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Monthly Archives: July 2011

For when singing just isn’t appropriate.

Today I learned of a very interesting vegetable.  I had no idea something like it existed.  It is the Romanesco broccoli!

 

Fractal_Broccoli

Links to source

Look at it!  Isn’t it the most interesting vegetable ever?  It looks like smaller drills stacked on bigger drills!  Wikipedia says that sometimes it’s also known as a broccoflower, but I know this as broccoflower.

Basically a green-tinted cauliflower.

And you can’t have two vegetables named the same thing.  That would be confusing.  You also probably shouldn’t have one vegetable with one or more names either (I’m looking at you yams/sweet potatoes).

Anyway, doesn’t the Romanesco broccoli look so interesting that you must try and eat it, no matter how it tastes?  Well, apparently not.  I showed a picture of it to one of my friends and he told me that it’s probably poisonous.  When asked why and he said it was the combination of the color and shape that put him off.  He also said that things that look that perfect probably shouldn’t be eaten.  Haha.

But, I think you should eat them.  I said earlier that the vegetable looks like smaller drills stacked on bigger drills.  That’s important.  I’m pretty sure eating this vegetable will give you drill power.  You ask, what is drill power?  Well, drill power, also known as spiral power, is what you need when you are not manly enough.  Why do you need to be manly?  Because it’s the solution to most problems.  Where am I getting all this information from?  Here.

So, the normal way to gain drill power is to sing the song.  But what if you’re in a public area?  What if you’re in the library during finals week and everyone is studying in silence around you?  What if you feel like your studies are getting the best of you?  You need drill power.  But you can’t sing.  Singing would get you kicked out of the library where there is ambient study power.  What you should have done was to eat some Romanesco broccoli before you started studying.  You probably don’t need much of it.  There are so many drills on drills!  I would guess that a floret would be the equivalent to singing the song.  Thus, maybe you can pack some with you as a snack for such library situations.  You should respect the rules of your library though.  Most libraries don’t like it when you eat things inside, even if it’s to give you drill power for studying.

Drill power.  Good for studying.  Eat some Romanesco broccoli today.

(Btw, if anyone knows where I could get some, I’d appreciate it if you’d send that info my way.  I really would like to try it, drill power or not.)

Another spider post!

Disclaimer: This will probably be the last spider post for awhile.  I thought I’d just get them all out now.

This is the third post in which spiders appear.  You might think that I really like spiders, that maybe I’m an arachnophiliac.  I’m not.  And actually, I grew up being quite frightened of spiders.  Not a full on phobia, I mean, I could kill a spider if I had to and I wouldn’t run away from them.  But I remember more than one time when I had to mark pages in my science books in elementary school and jr. high so as not to turn to them because there were large pictures of spiders on those pages.  I’m not really sure what happened between then and now.   But before when I felt fear when seeing spiders, I’m merely curious.  I like to read about spiders now.  Sometimes I’ll catch one and frighten my coworkers with it.  I’m still not a big fan of killing them though.  I’ve never really liked the crunch of the exoskeleton between my fingers (same applies to large, meaty flies).  It doesn’t bother me nearly as much as before, though.

So anyway, I’m not an arachnophiliac, despite what you or my coworkers may think.  But my sense of curiosity, which is quite strong, now also extends to spiders.  So guess how I reacted when I learned that there is a SPIDER THAT KNOWS HOW TO SWIM!  Not just that it accidentally falls into some water and can paddle itself to some dry ground, but it actually DIVES!  In fact, it spends it’s whole life in water!  Have you ever heard of such a thing?  Well, now you have!  It is the diving bell spider, or Argyroneta aquatica.  There are pictures after the break!