The BeardnWeird Blog

  If you have a stable internet connection, you might have come across at least one internet meme today. Notice how I used the term internet meme and not just meme. It is because they are just an example of the broader context of memes. It is fun to create and share a meme but, why do they always look a certain way? Creating memes is synonymous with the idea of creating bits of culture, and in this context, religion might be the most infectious or “viral” meme ever. Meme The word meme was coined by biologist Richard Dawkins in his book - The Selfish Gene (1976) as a concept for discussion of evolutionary principles in explaining the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena. To understand the concept of memes, one must understand the concept of a replicator. A replicator is the theoretical basic unit of evolution in the gene-centered view of evolution. It copies information with variation and selection. Genes are a replicator. When animals mate or seeds grow, information is ...

  The "fifth taste" — after salty, sweet, bitter, and sour—has been known for more than a century. Monosodium glutamate (or AJI-NO-MOTO), the cheap and easy way to get that umami hit, was once criticized as the cause of an allergic reaction known as Chinese restaurant syndrome. Although that's been debunked by scientists, is it still safe to include MSG in our diet?   Monosodium glutamate (MSG) Monosodium glutamate( C ₅ H ₈ NO ₄ Na ), is the sodium salt of glutamic acid. It is designated as non-essential because the human body, as well as a large number of other plants and animals is able to produce it on its own. In the body, glutamic acid is often found as glutamate. Glutamate is one of the most abundant excitatory neurotransmitters in brain, playing a crucial role in memory and learning. The average adult consumes 13 grams of it a day from the protein in food. Non-meat food sources like tomatoes and Parmesan cheese have high levels of glutamic acid. MSG is used i...

“Our parents had decided to put an end to their calamitous marriage, and Father shipped us home to his mother. A porter had been charged with our welfare — he got off the train the next day in Arizona — and our tickets were pinned to my brother’s inside coat pocket. I don’t remember much of the trip, but after we reached the segregated southern part of the journey, things must have looked up. Negro passengers, who always traveled with loaded lunch boxes, felt sorry for “the poor little motherless darlings" and plied us with cold fried chicken and potato salad." -           Maya Angelou(I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings) Yard Bird Every chicken on Earth is the descendant of the red jungle fowl found in South Asia. The chicken is not just a bird that provides us with meat and eggs. It has played more roles across human history than any other animal. In ancient Babylon (now Iraq), seals were used by people to identify themselves. Some of t...

  The Past "If you only knew the magnificence of the 3, 6 and 9, then you would have a key to the universe.” Nikola Tesla, the Serbian-American inventor and engineer is best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system and is considered to be one of the greatest minds of all time. But, he was also a man of mysteries and secrets. Almost all genius minds have a certain obsession, he had his too! Tesla would walk around a block for three times before entering a building, he would clean his plates with 18 napkins, he lived in hotel rooms only with a room number divisible by 3. He would make calculations about things in his immediate environment to make sure the result is divisible by 3 and base his choices upon the results. Some said he had OCD and some believed he was superstitious, but the internet says that Tesla justified his actions with the statement quoted above. There is no reference anywhere of it being truly...

  The ancient network of trading routes known today as the Silk Road, stretched through the ages and across half the world, from China in the east to Persia and on to the Mediterranean in the west. Each place on the Silk Road itself, has its own distinctive character and culture. It was along the caravan trails that these cultures passed from one civilization to another, to be absorbed and transformed into local specialties. Today we explore one such culinary bond that links distant and hostile cultures. Sanbosag A praise for a savoury snack called sanbusaj can be found in a 9th-century poem by the Persian poet Ishaq al-Mawsili. Recipes for the same are found in 10th–13th-century Arab cookery books, under the names sanbusak, sanbusaq, and sanbusaj . These are considered to be the early medieval form of the Persian snack sanbosag , which originated in the 11 th century and were inspired by the pyramids. Abu'l-Faḍl Bayhaqi, an Iranian historian, mentioned sanbosag in his book -...