Can I read my own palm?

Search: palm reading

Why: On Thought Catalog, "Marriage and Relationships from a 20-Something's Perspective" by Caitlin Stewart Truman:

A palm reader recently informed me that I do not have a union line. However, he also told me that I don’t have a life line. Obviously this means I am a rounded-out loner freak. Take what you will from the mystics, am I right?

Answer: As good as anyone else can! This Read your own PALM! thing looked promising for a few clicks, but then it petered out. They do offer an Online Palm Reading Service, but I don't have a scanner. I am now looking at some of their other resources on the same site.

For starters:

That's all well and good, but I seriously only have exactly 3 lines on my hand. Maybe 4, if you count a wrinkle down near the bottom. Maybe I just moisturize too much?

Uch, hands are so weird.

In good news,

• I will live forever (my Life Line is long and deep [twss])
• and carefully (my Head Line is touching my Life Line)

but also

• without luck (I have no space between my Life and Head Lines)
  
• selfishly / with a broken heart (my Heart Line starts between my 1 & 2 fingers)
• poor (I don't even have a Money Line)
• single and childless (I don't have Marriage or Children Lines, either)
  
• and with lots of complicated health problems (my Health Line is barely visible, at best)
  

It's looking pretty bleak.

But at least my hands are soft!

Source: OFESite

The More You Know: Did you know that the shapes and angles of your fingers and thumbs can tell you things about yourself, too? It's true! For example:

• If your top knuckles are smooth and your middle ones are knotty, then you are a person whose intellect and practicality work well together. A strong instinctive drive is characteristic of well developed knuckles.

WHAT!

How did Andy Warhol die?

Search: andy warhol

Why: On Thought Catalog, "5 Celebrities Who Would've Been Perfect for the Internet" by my new favorite writer* Ryan O'Connell:

Andy would’ve ruled supreme on the web. He would’ve beat Kim Kardashian in Twitter followers, and a tweet as simple as “i like oranges” would’ve gotten, like, a thousand retweets. He would love Twitpics. There’d be photos of Viva slumped over in the corner of the Factory in a heroin daze with the caption: “viva goes zzzzz.” His Facebook fan page would have so many “like”s but the comments would be terrible. “Andy is the worst. I wish he would just die!” or “he’s sO UGlY N siCk ewwww. whatAfAG!” When he was shot by Valerie Solanas though, there would’ve been an outpour of digital love. Fans would write, “Hang in there, Andy!” and “Say hi to Edie in heaven for me…” And like the freak that he is, he would’ve tweeted from his hospital bed something like, “someone shot me today and it was brilliant….” Ugh, now that I’m thinking about it, maybe Andy would’ve just had the most annoying internet presence in the world.

*4srs, I've read like 30 of his essays in the last 48 hours.

Answer: From complications after a gall bladder surgery!

Late in his life, Warhol suffered chronic gall bladder problems. His pain intensified in January 1987 during a trip to Italy. On February 20, 1987 he was admitted to New York Hospital. The next morning his gall bladder was successfully removed and Warhol seemed to be recovering well—watching television and talking on the telephone. During that night, however, complications arose which resulted in sudden cardiac arrest. Warhol was pronounced dead at 6:31 am on Sunday, February 22, 1987. He was 58 years old.

That Solanas / shooting thing was just a blip. She was a super radical feminist in the 60s:

In 1966, she wrote a play titled Up Your Ass about a man-hating prostitute and a panhandler. In 1967, she encountered Andy Warhol outside his studio, The Factory, and asked him to produce her play. Intrigued by the title, he accepted the script for review. According to Factory lore, Warhol, whose films were often shut down by the police for obscenity, thought the script was so pornographic that it must be a police trap. He never returned it to Solanas. The script was then lost, not to be found until after Warhol's death, in the bottom of one of his lighting trunks.

