October 21st, 2017

Today marks one year since I started this blog, and thus the end of this project. I am pleased to have successfully learned one new thing every day for a year (including the two month break for summer, even if what was learned was not chronicled for lack of internet). Updates will now stop. They may resume at some point in the future, however for now Pansophism has ended. It was a fun ride!

Alcohol strength is usually quantified in terms of 'Alcohol by Volume' (or ABV), however we still sometimes hear strength quoted in units of 'alcohol proof'. This is a somewhat arcane unit of measurement that was quite interesting. A pellet of gunpowder would be soaked in alcohol, and if it could still be lit the alcohol was said to be 'above proof', and as such taxed more heavily. The point at which the gunpowder would still burn was called 100 proof, and corresponded to about 57.15 % ABV. Knowing this, it is fairly easy to switch between Alcohol proof and ABV:

Proof = $\frac{ABV}{57.15} \times 100$

A typical beer, at about 5% ABV, works out to be around 8 proof. Understandably, soaking gunpowder pellets turned out to be a somewhat impractical way of measuring alcohol strength, and the unit was phased out in the 1800s in favour of ABV. For old time's sake, you will still sometimes see proof alluded to on the labels of spirits.

-E

October 20th, 2017

France has seen many interesting presidents. The greatest would have to be Charles de Gaulle, who is consistently ranked at the top of most lists. His brand of politics is still practised today, and referred to as 'Gaullism'. In 1981 another interesting character was elected. François Mitterrand would go on to be president for 14 years, and is sometimes regarded as 'the last of the greats'. He played a large part in pushing France towards the socialist state it is today, increasing funding towards education, healthcare, pensions, childcare, and immigration. However, behind his confident political prowess Mitterrand was hiding some jarring secrets. An adulterer, Mitterrand regularly pursued extramarital affairs, and fathered two children to two different women (a French historian and Swedish journalist, both decades younger), although there may well have been other mistresses. Mitterrand was also diagnosed with cancer in 1981. He went to great lengths to hide these facts: falsifying medical records, wiretapping journalists he didn't trust, and threatening anyone he felt could turn on him. He managed to keep one child - a son - a secret until after his death, while his illegitimate daughter was unknown to the public for over a decade. The daughter's name is Mazarine, allegedly alluding to the street in central Paris where she was conceived.

Bonus:

The French seem to have a talent for electing womanisers. In addition to Mitterrand's trysts, current president Emmanual Macron is married to a woman 24 years his senior whom he courted at 15. François Hollande, his predecessor, has had multiple partners, and is currently dating an actress 20 years his junior. Before him there was Nicolas Sarkozy, who is obsessed by his image, and on his third marriage to a young model. Even in wartime, president Philippe Pétain had to be tracked down by hotel staff who knew which mistress he would be with on a given night. It would seem the position requires a certain je ne sais quoi...

-E

October 19th, 2017

French actor Jean Rochefort passed away last week at the age of 87. He was a cultural icon in France, having acted in his first film in 1956. In addition to acting, Rochefort found plenty of ways to keep busy. He recorded audio for children's films (as well as the french adaptation of the Winnie the Pooh series), was a fan of equestrianism, and even served as the godfather of a lighthouse. Rochefort also had a playful sense of humour. Near the end of his life, he produced a series of short videos in which he summarises classic literature using vulgar slang (young language, as he called it).

Bonus:

Terry Gilliam cast Rochefort as the title character for The Man Who Killed Don Quixote in 1998. Rochefort polished his English for the role, but suffered a herniated disk which put filming on hold for months, and the project was eventually cancelled. Gilliam made several attempts at rebooting the project over the years, but they all fell flat. Until 2016 that is, when the project finally began filming with Michael Palin replacing Rochefort. Filming is complete as of June 2017, but sadly Rochefort will not be amongst the audience at the upcoming release.

