The pavlova is a meringue dessert which is said to have originated either in Australia or New Zealand. Not content with the uncertainty of its origins, two historians, Annabelle Utrecht from Australia, and Andrew Paul Wood from New Zealand, wanted to remove all doubt and get down to the bottom of things.

What they found was an interesting revelation indeed for the both of them. There have been attempts to assert the claim over the pavlova, and according to a few sources, it seemed that New Zealand was the clear winner. However, the two historians dug even further into the roots of pavlova, and traced its journey to the United States, and finally to Austria.

Apparently, the predecessor of the pavlova was called the Spanische windtorte, popular in Austria during the 17th and 18th centuries which was a variation of the European petit meringues.

When German immigrants traveled and settled in the United States, they brought those desserts along with them in the form of the schaum torte and baiser torte. Then, as these desserts rose in popularity, they found themselves traversing the globe and finding their way to New Zealand.

Why the pavlova was named such, however, was even more of a mystery and an interesting find for the two historians. It was named after Anna Pavlova who was a Russian ballerina.

Surprisingly, the meringue pavlova wasn't the only food named after the famous ballerina. There was also such a thing as "Strawberries Pavlova", which wasn't made of meringue at all. It was a sorbet.

In any case, how the pavlova got its name came from the story of a New Zealand chef who had taken inspiration from the Russian ballerina while she toured New Zealand and Australia, and so gave birth to the meringue pavlova, and named it in her honor.

And since the early 1930s, the pavlova has been a staple Christmas dessert in New Zealand and later in Australia.

(Image credit: Deborah Rainford/Unsplash)

The Vangunu giant rat (Uromys vika) has been eluding scientists for decades, but with the help of the Zaira community residing in the Solomon Islands where the rat is native, and is the only place it is known to be found, they have finally obtained the first few photos of the critically-endangered mammal.

Since 2011, researchers have been trying to capture the giant rats on film, but the tree-dwelling rats have always found a way to give them the slip, and no photos were taken of them that time. However, the researchers did find a large fecal pellet which they believe was left by one of the giant rats.

In 2015, an injured Vangunu giant rat had been captured by some loggers felling a tree. They sent it to the Queensland Museum in South Brisbane, the first ever proof that the mammals existed, however, the rat died soon after from its injuries.

Now, the team of researchers led by Tyrone Lavery, a mammalogist from the University of Melbourne, with the help of the indigenous Zaira community, were able to strategically place cameras in trees where the Vangunu giant rat were known to scurry about, and finally, they have been able to take some of the first photos of living Vangunu giant rats.

With these photos, scientists want to urge local authorities to ensure the protection and conservation of the critically-endangered species, especially as their survival is being threatened by continuous logging of the island's forests, the giant rat's only habitat. -via Atlas Obscura

(Image credit: Lavery et al/University of Melbourne)

Not to be confused with the structural marvel that is the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Garisenda tower, one of the twin towers of Bologna, has raised the city's concerns that it might tip over and fall.

Built around the 12th century, the Two Towers have been leaning ever since they were constructed. It comprises of the Asinelli, the taller of the two, and the Garisenda, the smaller one which leaned much further than its twin.

The Asinelli had been originally built at 70 meters high (230 feet) but was later increased to 97.2 meters (319 feet). Meanwhile, the Garisenda currently stands at 48 meters (157 feet), but it initially stood at a height of 60 meters (roughly 200 feet).

The reason for the decrease in the Garisenda's height was because of concerns that it might fall due to a yielding of the ground in the 14th century which caused it to tilt to a dangerous degree. From that time onward, it has been a constant fear for the people of Bologna.

Recently, in October 2023, the local government closed off the Garisenda because of the threat of falling. On December 2, 2023, the city announced that they will be spending €4.3 million (~$4.7 million) to reinforce the structure.

Construction work will begin in January next year, and local officials expect that it will take at least 10 years to finish. -via Atlas Obscura

(Image credit: Vanni Lazzari/Wikimedia Commons)

Once thought as a backwater town during the time of Julius Caesar, the ruins of Interamna Lineras, after 13 years of excavation work, is now being re-examined and new discoveries show that the former Roman colony had actually been a bustling town with its own commerce and urban development.

Historians have traditionally placed the peak of Interamna Lineras at around the late 2nd to early 1st century BCE, however, a team of archaeologists, headed by Alessandro Launaro, found remains of markets, structures, and thousands of local pottery which suggested that the town at its peak had been home to around 2,000 people.