Later that year, Solanas began to telephone Warhol, demanding he return the script of Up Your Ass. When Warhol admitted he had lost it, she began demanding money as payment. Warhol ignored these demands but offered her a role in I, a Man. In his book Popism: The Warhol Sixties, Warhol wrote that before she shot him, he thought Solanas was an interesting and funny person, but that her constant demands for attention made her difficult to deal with and ultimately drove him away.

Warhol did give Solanas a role in a scene in his film I, a Man (1968–1969).

On June 3, 1968, she arrived at The Factory and waited for Warhol in the lobby area. When he arrived with friends, she produced a handgun and shot at Warhol 3 times, hitting him once in the chest. She then shot art critic Mario Amaya and also tried to shoot Warhol's manager, Fred Hughes, but her gun jammed as the elevator arrived. Hughes suggested she take it and she did, leaving the Factory. Warhol barely survived; he never fully recovered and for the rest of his life wore a corset to prevent his injuries from worsening.

Later that same day, Solanas turned herself in to a NYPD officer passing by her on the street where she produced the gun and told him about the shooting. She made statements to the arresting officer and at the arraignment hearing that Warhol had "too much control" over her and that Warhol was planning to steal her work. Pleading guilty, she received a three-year sentence in a psychiatric hospital. Warhol refused to testify against her. For the rest of his life, Warhol lived in fear that Solanas would attack him again.

Source: Warhol.org

The More You Know: Andy Warhol's weird white hair was a wig, y'all.

In the mid-1950s Warhol began wearing a hairpiece, which matched his natural dark brown hair color.

In the mid-1960s he supposedly spray-painted his wig silver. Later that decade he adopted the wig that became his permanent look; it was brown in back with shades of blonde on the front and sides.

What is onanism?

Search: onanism

Why: In this story "Man Accused of Masturbating on Flight Faces $5,000 Flight, 90 Days in Jail" on Gothamist (which I went to because Brian's post on The Gate):

Airborne onanism is costly these days! Alleged wanker Kyle Pearce, a 25-year-old Floridian (Go Gators!), was arrested on May 19th after witnesses saw him remove his penis and masturbate "to the point of ejaculation" during a United Airlines flight to Denver. An 18-year-old woman sitting across the aisle from Pearce told police, "I heard a noise and looked over and saw his penis. He was wearing jeans tucked into cowboy boots... He told me his name was Kyle. He ejaculated & got some on the seat." Wow, that Kyle sure knows how to break the ice!

Answer: It's masturbating! Jerking off! J-ing O! And it's Biblical!

• after Onan, son of Judah (Gen. 38:9)
  

But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so whenever he lay with his brother's wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother.

Yuck!

Here's the rest, y'all. It's one of the passages lunatics quote when talking about the Lord's distaste for contraception. Onan's brother was dead, ftr, and Onan only wanted to bang his widow Tamar, not raise her kids:

8 Then Judah said to Onan, 'Go in to your brother's wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her; raise up offspring for your brother.' 9 But since Onan knew that the offspring would not be his, he spilled his semen on the ground whenever he went in to see his brother's wife, so that he would not give offspring to his brother. 10 What he did was displeasing in the sight of the Lord, and he put him to death also.

Apparently, the thing that made God mad was that Onan was doing something fun without any consequences. Unacceptable!

Source: Dictionary.com, Matt1618

The More You Know:

Why did Philippe Croizon have his limbs amputated?

Search: Phillipe Croizon

Why: Edward just posted this article with the tagline, "This guy clearly aspires to get eaten":

Philippe Croizon, Quadruple Amputee, To Brave Shark-Infested Crossings Between Five Continents

Croizon, who made a splash with his English Channel swim in 2010, is going to dive into open seas again, Agence France Presse reported.

A custom pair of flippers enables the limbless Croizon to swim.

With Arnaud Chassery, a former long-distance swimming champion, Croizon will start an aquatic tour in May 2012 in the Pacific Ocean with a 12-mile crossing between coastal towns in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia in an area known to be a shark and poisonous jellyfish habitat.

Etc. Where did his pre-existing limbs go? Into a shark's mouth? Because if so, he's really just an asshole.