-E

October 18th, 2017

Japan's fertility rate is among the lowest in the world, at around 1.4 children per woman. The statistic has remained relatively unchanged in the past half century. Though, if you take a look at a graph of Japan's fertility rate over the years, you will notice a bizarre dip in fertility rate for 1966. Why did so many Japanese avoid having children in 1966? An article by sociologist Koya Azumi explains the dip. In Japan, as well as other East Asian countries, each year is associated with both an element and an animal. The cycle repeats every 60 years, and the first year of each cycle is associated with the 'Fire Horse', and referred to as 丙午 (Hinoe Uma). Women born on such a year are thought to be fiery and headstrong: trouble for their husbands. On account of this couples avoided giving birth in 1966, at the risk of having a daughter who would be difficult to marry. The next 丙午 will be in 9 years - in 2026. It will be interesting to see if superstition has waned, or if another dip in fertility rate will appear.

-E

October 17th, 2017

Moving from Lyon to Iceland, the most famous (as well as notorious) food is kæstur hákarl, or fermented shark. The fish is buried for a few months, and then hung to dry for a few more. The meat is occasionally described as tasting like pee, with rumours going around that the species pees through its skin. Not quite, though the Greenland Shark from which hákarl is made does have high concentrations of urea (also present in urine) to help with deep-sea buoyancy.

Bonus:

The Greenland Shark is also the vertebrae with the longest lifespan: sometimes over 400 years. The sharks only reach sexual maturity at around 150 years of age.

-E

October 16th, 2017

At an evening out with a group of Lyonnais (that is, people from Lyon), should you ask for an example of something defining the city, you stand a good chance of learning about Beaujolais Nouveau. A nouveau (new) is a wine sold the same year it is harvested. Just north of Lyon, the region of Beaujolais is renowned for its wines, and therefore the first wines of the year come with much fanfare. They are shipped down the Saône river, and can be sold as of 12:01 am on the third Thursday of November. It seems strange to rush a wine to market, when the product's value usually increases with age. In the case of Beaujolais, nobody claims it to be exceptionally good wine. It is coveted more for the tradition that accompanies it, that being the celebration of another year's harvest.

Bonus:
If you wish to fully experience Lyon's gastronomical scene, your Beaujolais Nouveau must be enjoyed at a Bouchon, a traditional Lyonnais restaurant. But be sure to book in advance: only about 20 restaurants are certified authentic Bouchons.

-E

And today is as good a day as ever to break out the wine. It's the 300$^{th}$ article!

October 15th, 2017

Today I met someone with a tattoo on the right of his neck which read '家族母姉父'. In general, if one doesn't see any hirigana nor katakana it's safe to assume the text is Chinese. In Chinese, 家族 (jiāzú) means 'clan', and the next 3 characters are 'mǔ zǐ fù' meaning 'mother, elder sister, father'. However, 姉 is not a character used in modern Chinese, besides as an occasional phonetic element. My guess was that perhaps the characters were intended to be read phonetically: 'mǔzǐfù clan'. I asked, and was informed that it was a Japanese haiku written in kanji. In Japanese, 姉 is still used to mean sister, while '家族' means family. Thus, the characters are read as 'family: mother, elder sister, father' and pronounced as 'kazoku haha ane chichi'. Though, is this truly a haiku? A traditional Japanese haiku consists of 17 音 (on), organised in 5-7-5 (or sometimes 11 organised in 3-5-3). These 5 characters consist of 9 音 (ka-zo-ku ha-ha a-ne chi-chi), so they do not form a haiku in the traditional sense. Although today the rules have become quite relaxed, with much shorter 'monokus' occasionally popping up. Even the old masters would occasionally bend the rules. Ultimately, the only consistent definition of a haiku is that they are concise, and in that sense the tattoo certainly qualifies.

Bonus:
Noteworthy is that the Japanese concept of 音 do not always correspond to syllables. Paired vowels (such as おう 'ou') count as two 音, but represent a single English syllable. A similar disagreement occurs when a vowel ends with 'n' (なん 'nan').

