepped product and adds the signature ingredients and mashes it into guacamole. VEBU worked closely with the Chipotle crews to find out what the most time consuming and least liked job was and it was hands down the prep time for making guacamole which the cobot reduces the time by 50% giving the employees more time to serve their customers and tend other day to day work. 

Food Parks

 AKA food forests and edible parks there is a trend that started around 1997 where cities allow volunteers to plant and maintain fruit trees, nut trees, vegetable gardens and butterfly gardens. The public is welcome to take what they need but are reminded to consider the neediest populations who may rely solely on the park for food security. The site of the first public food forest in the US is in Asheville, North Carolina and is named after Dr. George Washington Carver the esteemed botanist and inventor. There are roughly around 70 food forests now and hopefully that number will continue to grow. 

  

. 

About the Green Cheese...

 Have you ever wondered how/why the moon is made of green cheese thing came about? It goes further back than most people would guess, at least as early as 1546 when it appeared in a proverb by John Heywood. Since most cultures have some kind of folktale about the moon being made from cheese it is possible that the actual origin was earlier but in essence it was meant to show the person who believed it to be a fool or the butt of a joke as in the tale of the wolf who was tricked into diving into a well that was reflecting the moon because he was told it was round of cheese. 

Pickle Power

 What started as an April Fools Day joke in 2022 is now a reality thanks to pickle lovers. Spritz Society Pickle by Claussen comes in 8.4 oz cans containing 6% ABV and 120 calories. The flavor is white wine with pickle flavor. At this time it is only available at the Spritz website and the minimum order is two 4 packs for $50. Of course this isn't the first pickle flavor drink, there are several pickle flavored beers and a pickle flavored hard seltzer, Two Robbers craft hard seltzer partnered with Grillo pickles and is available in stores most places. Something for pickle lovers to consider, it sounds like a refreshing summer drink. 

0 is # 1

Siquijor, an island in the Philippines with 100,000 locals claims to have achieved 0 waste by prohibiting plastics on the island and that's not the only good thing about it. By implementing incinerator alternatives, waste reduction, reuse, refill, repair and recycle they have also created more and better paying jobs. For all this to work it takes community awareness and looking for green solutions that save money and the environment instead of throwing billions of dollars at false solutions. It sounds pretty much like Utopia but since the main industry is tourism I wonder how they police the tourists and their plastics that they no doubt brought with them? I couldn't find an answer for that question. 

Fair Fare

 This may be well intentioned but technically it's not what they want you to think it is. A hotel chain, AmericInn, is claiming they are going to pay a family $15,000 to travel to three midwestern fairs in the course of a week to enjoy the food, rides and other fair offerings then write about it on social media. What they really mean is they will put the family up for 7 days in their hotels, give a travel stipend of $10,000 for air travel, ground transportation and other expenses plus and $5,000 cash which is what they are really offering, but hey if you have a family and don't have anything else planned for August 10-18 it may be a good deal for a summer vacation. 

Wisdom

 Hope no one is sick of animal posts since today's offering is a nod to an albatross named Wisdom who is in her 70s. It is hard to be accurate about her age but she was first banded in 1956 when she laid her first egg and they don't mate until they are at least 5 and sometimes older. She has definitely done her part to help keep her kind going since she has raised somewhere between 30-50 eggs. They only lay one egg every year on Midway atoll where they meet up with their mates in November every year. She has also flown at least 3,000,000 miles in her lifetime. Unfortunately her mate has not returned the last two seasons but raising fledglings into her 70s seems like plenty of production. Oh, she didn't get the name Wisdom until her 6th decade when it was decided she was more than number Z333, about time!