Answer: Ha shoot:

• "A freak accident"
• His amputations were required due to a severe electric shock accident which occurred in March 1994.

And if I had scrolled to the bottom of the original article, I might have seen this:

• Croizon lost his arms and legs in 1994 after he was electrocuted while adjusting a television antennae on the roof.

That sucks.

Source: Daily Mail, Wikipedia, AOL

The More You Know: Speaking of sharks, I am going to the beach next week (in Florida, not California). Will I go in the ocean? I can't say for sure yet, but I will keep in mind that bull sharks attack in less than 2 feet of water, and also that they like to kill people in all parts of Florida, including Destin. Other sharks do, too!

Fatal, unprovoked shark attacks in Florida in the last 10 years:

• Thadeus Kubinski, 69 (8/30/2000) - Killed by a bull shark while swimming in Pinellas County, FL. Witnesses said Kubinski had jumped into the water from the dock behind his home for his daily swim and was splashing vigorously. The shark raced toward him with its dorsal fin out of the water. He died from massive blood loss and organ damage before rescuers could get to him. The shark was estimated to be 9 ft long and weigh 400 lbs.
• Eric Reichardt, 42 (9/16/01) - Drowned while diving on the wreck of the Ronald B. Johnson in 270 ft of water 2 miles off Pompano Beach, FL fighting off a bull or tiger shark. His diving regulator may have fallen out of his mouth causing him to drown.
• Jamie Marie Daigle, 14 (6/25/05) - Killed while swimming with a friend on boogie boards about 200 yards off a beach in Walton County, FL, 8 miles east of Destin, FL. Witnesses estimated the shark was 6–8 ft long.
• Stephen Howard Schafer, 38 (2/3/10) - Killed by a bull shark while kitesurfing at approximately 4:15 p.m. about 500 yards off an unguarded section of a beach south of Stuart Beach in Martin County, FL. Authorities initially thought that multiple sharks may have been involved in the incident due to reports by rescuers that he was surrounded by sharks; the Martin County medical examiner's office concluded that he died from massive blood loss from a leg wound

Can you guess how many fatal shark attacks have occurred on dry land? I bet you can.

If you are in California and thinking about joining Saturday Surf Club, don't forget to check the Pacific Coast Shark Watch (for reports about shark sightings this week at Long Beach, Newport, Seal Beach, etc.) every single day until you change your mind. And maybe also think about this poor kid:

• Lucas McKaine Ransom, 19 (10/22/2010) - Died after a great white shark pulled him off his bodyboard just before 9 a.m. about 100 yards off Surf Beach near in Santa Barbara County, CA. He suffered the loss of his left leg, resulting in massive blood loss. The shark that attacked Ransom is believed to have been 17–18 ft long, weighing approximately 4,000 lbs.

I want to see a picture of Brenda Reimer

Search: brenda reimer

Why: In response to this article about the Canadian hippies who are in the news because they controversially refuse to tell people the gender of their baby Storm, Caroline posted this sad tale about a boy (a twin) who - after a botched circumcision - was raised as a girl. He eventually went back to being a boy, and then he committed suicide. Let's watch:

Answer: Aww :( He was born Bruce, called Brenda, and then renamed David Reimer.

As little kids (with twin brother Brian):

And later,

And in between, the Peter Brady years.

Source: Google Images

The More You Know: Because the circumstances seemed so perfect - whatwith the lack of gender identity crisis (at least initially) and with an ideal control (identical twin brother [who turned out to be schizophrenic]) - Bruce/Brenda/David got sucked into being a gender reassignment guinea pig for most of his childhood. Once his dong got destroyed, psychologist John Money convinced Bruce's parents to get him a surgery to remove his testes, call him Brenda, and turn him into a lady. For years, the psychologist wrote notes like this:

The child's behavior is so clearly that of an active little girl and so different from the boyish ways of her twin brother.