-E

October 14th, 2017

Lindy Hop is a fast paced dance style that was born in the late 20s in New York. The routines often include frantic footwork paired with daring somersaults, lunges, and other acrobatics. Legendary in the history of the dance were Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, formed in 1935. The break-neck pace of the group's choreographies saw them featured in many of the era's Broadway performances and Hollywood movies. To truly appreciate the skill, as well as risk, their art entailed, take a moment to watch this clip from the 1941 film Hellzapoppin'. As the US stepped up its involvement in the 2$^{nd}$ World War, many of the male dancers were drafted, and by the mid-forties the group was no more. At the time of writing this, a sole member of the original group (also featured in the above clip) is still alive: Norma Miller is 97 years old, and still travels to promote the dance.

-E

October 13th, 2017

In Egypt's Dendera Temple a large circular star chart was discovered on the ceiling. The Dendera Zodiac, as it became known, fired up many an imagination, with some claiming it attested to astounding astronomical knowledge as early as 2,500 BC. Today, the consensus is that the Zodiac is not nearly as ancient: likely the 1$^{st}$ century BC. However, the astronomical implications (pun intended) are still very impressive. The relief contains the constellations and planets known to the Egyptians, as well as the dates of a solar and a lunar eclipse. The Zodiac in Dendera is a replica, with the original now housed in the Louvre (much to the dismay of many Egyptians).

Bonus:
In the Dendera Temple, another curious relief looks like an elongated lightbulb. The bulb became known as the Dendera Light, and gave rise to many far-flung theories that the Egyptians had electric lighting.

-E

October 12th, 2017

If you find yourself (for god knows what reason) in need of assuring a French person that you will keep a promise, a safe option is Croix de bois, croix de fer, si je mens, je vais en enfer (Wooden cross, iron cross, if I lie, I go to hell). The context is effectively identical to the English ditty "Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye".

-E

October 11th, 2017

Our Galaxy, the Milky Way, is part of a group of about 50 galaxies called the Local Group. Most of these are small dwarf galaxies, with the only galaxy larger than our own being Andromeda. Recently, for the first time ever, scientists have been able to detect complex molecules in a galaxy outside of this group: the Sculptor Galaxy (or NGC 253), located 11.4 million light years away.

-E

October 10th, 2017

Boursin is a popular cheese in France. It was invented in 1957, is easily spreadable, and contains herbs. The slogan is "Du Pain, Du Boursin, On Est Bien", and the brand is owned by Bel Group. The company is also responsible for other cheese brands such as The Laughing Cow and Babybel.

Bonus 1:
The Laughing Cow was the first cheese product to be trademarked (in 1921). The name came from a meat truck spotted during the First World War which bore the name 'La Wachkyrie', alluding to the Norse Valkyries. To a frenchman's ear, this sounded like La Vache Qui Rit (The Cow That Laughs), and voila.

Bonus 2:
Later, earrings were added to the red cow on the packaging, each one a smaller version of the round box the cheese comes in. Embedding a logo inside itself, as in this case, is called the Droste effect. The effect is named after the Droste chocolate company, specifically a cocoa tin sold by the company with an image of a nurse holding up a smaller version of the tin.

-E

October 9th, 2017

Here's a dated expression: "Living the life of Riley" (or Reilly by some accounts). It refers to someone who is living a happy and carefree existence, and has more or less fallen out of modern usage. It seems as though though the expression finds its origins in an early   19$^{th}$ century Irish folk song: 'Willey Reilly and his Colleen Bawn'. The ballad tells the story of Willie Reilly, who elopes with his 'Colleen Bawn'. This is an alternate spelling of Cailin Ben - Cailin being the Irish word for a young maiden, and Ben for woman. Reilly was allegedly tried for eloping, and as he was Catholic while his 'cailin ben' (possibly a woman named Helen Ffolliot) was Protestant, the punishment could be the death penalty. A judge (possibly a 'Luke Fox') agreed to save Reilly, finding pity for the lovers. The characters of the tale seem to be true historical figures, and the events may have occurred in Sligo, Ireland around 1745. There was later a film loosely based on the events released in 1918. As for the saying, the idea of overcoming the dangers of forbidden love to live happily in the Irish countryside certainly meant Willie Reilly lived the 'life of Riley'.