Furthermore, although it was widely believed that Interamna Lineras had diminished by the turn of the 1st century CE, Launaro's team think that the evidence points toward the survival of the town well into the 3rd century CE, and perhaps even toward the 4th century, with some estimates suggesting that the town had been deserted by the 6th century CE.

From their geophysical surveys, they found that, not only did the town have a market, residential buildings, and other commercial establishments, but it also had a large 1,500-seater theater covered by a roof and decorated in marble. Moreover, it also had a warehouse, a temple, three bath complexes, and 19 courtyard buildings.

Just goes to show that if you dig deep enough, something is bound to turn up.

(Image credit: Alessandro Launaro)

If you've ever watched a lineman up on a telephone pole (do we still call them that?) or an electrical tower of some sort, you first gasp at their bravery. But you may have also wondered how they learned to do it. They say you learn from your mistakes, but in this kind of work, one mistake can be fatal. Tom Scott visited the National Grid Training Centre in Yorkshire, UK, to see how that training goes, and of course the first thing he does is climb an electrical pylon. Don't look down! Being an internet star must pay well, because he keeps doing scary things even though he does have a normal sense of self-preservation that is lacking in certain stunt YouTubers. And that's why we can feel his trepidation like a normal person. But this is just tower climbing. If there were real electricity involved, Tom would have had to undergo a lot more training.        

Another thing about this video is our opportunity to look at how other countries get their power. Coal is being phased out in the UK, and natural gas has to be liquified and shipped in. The US has plenty of oil and natural gas, and plenty of room for wind and solar, while European countries have to import so much fuel of one kind or another. That's why electricity prices and heating bills are so much higher in western Europe.

Also: In America, a lineman's job can be even scarier.

I've often said that the most memorable part of weddings and holiday family gatherings are the parts that go wrong. Those can become funny stories later. But when things go wrong at a funeral, it can be sad, terrifying, or really gross. After all, there's a dead body involved. There have been some really memorable funerals that go way beyond a drunk uncle or mourners showing up hoping for the deceased's possessions or a free meal. One US president's funeral was interrupted by his parrot, who swore loudly at everyone who attended. An elephant killed a woman, then showed up at her funeral to do more damage. An embarrassing mishap at Queen Victoria's funeral led to a new British royal tradition. A funeral in San Diego was interrupted by a police chase right through the church. But the worst had to be the king whose corpse exploded as he was being buried. Read about nine funerals in which something went very wrong -all different disasters- at Mental Floss. You can read the list or listen to it on a video.

The school bus is coming down the street, but it's not there to take your kids to school. This bus is specially for dogs! Denzel Morrison owns Ruff and Puff Doggy Day Camp in Calgary, Alberta. He also drives the bus, which may just be the best job in the world. The doggy bus picks up 10-14 dogs at a time and shuttles them to one of several private dog parks where the dogs can have a good time and run off energy. The dogs really enjoy their adventures. They get to ride, run, and play with familiar canine friends, so what's not to love about it? After all this activity, the dogs are delivered to their homes ready to relax with their human, who is also tired after work. Rover is ready to snuggle on the couch, since he's just been thoroughly walked.  

In this video, Morrison explains how he naturally fell into work with dogs, and came up with the idea of a bus that could transport dogs without using cages. The dogs really appreciate that. See more of Ruff and Puff's doggie adventures at Instagram and TikTok.  -via Born in Space

In 1928, Walk Disney Studios released a cartoon called Steamboat Willie. It was the debut of a character called Mickey Mouse, and also of his girlfriend Minnie Mouse. Ever since, Mickey has been the flagship character and the symbol of Disney. The character has been close to entering the public domain several time: in 1955, 1986, and in 2003, but each time the copyright was extended by legislation. Since there has been no copyright extension laws enacted in the past twenty years, the earliest version of Mickey Mouse will enter the public domain on January 1, 2024.  

But that only applies to the original version of the mouse as he was designed for Steamboat Willie. Disney still has a copyright on later versions, and has trademarked the mouse, too. Trademark law is different, however, and is designed to protect companies from logo infringement, not the character itself. Disney will be watching us in the new year to see how the rubber-hose version of Mickey will be used. Read the details of the soon-to-be public domain Mickey at Variety. -Thanks, WTM!

(Image source: Wikipedia)

You might have seen this video before showing the school bands of Bridle Path Elementary and Kulp Elementary performing Jingle Bells. It starts off with the maestro introducing the band and its soloist who will be performing the verses of the song on the trumpet.