I feel like I don't have to tell you that these were just nonsense lies. From 22 months into his teenage years, Brenda - who did not yet have her artificially constructed lady vagina - peed through a hole surgeons had placed in hiser abdomen. Hse was also given estrogen during adolescence so he would grow boobs. But really:

Reimer did not identify as a girl. He was ostracized and bullied by peers, and neither frilly dresses (which he was forced to wear during frigid Calgary winters) nor female hormones made him feel female. By the age of 13, Reimer was experiencing suicidal depression, and told his parents he would commit suicide if they made him see John Money again.

Turns out that the parents had been lying to Money the whole time about the success of the gender reassignment! So at age 14, they began to reverse the procedures with testosterone injections, a double mastectomy, and two phalloplasty surgeries, completing it all in 1997 when David was 32. He married and became stepfather to 3 children. But eventually, his strained relationship with his parents and depression about his brother's death-by-overdose in 2002 caught up to him. He shot himself in the head in 2004 at age 38.

I want to watch Vin Diesel's short film "Multi-Facial"

Search: multi facial

Why: A professor played it in a class called "The Perception of Racism" I took sophomore year, probably to fulfill some sort of Core requirement. In it, Vin Diesel goes around to various auditions, dressing and speaking like the roles in question - a black character, a Latino, an Italian, a Jew maybe... I don't know, I haven't seen it since 2002.

Answer: It's only 20 minutes long! Watch it all!

He made it in 1994, and according to the Internet:

The film was noticed by director Steven Spielberg, who would cast Diesel in Saving Private Ryan (1998).

Source: The YouTubes

The More You Know: IRL, Vin Diesel (b. Mark Sinclair Vincent, 1967) has Italian and black ancestry.

I want to watch that news anchor lady who had a stroke or whatever at the Grammys

Search: news anchor stroke

Why: Did you see this on "30 Rock" last week? (Not this week; last week.) I know I'm late on this, but we still can't get enough of it.

Answer: Omglol. He did it so perfectly.

Well, a very, very heavay - ah - heavy durr, burtation tonight... We had a very darris, darrison? ...

Source: YouTube

The More You Know: In case you didn't follow up, Serene Branson says she suffered some sort of "complex migraine" that mimicked symptoms of a stroke. I dunno. I had a migraine today, and I sure didn't tarris tazen let's go to bet who had the pet.

Who are the shortest male celebrities?

Search: short celebrities

Why: On Facebook:

Answer: Here are some!

• Danny DeVito - 5-foot-nothin
  
• Prince - 5'2
• Wallace Shawn - 5'2
• Dudley Moore - 5'2.5
  
• Martin Scorcese - 5'3
  
• Mickey Rooney - 5'3
  
• Paul Simon - 5'3
• Joe Pesci - 5'4
  
• Michael J. Fox - 5'4
• Seth Green - 5'4
• Charlie Kaufman - 5'4.5
  
• Al Franken - 5'5
  
• Fred Durst - 5'5
• Nathan Lane - 5'5
  
• Jason Alexander - 5'5
• Roman Polanski - 5'5
• Scott Caan - 5'5
  
• Woody Allen - 5'5
• Dustin Hoffman - 5'5.5
• Elijah Wood - 5'6
  
• Gael Garcia Bernal - 5'6
• George Lucas - 5'6
  
• Jack Black - 5'6
  
• Sean Astin - 5'6
• Billy Joel - 5'6.5
• Henry Winkler - 5'6.5
  
• Tom Cruise - "5'7" in quotation marks
  

Source:Senselist, Daily Top 10, Starpulse, Best Week Ever,

The More You Know: And some of the tallest (I'm obvi not including athletes because, yknow, who cares):

