Today I Learned

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There was once a really dumb supervillain called Asbestos Lady, created by Marvel Comics. She was the enemy of The Human Torch, and she built herself a suit made of asbestos to keep him from using his powers against her. This was in the 1940s when asbestos was being used virtually everywhere to keep fire from breaking out, but the public was clueless about how deadly and cancer-causing the stuff actually is. She eventually got caught and sent to jail, and Marvel pretty much forgot about her for a long time. She reappeared shortly in the early 2000 comics but was captured again. What became of Asbestos Lady after that is unknown, but she was diagnosed with cancer due all the exposure to asbestos so it's a pretty safe assumption that she later died from it.

And then, Marvel came out with a new character called Asbestos Man! But by this time people were aware of how dangerous asbestos is. Asbestos man was a cancer survivor who had to carry an oxygen tank to keep from dying of asbestosis. Other characters were very frightened of Asbestos man, not because he was evil or whatever (he's actually pretty bad at being a supervillain) but because they were afraid they'd get canc
Comic book writers probably had the task of creating maybe 20 new supervillians in only a week, so they likely got really desperate occasionally and just put out really crazy and random. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.

Today I've learned how history always repeats itself. 2024 Canada is reminiscent of 1934 Germany. Hamas protestors are now breaking the windows of Jewish buildings.

There is an artist who makes these large sculptures out of sugar. They're similar to boiled hard candy or those "toy candies" I usually see around Christmas. But when people looking at the sculptures on display are told they're made of sugar, a lot of them lick it or try to eat it. I understand little kids doing this because they really don't know or care at all about germs, especially not when there is something in front of them that is basically like out of Willy Wonka. But there are teens and grown adults doing the same thing, or even lifting the kids up so they can get a taste. Clearly nobody has learned anything from the covid pandemic. The artist is pretty annoyed by it, too.

They should put up signs or some kind of barrier around the sculptures. Or maybe add an ingredient that makes them. Or add Bitrex to the mixture, which is supposed to be the most bitter tasting substance in the world.

Speaking of which, I also just learned that Bitrex is added to Nintendo Switch game cards to keep kids from swallowing them up. Now I'm tempted to lick one of my game cards just to see how bitter it is.

When Big Bird was a baby, he was still called Big Bird.

Although compared to most real baby birds, he was still actually pretty big.

Digging through old boxes of stuff to organize things .. still can be a exhaustive pain in the A.

The housekeeper in Billy Madison was played by the same lady who played Mama on That's My Mama.

The term "bug" for a computer error comes from an actual insect! In 1947, a moth was found stuck in a relay of the Harvard Mark II computer, causing a malfunction. From then on, any computer glitch has been referred to as a "bug".

Make better efforts to Not , let people make so many demands on getting things done, right now . The cost to my health is not worth it ..even with supportive people....Hard to keep up when you need to make important appts. when your out of spoons .

Many so-called haunted houses have been investigated and it turned out that they contain high levels of carbon monoxide and other poisons that can cause hallucinations. Old houses usually have old appliances that are giving out such toxins.

The phrase "going postal", which is English American slang for an outburst of anger or violence, comes from mass murder incidents that happened in 1986 at the US Postal service where the workers went berserk and shot and killed many people. This has happened many times in the US and it's scary.

I've seen the Postal video games (and they're really not for the easily offended) and heard the phrase "going postal" before, but never knew about where it actually came from until now. It's pretty disturbing.

Not to drink liqour ....... this is a lesson that costs much health,in the long run, even if it can provide some stress relief in the odd situation ...

That unusual things work for me. Other people do deep breathing to calm themselves down. I think about Germany and its green spaces.

Love the monkeys avatar... .

Guinea pigs that are all black in color are very rare, and there these type of shamans or witch doctors from Latin American countries who use them in their healing rituals.

I think black guinea pigs are both adorable and mysterious in appearance.

I also read that some Hispanic people in the US even have these shamans use their alternative medicine on them, because they can't afford conventional medicine thanks to the US healthcare and the way the US normally treats non-white immigrants like garbage. Go figure.