Bonus:
About nine people have walked or run around the world, although with two thirds of the world's surface covered by ocean, it becomes very difficult to agree on which routes can truly be considered circumnavigation. Some of the more credible claims are those of Jean Béliveau, who walked for 11 years across all six continents and covered around 75,000 km. Endurance runner Tony Mangan also jogged for 4 years and covered 50,000 km (he also holds the record for most distance covered on a treadmill in 48 hours: 405.22 km). One of the greatest stories of pedestrian circumnavigation, however, is probably that of the first person to accomplish the feat. Romanian Dumitru Dan set out with three friends in 1910, and returned in 1923 alone: one by one his friends had died along the way. Dumitru had crossed 76 countries and wore out 497 pairs of shoes.

-E

October 8th, 2017

A Croatian legend talks of the siege of Đurđevac, in which Turkish forces attempted to capture the city. As the story goes, the Turks were also hungry and of low morale, but they could hunt and gather food while continuing the siege. In the city, however, prospects were grim, and all the food had been eaten except a single rooster. It is said that the Croats fired the rooster at the Turks, giving the impression that there was so much food within the city it could be wasted as artillery. The Turks, fooled by the display and exasperated by the prospect of holding the siege much longer, retreated. Regardless of whether the events actually took place, the residents of the town have come to be known as 'Picoks' (the Croatian word for rooster).

-E

October 7th, 2017

Croatia does not use the Euro, although it is obliged to adopt the currency once certain economic conditions are met. Instead, it uses the Kuna, with colourful notes featuring historical figures and events. On the 100 Kuna note is a peculiar script next to Croatian poet and linguist Ivan Mažuranić. This is the Glagolitic Script and the excerpt is taken from the Baška Tablet. The script was developed in the 9$^{th}$ century by a Byzantine monk, making it the oldest known Slavic script. The tablet dates to around 1,100 and contains a liturgical inscription bearing the first known reference to the Croatian name of Croatia (hrъvatъskъï, or Hrvatski). As for the script, it slowly declined beginning in the 17$^{th}$ century, and Croatia was one of the final regions where it was used (primarily for liturgy) before disappearing entirely in the 20$^{th}$ century.

Bonus:

There are currently 9 EU countries that do not use the Euro: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Of these, all are contractually obliged to join as part of their EU membership except the UK (which will leave the EU in 2019) and Denmark (which opted out of the membership provision). There are also two non-EU countries using the Euro: Montenegro and (if you count it) Kosovo.

-E

October 6th, 2017

The HBO series Game of Thrones has become a phenomenon, and nowhere is that more evident than in Dubrovnik, Croatia. The city is teeming with tourists eager to get a look into King's Landing, for which Dubrovnik was used. In 2016 more than one million tourists visited, up 12 percent from 2015, and staggering for a city with a population of 42,000. There has been talk of limiting the number of people in the old city to avoid damage. One of the sights the tourist are most eager to see are the 'Shame Steps', used in the episode 'Mother's Mercy' in which Queen Cersei walks down them naked while being pelted and harassed as punishment for her adultery. The scene is supposedly the most expensive in television history, with the costs of shutting down the city for three days of filming at 200,000$. Add to this paying off businesses, hiring 500 extras, and 200 security guards, and the final cost is hefty (though some sources say 200,000$ was the total). It's worth noting that quantifying the price of a scene is difficult. What defines a distinct scene, for example? Should you factor in the salaries of the main characters? Or should the price reflect simply the logistics of the setup and execution? If all salaries are included, Game of Thrones would certainly be...um...dethroned by the Netflix series The Crown, as well as the ER, which both cost 13 million per episode (compared to 10 for Game of Thrones).