• Jeff Daniels - 6'3
  
• Jimmy Stewart - 6'3
• Will Ferrell - 6'3
  
• Danny Glover - 6'3.5
• Dr. Phil - 6'4
  
• Clint Eastwood - 6'4
• Conan O'Brien - 6'4
  
• David Hasselhoff - 6'4
  
• Donald Sutherland - 6'4
• Kevin Nealon - 6'4
  
• Jason Segal - 6'4
• Jeff Goldblum - 6'4
• Joel McHale - 6'4
  
• John Laroquette - 6'4
• Matthew Modine - 6'4
• Stephen King - 6'4
  
• Tom Selleck - 6'4
• Randy Quaid - 6'4.5
  
• Tim Robbins - 6'4.5
  
• Howard Stern - 6'5
  
• John Corbett - 6'5
  
• Vince Vaughn - 6'5
• Liam Neeson - 6'6
  
• Penn Gillette - 6'6
• Dolph Lundgren - 6'6
  
• Brad Garrett - 6'7
  
• Michael Crichton - 6'9
  

What are the four humors and what do they do?

Search: the four bile

Why: Marcel said The Smiths are great because everyone needs a little melancholy in his life (even though I called them "pretty goddamn melodramatic," not melancholy).

That word comes from Greek melas, "black" + khole "bile."

Medieval physiology attributed depression to excess of "black bile," a secretion of the spleen and one of the body's four "humors."

(Also, the name Chloe comes from the word for the greenish-yellow color of bile, too.)

Answer: First, they are outlined the Hippocratic Corpus as a way to balance bodily fluids.

They are!

1. Yellow bile! (gall bladder)
   
2. Black bile! (spleen)
   
3. Phlegm! (brain/lungs)
   
4. Blood! (liver)
   

Each is associated with a season and a quality:

• Yellow bile: Summer; hot & dry
• Black bile: Autumn; cold & dry
• Phlegm: Winter; cold & moist
• Blood: Spring; hot & moist
  

They are also associated with elements and hypochondriac diseases:

• Yellow bile: Fire; too much fire made a person choleric
• Black bile: Earth; too much earth made him melancholic
• Phlegm: Water; too much water, phlegmatic
• Blood: Air; too much air, sanguine

Each had a corresponding body type and complexion:

• Yellow bile: Red-haired, thin
• Black bile: Sallow, thin
• Phlegm: Corpulent
• Blood: Red-cheeked, corpulent
  

and a temperament or personality:

• Yellow bile: Ambitious, bad tempered, vengeful violent
• Black bile: Despondent, introspective, irritable, sentimental, sleepless
• Phlegm: Calm, cowardly, unemotional, pallid, sluggish
• Blood: Amorous, generous, happy, hopeful, responsible
  

and also:

Source: About.com/ancienthistory, Wikipedia,

The More You Know: They also have suggested modern equivalents, as well as Myers-Briggs types:

• Yellow bile: Idealist; NF (intuition-feeling)
• Black bile: Guardian; SJ (sensing-judgment)
• Phlegm: Rational; NT (intuition-thinking)
• Blood: Artisan; SP (sensing-perception)

Which one are you? (I am phlegm.)

I want to see a picture of Rico Genest before he was covered in tattoos

Search: rico genest before; rico genest young

Why: Joel at 2Pz posted this:

it's a nicola formichetti interview where he discusses his own obsession with zombie tatto guy rico genest. he was discovered on facebook. via.

Nicola Formichetti is the new creative designer for French brand Thierry Mugler (now just MUGLER), and Lady Gaga is his other muse.

Answer:

UPDATE!!!!!! Thanks again Joel for this awesome link!!!

Humm. I'm pretty sure that's just a picture of my friend Allen.

---originally ---

I can't find any anywhere! Somebody halp!

But here are some more from now and his krazy tatz:

Source: not Google Images, nowhere --- then Buzzfeed

The More You Know: Speaking of zombies and horror and things that scare me, are you ready to see Insidious? It comes out next Friday, April 1st! It was written by Saw's Leigh Whannell and features Chandler's sister Corbett as not 1, not 2, but 3 different characters! Keep your eyes peeled! (When I saw a screening several months ago, I missed one of her shots because the scene was too scary and I was looking down at my hands, so ... really, keep them peeled.) Go see it!

I want to watch "Guy Took A Picture Of His Face Every Day For 8 Years!"