Following the trumpeter, the beginner section of the band will join in the chorus, which will then pass again to the soloist, and then onto the advanced section of the band. The last verse and chorus will be played by the soloist and the whole band respectively.

The maestro also gives a small, cheeky caveat telling the students that if things go wrong, he might have a heart attack, but then immediately follows that by saying that even if things go well, he might still have a heart attack.

So, here's a throwback to the Jingle Bells performance that adorably "went wrong". Also, I'm quite surprised how most of the parents kept themselves together throughout, as I would have been giggling from just how cute the whole thing was. But the kids deserved that applause in the end. - via Digg

(Video credit: iamlcubed/Youtube)

More precisely, solastalgia is taken from the Latin word solacium, meaning comfort, and the Greek root -algia, referring to grief, pain, or suffering. It is the existential distress one experiences when they encounter environmental changes. Particularly, it's the feeling some people get when they miss what it felt like to celebrate the holidays before.

The feeling of solastalgia is typically associated with climate change, and how the changing weather patterns affect the way people have grown to live during the winter season.

Many people have ingrained traditions or lifestyles connected to winter and the holidays, but that has slowly changed due to the rising temperature, and extreme shifts in the weather.

Cold places, like Minnesota, are gradually becoming less cold and experiencing less snow, and there are even instances when warm places, like Texas or California, have started to experience cold snaps and snow storms.

Because of these changes in the weather, people experience disruptions in their coping mechanisms for the winter months, and that's when solastalgia occurs. There's a disorientation going on in our minds when things aren't the way we remember them, the way we're used to live.

Not only this, but climate change has also affected certain cultural practices such as the indigenous hunters of Alaska who had a subsistence form of life by catching marine mammals. With the disappearance of sea ice, this has slowly vanished.

Despite the feeling of solastalgia becoming more pronounced as the years go by, people have been finding ways to adapt to the new circumstances. We may have this longing for the winters of old, but in time, we will develop newer coping mechanisms for the changing times.

(Image credit: Colin Lloyd/Unsplash)

Ancient Romans used to start their new year in March, since their first calendar only had 10 months which ended in December, approximately harvest time, so people can celebrate at the end of the year with a good harvest. Then, two months of winter will pass by and they start a new year.

This configuration of the early Roman calendar had most likely been adopted from other dating systems like those of the Greeks, Etruscans, and Babylonians. The Roman simply named their months after gods and goddesses like the war god Mars for March, and Juno for June. The rest of the months had been named after the numbers such as septem for seven, and so on.

Later on, this 10-month calendar was replaced by a lunar calendar which added two new months, each consisting of 28 days: Ianuarius (named after the god Janus) and Februarius (a reference to the Roman purification festival, Februa).

The problem with this new calendar, they soon found out, was that it did not sync with the seasons. They tried to rectify this by adding an extra month called Mercedonius, every two or three years, which just made the matter more confusing.

It wasn't until Julius Caesar had commissioned a new standard calendar in 45 BC. Designed by Sosigenes, the Julian calendar consisted of 365 days with a leap year every four years. This was more consistent with the seasons, and finally synced with the sun.

January 1st became the beginning of the new year as well, as opposed to the original March. It was in celebration of the day that consuls, the highest elected public official in the Roman Republic, took office.

(Image credit: Yamen/Wikimedia Commons)

We initially thought that boa constrictors like pythons and anacondas killed their prey by asphyxiation, or cutting the animal's airflow and depriving it from oxygen. However, research has suggested that boa constrictors stop the blood flow of their prey, causing immediate death from cardiac arrest.

The difference between asphyxiation and sudden cardiac arrest is that in the first situation, only the airways are constricted, but the heart continues pumping blood throughout the body. In this scenario, one would assume that the prey caught in the stranglehold would try to free itself and show signs of a struggle.

But this anecdote by a doctor who had witnessed the killing of a goat by a python indicated that there had been no signs of a struggle, but he observed depressions on the goat's chest. Granted, this is just one anecdote and the doctor did not investigate further.

Scientists who conducted experiments, however, have been able to figure out exactly how boa constrictors killed their prey. They attached sensors into anesthetized rats and a python in order to measure the rats' blood pressure, blood gases, blood ion balance, and heart function, as well as the amount of pressure that the python was exerting on the rat.

From the experiments, they found that the pythons had been exerting immense pressure on the rats' blood flow at a rapid pace. It caused instantaneous cardiac arrest. Again, a few caveats: rats are mammals, and quite small. So, attacking its circulatory system would entail instantaneous death.