Bonus:

The 'Shame Steps' must be having an identity crisis. The 'Walk of Shame' that Cersei is subject to is a common mislabelling of the 'Walk of Atonement', and hence the stairs should be the 'Stairs of Atonement'. Before Game of Thrones overtook Dubrovnik the stairs were usually called the Spanish Steps. This was also a mix up, as the Dubrovnik steps resemble the actual Spanish Steps, in Rome. The true name for the steps, forgotten by most, are the Jesuit Stairs. This is in reference to the Jesuit Church and College located at the top

-E

October 5th, 2017

Stockholm Syndrome refers to the manifestation of empathy amongst hostages towards their captors. But why Stockholm? Well, the term was coined after a hostage situation in a Stockholm bank in 1973. Four people were held hostage by two Swedish criminals hoping to rob the bank, and the stand-off lasted 5 days. Over the course of the incident, some of the captives developed trust for their captors, and feared that the police would escalate events. In the end nobody was killed, and the syndrome became associated with Stockholm.

Bonus:
Both perpetrators were eventually set free. One lives in Belgium, while the other went on to run a supermarket in Thailand for 15 years with his wife and son, before returning to Sweden.

-E

October 4th, 2017

Alsace is a region of western France bordering Germany. It is quite lovely, with picturesque towns such as Strasbourg, and an interesting mix of French and German culture. Unbeknown to many, Alsace has a tryst on the other side of the world: Japan. In the 1800s Alsace was renowned for its textile prowess. Japanese merchants, looking to learn the secrets of western textiles (and allegedly how to dye clothes in as-of-yet unaccomplished colours) arrived in the country in 1863 and forged business ties. These connections have held strong until today, with the two celebrating their 150$^{th}$ anniversary in 2013. Alsace maintains a centre for Japanese cultural studies, and Japan set up a boarding school in the area for Japanese students, which operated from 1986 - 2005. With Brexit, it seems the relationship between these two odd bedfellows may only strengthen.

Bonus:

In 1667 a magnitude 10 earthquake hit Dubrovnik. Two thirds of the citizens were killed and three quarters of the buildings were destroyed.

-E

October 3rd, 2017

Dubrovnik used to be part of the Republic of Ragusa, which existed between the 14$^{th}$ and 19$^{th}$ centuries. The city shares much in common with Venice, both enjoying a warm Mediterranean climate, and both serving as hubs for maritime trade. Yet the two were bitter rivals, and fought to monopolise sea trade. In 1806 the city was taken by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, but the occupation lasted only 8 years. Then they became part of Austria-Hungary, followed by Yugoslavia, before finally joining Croatia in 1991 after the shattering of Yugoslavia (much to the dismay of Serbia and Montenegro). The tumultuous history has worn off on the little city, with elements of all occupying cultures lingering today.

-E

October 2nd, 2017

Long ago the universe was filled with neutral hydrogen, and not much else, a period known as the Dark Ages. Slowly, stars and galaxies were born and began to 'energise' this neutral hydrogen, and over time the universe became clear, as it is today. Looking deep deep deep into space, we can see the light arriving to us from incredibly distant objects. In 2011, a team detected light from a quasar (an incredibly bright and energetic galaxy) 13 billion light years away. This is a measure of how long it took the light to travel to us (13 billion years). Quasars emit their light particles (photons) at many different energies, and as these photons travel through space to arrive at us, they can be absorbed by gasses or materials they pass through on their journey. Each material will only absorb photons that have a certain energy, and because of this we can know what things the photons passed through based on which energies are missing. The light from this incredibly distant quasar was missing the energies that correspond to neutral hydrogen. This tells us that this quasar is so ancient it was formed during the dark ages of the universe, and its light began the journey to Earth in the cloudy young universe.

-E

October 1st, 2017

The name of Croatia is derived from the Croat people, the first known mention of whom appears on the Brahnimir Inscription, dating to 888. However, Croatian cars are emblazoned with the letters 'HR'. Why? The initials betray the Croatian name of the country: Hrvatska. Intriguingly, nobody knows exactly where the name came from, although that's not to say that there is a shortage of theories. Part of the difficulty in conclusively placing the name comes from the difficulty in placing the people: nobody knows where the Croats came from.