Search: This Guy Took A Picture Of His Face Every Day For 8 Years

Why: It's been showing up all over my Facebook today. I think people are getting hack't.

Answer: Exciting! He turns from a clean cut kid to a kind of revolting middle-aged man.

Source: Youtube

The More You Know: He doesn't change his facial expression.

"Facial expression"

"They Doesn't"

Can damp or cold weather really make your joints hurt?

Search: joints arthritis damp weather

Why: When I was hauling Chandler's laundry all over the town today in the rain, my L4 vertebra - which I injured nary a fortnight ago - started to hurt like holy hell. It was like when Chandler (Bing) said, "The cold weather hurts my hip."

Answer: Maybe! Different experts say different things, of course. On the "no way" side, here are some facts:

• Decades of medical research have failed to establish an objective relationship between arthritis severity and weather patterns.
• Detailed interviews with specific patients have yielded mostly anecdotes, and those who move to drier climates do not report major relief.
• The skin surrounding joints is rather impervious to water.
• Most people stay dry indoors during rain anyway.
  
• Arthritis patients do not experience dramatic changes in their symptoms when immersed in water (such as during baths or swimming).
  
• Wet weather may also be associated with other climatic conditions, such as decreases in barometric pressures - but this connection also seems implausible, given that much greater pressure swings are tolerated easily during plane travel or mountain driving in a car.
• While atmospheric humidity might enter the body through the respiratory tract, this seems an unlikely contributor since hospitalized patients are often given humidified air to breathe, and this has little apparent effect on arthritis conditions.
• A long shower does not usually induce arthritis pain.

Compelling? Yes, but this article on eHow by a freelance writer who has no medical degree offers this evidence to the contrary:

• Our joints contain baro-receptors, sensory nerves that respond to changes in pressure in the atmosphere. When the barometric pressure (during low, rainy, damp weather) the receptors react to this, causing joint swelling, pain and aching.
• Barometric pressure is the weight of the air that surrounds us. Sometimes a decrease in temperature or an increase in barometric pressure can prompt joint pain.
  
• Barometric pressure generally falls right before the arrival of wet, damp weather. When this happens, your bones, muscles, ligaments and tendons have to adjust by expanding. When expansion occurs, sensitized nerves send out pain signals.
• Damp weather can detonate inflamed joints.

Source: Scientific American, eHow

The More You Know: What a lovely old couple.

Has anyone invented a one-handed keyboard yet?

Search: one handed keyboard

Why: It's hard to drink a Bloody and type at the same time. It seems like this should have happened a long time ago, mirite?

Answer: Uch, yes, there are a few, but they all look just awful. Here are several variations:

Aiaiai. Is this the future? Is it?

Source: Google Images

The More You Know: The company that made the bottom two, FrogPad, said (in 2006):

It takes 10 to 12 hours of training and practice to achieve a 30 to 40 word-per-minute typing speed.

Lul, 40 wpm. What's your typing speed? You can buy that weird second one for $952 right here. It's on sale!

What's a sinus?

Search: what is a sinus

Why: I am stopped up about the face and head, so much that I was told I snored last night. How mortifying. I am pretty sure I have some sort of infection, possibly in my sinuses, but the truth is that I have no idea what a sinus is or why I have it, because all it ever seems to do is get infected.

Answer: An airpocket in your face bones! WHAT!

First, we have 4 pairs of sinus cavities (well, in the face - there are paranasal sinuses, but there are also sinuses [literally Latin for "pocket"] in other organs, like your brain and butt).

• Ethmoid (between the eyes) sinuses - Located behind the bridge of the nose and at the "root" of the nose between the eyes. We are all born with ethmoid sinuses, and they grow as we grow.
• Frontal (forehead) sinuses - Located above the eyes in the region of the forehead and only develop around 7 years of age.
• Maxillary (cheekbones) sinuses - Found on either side of the nostrils in the cheek bones. They are present at birth and grow as we grow.
• Sphenoid (behind the eyes) sinuses - Deeper in the skull behind the ethmoid sinuses and the eyes. We only develop sphenoid sinus cavities during adolescence.