On the other hand, if boas will try and constrict lizards or frogs, for example, will the manner of death be the same, considering cold-blooded animals don't have the same circulatory systems as mammals? This is a question for a future study.

But it makes sense why sudden cardiac arrest is more advantageous for boa constrictors.

First, it eliminates the possibility of harm when the prey struggles. In the example of the rat, it may use its claws or teeth to gnaw away at the python. Or, in the case of the goat, it may use its horns to stab the python or its hooves to trample on it.

Second, it saves the snake time and energy in hunting and eating its prey.

At the end of the day, I think the lesson is the same. Stay away from boa constrictors.

(Image credit: Jan Kopřiva/Unsplash)

Knights have mostly been depicted in period dramas, historical epics, or fantasy adventures as the noble warriors, tragic heroes, or some romanticized version of the ideal man during the Medieval Ages. But the truth is they were the elite soldiers of that time who constantly trained their bodies to their physical limits in order to protect their lords and realms.

It was extremely difficult to kill knights in a medieval battle. Although we have seen a lot of gory shows like Game of Thrones depicting knights being easily slain in battles or jousts, the reality is that knights generally avoided killing other knights in battle and because of their rigorous training and near-impenetrable armor, there were only two ways to actually kill medieval knights.

The two ways to kill medieval knights were (1) to break through their armor by brute force, and (2) to incapacitate the knight, and then attack the weak points in their armor.

The best weapons to crush a knight's full set of chainmail or plated armor were lances, maces, and warhammers. The second method, which was most often used by groups of regular soldiers since they could not beat a knight one-on-one, was for four or five soldiers to wrestle the knight to the ground while one would stab the knight through the armor's weak points.

Weak points in a knight's armor generally would be located in the groin area, the inside of the legs, the armpits, and the slits on the helmet. Or, if they were lucky enough to remove a knight's helmet, then the chances of killing the knight increased exponentially.

However, knights already knew that their armor was not invulnerable, so it was very difficult and dangerous to attempt to kill a knight, since it required one to get very close to the knight, at which point, the knight would have already killed the assailant.

One prime example, however, when knights had been killed en masse was at the Battle of Agincourt. That was an incredible feat accomplished by the English infantry who killed a lot of French knights. To do that, they killed the knights' horses with arrows, and falling off their horses, the knights were immobilized, and stabbed to death.

Learn more about medieval knight history on Neutral History.

(Image credit: Joseph Martin Kronheim/Wikimedia Commons)

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1966 is a law that ensures the security of sensitive patient health information by issuing national standards that prohibit the disclosure of such without the patient's consent or knowledge.

One misconception that people generally have with HIPAA is that all health-related data is secure. They're not. HIPAA doesn't cover everything.

Entities under HIPAA include (1) healthcare providers such as hospitals, private medical offices, medical professionals, labs, clinics, and pharmacies, and (2) subcontractors or "business associates" which include third-party vendors, health plan providers, and insurance companies.

HIPAA doesn't include pharmaceutical companies, employers, universities, and social media businesses. This means that, for example, giving personal information on Instagram for buying health-related products or services will not be covered by HIPAA in case a data breach occurs.

Employers asking about an employee's health-related concerns will not be considered an HIPAA issue, although it could be a discrimination issue.

Also, universities accessing students' records from the campus health clinic regarding any issue students may be involved in, for example, sexual assault cases or other violent crimes like hazing incidents, is not covered by HIPAA, although it is under the Federal Educational Records and Privacy Act (FERPA).

One way experts suggest to increase one's data security is by enabling two-factor authentication. Also, it is best to avoid connecting through public WiFi to prevent sensitive information from being leaked.

On the part of healthcare providers, getting more secure and efficient software or ERP systems will most likely let doctors focus on being doctors instead of worrying about their patients' data security, just as ZDoggMD's music video above astutely points out.

(Video credit: Dr. Zubin Damania aka ZDoggMD/Youtube)

Fifteen demonstrators in Tokyo marched through the streets yesterday, shouting slogans and waving banners in their protest of the celebration of Christmas in Japan. This was not a nationalist objection to a holiday of foriegn origin, but an annual tradition of the Revolutionary Alliance of Unpopular People.

Sora News 24 explains that in Japan, which has only a very small Christian population in modern times, Christmas is a romantic holiday for couples. This irritates himote--lonely people, mostly men, who are unable to find dates. They banded together to form an organization to crush Christmas love and have marched each Christmas Day since 2007.

Photo: @kakuhidou1