Bonus:

One of the more fanciful theories (today more-or-less discredited) claims the Croats originated in ancient Iran. The claim goes on to suggest the name Hrvatska comes from the ancient region of Harahuvatiš (today referred to as Arachosia), which historically extended as far as the Indus river.

Bonus 2:

...but one can go even deeper down the rabbit hole. Harahuvatiš is the the Old Persian equivalent of the Sanskrit word (सरस्वती Saraswati), which is the name of a mythical river mentioned in the Rig Veda, written sometime in the 2nd Millennium BC. Over the course of three and a half millennia the river may have dried up or rerouted, however much archaeological work has been put into affirming the myth by analysing maps and soils of northeast India.

Bonus 3:

...and there is one final layer. Sarswati was not only the name of the ancient river, but the river goddess associated with it. Her name comes from सरस् (sars, meaning lakes or waters) and वती (wati, meaning woman), hence 'woman of the waters'. Today Sarswati remains a major goddess, although she has lost her ancient roots to today embody knowledge, music, and wisdom. So are the Croatian license plates unknowingly paying homage to an ancient Indian river goddess? As good a story it would be, there are issues with the link between Hrvatska and Arachosia, and thus it seems as though the conclusion is fanciful. Still, imagining 'what if' leads us down some fascinating alleys that span 3,500 years and 5,600 km.

-E

Note: I am at an astrophysics conference in Croatia for the next week. Posts may reflect this.

September 30th, 2017

Montenegro is a fairly unremarkable country, and is about average in terms of per capita GDP. The country doesn't usually make the news, and many people didn't know of its existence until Donald Trump allegedly rough-handled the president at the Nato headquarters in May. However, the little country manages to get up to a lot of mischief. It suffers from problems of crime, mafia, as well as trafficking of people and weapons. Corruption is also a big issue, with the Prime Minister's immense wealth coming from 'mysterious' origins. These issues caused tempers to boil over in 2015, and the country experienced protests that lasted many months.

-E

September 29th, 2017

The European Union was created for many reasons, one of the primary being (after the chaos and destruction of the 2$^{nd}$ World War) making war ''not only unthinkable, but materially impossible''. However, the EU was not the first attempt at combining European Countries. The birth of a previous entity will celebrate its centenary next year: Yugoslavia came into existence in 1918, after the 1$^{st}$ World War. The idea was to define a sole state for the Southern (юг, yug) Slavic people (hence yug-slavia), although other possible benefits included shared wealth and military strength between the nations involved. Yugoslavia began to fracture in 1991 with Slovenia and Croatia declaring independence, and the name 'Yugoslavia' was used until 2003 by Serbia and Montenegro. In these final remnants of the state, some of the older generation still remain proud of their 'Yugoslavian' cultural identity. Although the EU is vastly different from Yugoslavia (for one, the former is a political union, while the latter was a state merger) many have pointed out that there is much to be learned from the initial historical attempt at uniting European Countries that was Yugoslavia.

Bonus:
After the 1$^{st}$ World War another large state merger was proposed to counter the strength of Russia and Germany. Intermarium would have comprised up to 10 modern countries in Eastern Europe. All of the countries were swallowed up by Russia before the merger could be seriously attempted...well, except Finland.

-E

September 28th, 2017

Much like countries, cultures, civilisations, and languages, religions also blossom and fade away as the centuries pass. Zoroastrianism, which has been practised for over two millennia, is today nearly extinct. A lesser known example is Manichaeism, founded by the prophet Mani in the 3$^{rd}$ century. The religion revolved around a struggle between good and evil, and thrived for centuries, even becoming one of the main religions alongside Christianity. Yet by the 14$^{th}$ century, after over a millennia, the religion went extinct. A relic of the faith survives as an English word: Manichaean - that which relates to distinct ideals of good and evil.

Bonus:

Manichaeism is included in wikipedia's 'List of Philosophies', along with many other religions, both extinct and extant.

-E