And they serve a few purposes:

• They remove unwanted air particles from the air you breathe!
• They moisten the air!
• They give resonance to your voice!
• They lighten the weight of the skull!
  

That last one is why your head feels heavy and you feel sleepy during a sinus attack.

Source: SinusWars, eMedicineHealth

The More You Know: When you get a sinus infection, all sorts of gross things happen. Acute sinusitis (the kind that lasts about a week) is caused by a viral respiratory infection. The infection damages the lining of the sinus, causing it to become inflamed. The lining thickens, obstructing the nasal passage that connects to the sinus. The disrupts the process by which bacteria is normally removed from the sinus, and like a jerk, the bacteria just starts to multiply and invade the lining. All sorts of nasty things get trapped in the sinus cavity and you can't breathe and you snore.

Here is a list of symptoms of different kinds of sinusitis. I think I'm getting the acute maxillary, Pop.

Are there really inbred blue people in Kentucky?

Search: blue people kentucky

Why: Last night, while watching Avatar:

RICHARD - James Cameron said he had to go to Kentucky and find a lizard that could fly just to film this scene.
DAN - Ha, ha.
ME - What?
RICHARD - You know, those blue people in Kentucky.
DAN - What?
ME - This is a real thing?
RICHARD - Yeah, they inbred so much they turned blue.
DAN - Oh, I thought you were making a joke.
ME - Yeah, a weird one.

Answer: Yes! But they weren't really blue because of inbreeding. Not really.

The Fugate family settled on the banks of Troublesome Creek after 1800. Mary, the wife of the patriarch Martin, was a carrier for a rare disease called hereditary methemoglobinemia.

Due to an enzyme deficiency, the blood of met-H victims has reduced oxygen-carrying capacity. Instead of being the usual bright red, arterial blood is chocolate brown and gives the skin of Caucasians a bluish cast.

Some of the Fugates intermarried with the nearby Smiths clan, one of whom also carried met-H. The first "blue Fugate" was born in 1832, and a bunch of cousins popped up thereafter. There were about 6 in the 1890s, and one was reported as recently as 1975.

Here is a nice story about one who was born in 1950s and the hematologist who came to save them all. Other people have had it, too.

Source: Pravda.ru, The Straight Dope

The More You Know: Did you know that Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 are planned for 2014 and 2015? It's true! I hope Jake and Neytiri have kittens.

What's the origin of the word "moustache"?

Search: moustache etymology

Why: It's Movember. Jason posted these Toms yesterday:

Also, Moses just spelled "mustachioed" like "moustacheuod."

Answer: It has something to do with mouths!

• 1580s, from Fr. moustache, from It. mostaccio
• From Medieval Gk. moustakion, dim. of Doric mystax (gen. mystakos) "upper lip, mustache," related to mastax "jaws, mouth," lit. "that with which one chews"

Like masticate. Durr.

• Borrowed earlier (1550s) as mostacchi, from the It. word or its Sp. derivative mostacho. The plural form of this, mustachios, lingers in English.

Source: EtymOnline

The More You Know: Also,

Dutch slang has a useful noun, de befborstel, to refer to the mustache specifically as a tool for stimulating the clitoris; probably from beffen "to stimulate the clitoris with the tongue."

Horf.

What's a palatschinke?

Search: palatschinke

Why: On Suri Cruise Is Magic!:

“I’m not too old to be carried and I’m most not certainly not too old for a balloon. Now, let’s go find a palatschinke spot. I NEED A PALATSCHINKE immediately.”

Answer: A delicious crêpe! It is the Austrian / Bavarian name / version of the thin pancake. Search results also come back suggesting "palatschinken."

Source: Wikibooks

The More You Know: Get ready to gag:

From Hungarian palacsinta, from Romanian plăcintă (cake), from Latin placenta (cake)

What. It's true.

What happened to Lobster Boy?

