I watch end credits for most movies and television programs. I spotted the name “George George” as one of the writers of an ep of “The Real McCoys.” I thought that was an *odd name,so I looked him up. And as was often the case back in the day, many in the entertainment industry de-Semitized their name. His original name was “George Goldberg,” son of. . . Rube Goldberg.
Side note: This ep also featured “Great Gildersleeve” actor Willard Waterman. He and Frank Nelson (“YeEEEEEEEssss”) could have been the same person.
I got lots of training on the dangers of synthetic line snapback while in the U.S. Navy (with respect to line handling when tying up ships and submarines to the pier).
Here’s a famous Navy training video about the danger:
Current (and soon to be former) US ambassador to Greece and MAGA personality Kimberly Guilfoyle was married to Gavin Newsom from 2001 to 2006. Yes, that Gavin Newsom. Part of that time she was First Lady of San Francisco.
while Ohio was admitted to the Union in 1803, it didn’t become official till 1953 due to legislate errors
February 19, 1803: Congress passed an act recognizing Ohio’s statehood and its adoption of a constitution.
March 1, 1803: The first Ohio General Assembly met, which is officially celebrated as the state’s official date of admission.
August 7, 1953: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a congressional resolution retroactively ratifying Ohio’s 1802 constitution to fix a long-standing clerical oversight. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
In November 1802, the Ohio State Convention, located in Chillicothe, petitioned for admittance in the United States by approving the Ohio Constitution. Thomas Worthington, a delegate of the convention, personally delivered the document to Washington, D.C. and presented it to Congress in December. Congress proceeded to approve the action in accordance with President Jefferson’s newly signed 1802 Enabling Act, but forgot one critical thing, they neglected to ratify the Ohio Constitution.
So if I ask you now when Ohio was admitted into the United States, will your answer still be 1803? Well I guess legally it would but the point is you should always look further into that deeper story.
The 1953 resolution was purely symbolic. If the 1953 action hadn’t been taken, Ohio would have remained a state just as it legally had been from 1903 to 1953.
Definitely symbolic. They were de facto a real State. This kind of fun thing happens from time to time like when a historian realizes that two cities are still technically at war since 1476.
Yeah, all Congress needed to do was to admit the state (which they did). Ratifying the state constitution was on the state, not the feds (which they also did).
Movile Cave on the Romanian Black Sea coast hosts a unique ecosystem with many species found nowhere else on Earth. It was discovered in in 1986 while workers were drilling during operations to build a power plant. The cave had been completely sealed for 5.5 million years. There was no natural light and the air was toxic.
The ecosystem is based on chemosynthetic microorganisms that obtain energy from hydrogen sulfide, methane, and ammonia. The invertebrate species found here (many of which can’t be found anywhere else) are spiders, crustaceans, millipedes, centipedes, water scorpions, pseudoscorpions, leeches, isopods (woodlice relatives), worms, snails, and some others.
Chemosynthetic bacteria form microbial mats on the cave walls and on the water surface or bottom. Microscopic worms, snails, and small crustaceans feed on these bacterial mats. Spiders, water scorpions, leeches, and centipedes are the top predators, feeding on the smaller animals.
Wow. If they let the surface atmosphere in, that probably really messed with the ecology of the cave. And I can’t see how they could have avoided doing that since they weren’t trying to avoid it when they first unwitting drilled through the cave roof into the void space.
The workers carrying out this operation were in fact skillful engineers and educated people. They realized they might have come across with something unique and were highly careful. They sealed everything and waited for the authorities. This is how they were able to preserve the site intact.
The cave lacks natural vertical shafts. The manmade shaft is completely sealed. The entry point is secured by a series of airlocks and heavy airtight hatches.
The presence of researchers doesn’t really affect the ecosystem. The cave’s native bacterial populations are really dense and highly specialized. Thus, they can naturally outcompete any external microbes that researchers might introduce.
However, access is tightly regulated. Fewer than 100 people have been inside the cave since its discovery. Researchers can enter only in small groups wearing special gear. The air composition in Movile Cave remains rich in local toxic gases and low in oxygen.
The ecosystem described for the cave includes several animals, all of which are aerobes, so there must be some oxygen in there. Where does it come from? Does one of the chemotrophs release oxygen?
Okay, that was pretty damn interesting. I occasionally explore what alternatives to carbon/iron/oxygen could life be based on (I’m aware of horseshoe crabs and other well known variants). That there’s a whole ecosystem is going to be a rabbit hole I’ll soon be scampering down. Oh great. Another time sink. Thanks, asshole..
Now for what I came to post.. TIL there’s a fungus called Chicken of the Forest, famous for it’s meaty texture and flavor that resembles chicken.
Don’t forget that all those critters are descendants of conventional surface critters that got isolated down there. Not sure about the micro-scale life. So not a totally separate system of life.
