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