Search: lobster boy

Why: We were looking at HolyTaco's list of 25 Old Timey Circus Freaks and saw this champ:

Chandler said, "Did you ever read about that guy? He was a real son of a bitch and his kids killed him."

Answer: Oh, totes. His real name was Grady Stiles. Points of interest:

• He was the 6th person in his family to be ectrodactyl (to have fingers and toes fused together like pincers).
• His father was a sideshow attraction in a traveling carnival, and he added Stiles to the show at a young age.
• He married twice and had 4 children, 2 of whom also had ectrodactyly. They toured as The Lobster Family.
• He was an abusive drunk.
• Due to his ectrodactyly, he could not walk. He either had to use a wheelchair or crawl around. Since he used his arms to move, he was crazy strong (aka dangerous).
• In 1978, he shot and killed his daughter's fiance on the eve of their wedding. He confessed and was convicted of murder. Because no prison was equipped to care for an inmate with ectrodactyly, he was only sentenced 15 years' probation.
• He quit drinking for a while, but then remarried his first wife and started drinking again. His wife and son hired a sideshow performer to kill him. On Nov. 29, 1992, the guy shot Stiles in the head 3 times, killing him instantly. He was 55. All 3 were convicted, but the wife said, "My husband was going to kill my family. I believe that from the bottom of my heart. I’m sorry this happened, but my family is safe now."

Source: Phreeque.com, Wikipedia

The More You Know: A 2005 episode of "Medical Incredible" covered Lobster Hand Disease. Stiles's lobster-hand daughter Cathy and her lobster-hand daughter Misty are all up in it.

What do scarification tattoos look like once they're healed?

Search: scarification healed

Why: I just saw this beautiful octopus, but it's, um, still raw bloody flesh.

Answer: Oh, they just look like fancy scars.

I'm not sure if that's the fad for me.

Source: Google Images

The More You Know: Speaking of red devils of the sea, did you see this poorly edited news story starring my favorite animal, the giant squid (except a specific kind of giant squid, not the legendary beast, the architeuthis)?

Millions of killer giant squid are not only devouring vast amounts of fish, they have even started attacking humans.

Two Mexican fishermen were recently dragged from their boats and chewed so badly that their bodies could not be identified even by their own families.

No wonder the giant squid are called "diablos rojos" - red devils.

Since 2002, Humboldt giant squid have been spreading their tentacles to deplete fishing stocks by moving from their traditional tropical hunting grounds off Mexico and laying claim to a vast sweep of the Pacific.

Hunting in 1,000-strong packs the giant squid can out-swim and out-think fish. Scientists believe they coordinate attacks by using pigment cells to communicate.

Marine biologists wear chain-mail to protect themselves from creatures that can measure 8ft, weigh 100lb and carry an armoury of more than 40,000 fearsome teeth along two “attack” tentacles.

The creatures have another eight “legs” for grasping and swimming and can reach speeds of more than 15mph.

Former US special forces diver Scott Cassell has put his life on the line to study the squid. He too has been attacked.

He said: “Within five minutes my right shoulder had been pulled out of its socket. I had 30 big marks on my head and throat and one squid hit me so hard I saw stars. They then grabbed on to me and pulled me down so fast that I could not equalise and I ruptured my eardrum.

“They are the most opportunistic predators on the planet. They eat everything in their path."

Keep your paw out of there, Chan Chan.

Why do your teeth chatter when you're cold?

Search: why do teeth chatter

Why: It was like 53° last night outside the hot tub.

Answer: To keep your face warm!

Your body usually maintains a constant temperature of 98.6 degrees F; that's the temperature the cells of the body work best. So your body will do anything it can to get back to that peaceful place. If there's any significant change in temperature, it's sensed by the area of the brain called the hypothalamus.

When the body gets too cold, this center alerts the rest of the body to begin warming up. Shivering, the rapid movement of the muscles to generate heat, begins. Teeth chattering is simply localized shivering.

Source: Ask Dr. Oz

The More You Know: Were these ever funny?