Julius Caesar, The Pirate....

Did you know….

In 74BC when Julius Caesar was 26 he was crossing the Aegean Sea on his way to Rhodes for oratorical and philosophical studies when he was kidnapped by Cicilian pirates? Yup, pirates. When the pirates “told Caesar they would ransom him for 20 talents of gold, Caesar laughed and told them he was worth at least 50 (12,000 gold pieces).” Kinda pomous. While in captivity he made the best of it and decided to join them for a while (like a year) and have a good time. When the ransom was eventually paid in 75BC, Caesar got a fleet together and captured/killed the very pirates that he had joined! He was a wild and crazy guy!

Check It Out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Caesar

Kimdianna Jones

Eketorp…Not Just An Ikea Sofa Anymore….

While Ikea product names make me giggle, they are actual words in Swedish, Danish, Finish or Norwegian. Most Ikea furniture, coffee tables, bookshelves and media storage units are named after places in Sweden. Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of Ikea, was dyslexic and found that naming products with proper names/words made it easier for him to remember them.

Here is an example, the Eketorp sofa:

“Eketorp is an Iron Age fort in southeastern Öland, Sweden, which was extensively reconstructed and enlarged in the Middle Ages. The Eketorp fortification is often referred to as Eketorp Castle. Throughout the ages the fortification has served a variety of somewhat differing uses: from defensive ringfort, to medieval safe haven and thence a cavalry garrison. In the 20th century it was further reconstructed to become a heavily visited tourist site and a location for re-enactment of medieval battles. Eketorp is the only one of the 19 known prehistoric fortifications on Öland that has been completely excavated, yielding a total of over 24,000 individual artifacts. The entirety of southern Öland has been designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.”

Look It Up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eketorp, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikea

I love Ikea and UNESCO ….I will be blogging about both of them in the future…

Kimdianna “Klippan” Jones

(yes, that is my Ikea name….I’ll let you figure out what it means….)

ACHOO!!

Did you know.....

"Photic sneeze reflex is a medical condition by which people exposed to bright light sneeze. This condition is also called sun sneezing, photogenic sneezing, or ACHOO (autosomal dominant compelling helio-ophthalmic outburst). The photic sneeze reflex is caused when the optic nerve is over stimulated which in turn triggers the trigeminal nerve. This can also cause one to sneeze many times consecutively. The condition occurs in 17% to 25% of humans with more common occurrence in Caucasians. The condition is passed along genetically as a dominant trait."

No? This is new to you?
Check it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photic_sneeze_reflex

Kimdianna Jones "The Sun Sneezer"

Crepuscular Rays....

With the last three days of rain I have been thinking about how great it would be to see the sun again so I dug up this on my favorite Wikipedia….

“Crepuscular rays are rays of sunlight that appear to radiate from a single point in the sky. These rays, which stream through gaps in clouds, are parallel columns of sunlit air separated by darker cloud-shadowed regions. The name comes from their frequent occurrences during twilight, when the contrasts between light and dark are the most obvious. Various airborne compounds scatter the sunlight and make these rays visible. The reason we see the light so defined is because of diffraction, reflection and scattering.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Science

Stay dry....Kimdianna Jones

September Celebrations Updated!

In my head cold stupor of last week I missed a few September Babies!
So a big Happy Birthday also goes out to
Lisa: Yes, my spies tell me everything…
Homie Bear! Love your blog...check it out! http://homiebear.blogspot.com/

I was checking out one of my favorite blog when I came across this video…Orlando Bloom makes fun of himself…I made me chuckle….Beenie, you should appreciate this…. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRnWrIXLdEU&eurl=

Kimdianna Jones

September Celebration!

I like to call September Indian Summer...or the more politically correct term Native North American/First Nation Summer? Whatever.....there are lots of reason to celebrate this month and here are two big "Happy Birthdays" going out to:

Pauline (Sept 5) the best lab mate and long time friend!
Jenica (Sept 20) my good friend and fellow Halloween enthusiast!

Blarg and I are also celebrating our second wedding anniversary (Sept 12) this week end! We will be celebrating in style with a romantic night at La Boheme thanks to our very generous friends!

Kimdianna Jones

I Love Old Movies!

I truely love old movies...I grew up on old black and white movies with Abbott & Costelo and Bob Hope. A few weeks ago Blarg and I were being mindless and we ended up watching "Murder by Death" on TV. It is a campy whodunit made in 1976, written by Neil Simon and there were lots of old 1970’s stars like Peter Sellers, Peter Falk, Alec Guiness. I could have done without Truman Capote as the bad guy but other then that I enjoyed it!

Have a great Labor Day everyone!
I'm on my late summer holidays!

Kimdianna Jones