Too many choices - I feel faint

A few months ago I learnt about the curious Jerusalem syndrome whereby people suffer various religious delusions upon arriving in Jerusalem. Today I learnt that art can also have serious affects on people. Stendhal syndrome is a psychosomatic illness which manifests itself as dizziness, confusion, rapid heartbeat, and in some cases hallucinations, upon the sufferer's exposure to art. Stendhal syndrome tends to be caused by particularly beautiful art or by large amounts of art in one place. Apparently Florentine art is notorious for causing this syndrome.

Still it beats getting stung by jellyfish on holiday, don't you think?

The end for mice?

Every so often I attempt to sue a laptop, for the most part I can manage fine, however I have real trouble when it comes to manipulating cursor on screen. The problem is I am so used to the sort of mouse that is found on desktop computers that I can't quite get the hang of the laptop's pad thingy. Apparently soon I may not have to worry about mastering laptop mice. Some people have claimed that the days of the computer mouse are numbered. Various technology companies are looking into such things as facial recognition to replace the mouse. But here's an interesting wee factoid about the computer mouse. It was invented by Dr Douglas Englebart but he never received any royalties for the product as his patent ran out in 1987 which was just before the computer revolution which made the mouse indispensable.

Until now, of course.

A Pressing Problem

I have been reading more of Jared Diamond's Collapse and in one chapter he mentions Malthusian Problems. Malthusian problems are named after the English economist Thomas Malthus. He theorised that population increases would always tend to outrun food production because of the way each increases. Populations increase exponentially whereas food production increases arithmetically. That is to say a population can (and will if conditions are right) double in a few decades whereas during the same time improvements in food production will have only increased crop yields by 25% or 10% and so on. Populations tend to increase to consume the available food and not leave a surplus unless population growth is halted by war, famine, disease, or by people making preventative choices.

Tapir

Today while strolling around Glasgow's West End I saw a poster appealing for a missing pet. Out of curiosity I read it. To my surprise it was not a cat, nor a dog that was missing but a tapir. Tapirs are classed as large browsing mammals and are found in South America and Southeast Asia. I was quite surprised to discover that someone would keep a tapir as a pet seeing as how every species of tapir is currently endangered. Not only that but tapirs can be surprisingly strong one tapir severed a zookeeper's arm in Oklahoma City. However for the most part they are quite shy.

As the poster advises the tapir is likely to be hiding in the shrubbery.

Taste of Africa

Last night I went out with some friends to Khublai Khan's. This is a Mongolian restaurant in Glasgow's Merchant City. I had heard of it but I had never actually been to it before because let's face it Mongolia is famous for many things but its cuisine isn't one of them. However friends who had been raved about it so I was quite looking forward to it. The restaurant's USP (Unique Selling Point) is that patrons make their own meals. First they pick rice or noodles, then they select some vegetables, then they pick out the meat that they want to eat. The selection of meat is what really makes Khublai Khan's famous as alongside the usual fish, beef, lamb, and chicken, there is also venison, rabbit, kangaroo, springbok, wild boar, ostrich, zebra, and crocodile (although there was no crocodile on offer when I went). I sampled the zebra and ostrich as well as the venison (but I'd had that before). Both the zebra and ostrich were surprisingly edible. Mind you that may have been down to the fact that patrons having chosen their meat then get to make their own sauce from a selection of oils, spices, and such.

As Homer Simpson would say "Mmmm safari...."

Skyr

Currently I am reading Jared Diamond's book "Collapse". In it he examines the possible reasons why many civilisations collapsed. He examines the fate of the Scandinavian colonies (as well as other civilisations such as those of Easter Island and Mesoamerica) of Vinland (modern Newfoundland), Greenland, Iceland, the Faeroe Islands, the Shetland Islands, and Orkney. I was intrigued to learn that the Scandinavian peoples valued pork above all other meats. Pork was the meat which warriors were believed to feast on in Valhalla. However pigs were not suited to all the environments of the new colonies. Thus they had to rely more on cows, sheep and goats, as well as marine mammals and fish. One food product which came out of the colonisation of Iceland was skyr. This is a type of fresh cheese that has been strained and it has the consistency of yogurt. Skyr is a high protein food which keeps well without refrigeration making it a good food source for long hard winters when other food sources are less abundant.

Lord of the Rings

While I was still at school I read the Lord of the Rings and around the same time the first of the trilogy of film versions appeared. I went to see the first film, The Fellowship of the Ring, and I did not like it, hence I avoided the other films like the plague. However several of my friends are hardcore Lord of the Rings fans and convinced me to take part in a movie marathon whereby we would watch all three extended versions of the film trilogy. Well it took us over twelve hours but we watched them all. Much to my surprise I was not bored out of my skull but nor would I want to repeat the performance regularly. I discovered that the films were better than I remembered and expected.

And the joys of second breakfast.