A recent NPR report identified four labor-intensive crops that farmers wish they had robots to harvest: asparagus, apples, peppers and cherries. Because of the lack of appropriate machinery, these crops are mostly hand-picked.
In 2010, the company 23andMe published a genome-wide association study on whether participants have “ever noticed a peculiar odor when you pee after eating asparagus?” This study pinpointed a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in a cluster of olfactory genes associated with the ability to detect the odor. While this SNP did not explain all of the difference in detection between people, it provides support for the theory that genetic differences occur in olfactory receptors that lead people to be unable to smell these odorous compounds.
The English word “asparagus” derives from classical Latin, but the plant was once known in English as sperage, from the Medieval Latin sparagus. This term itself derives from the Greek aspharagos or asparagos, and the Greek term originates from the Persian asparag, meaning “sprout” or “shoot”. Asparagus was also corrupted in some places to “sparrow grass”; indeed, John Walker wrote in 1791 that “Sparrowgrass is so general that asparagus has an air of stiffness and pedantry.”
Encompassing a wide variety of post-Romantic styles composed through the year 2000, 20th-21st century classical music includes late romantic, modern, high-modern, and postmodern styles of composition. Modernism (1890–1930) marked an era when many composers rejected certain values of the common practice period, such as traditional tonality, melody, instrumentation, and structure. The high-modern era saw the emergence of neo-classical and serial music. A few authorities have claimed high-modernism as the beginning of postmodern music from about 1930. Others have more or less equated postmodern music with the “contemporary music” composed from the late 20th century through to the early 21st century.
Criticisms of postmodernism are intellectually diverse, including the assertions that postmodernism is meaningless and promotes obscurantism. It has been argued that postmodernism is meaningless because it adds nothing to analytical or empirical knowledge. Noam Chomsky asks why postmodernist intellectuals do not respond like people in other fields when asked, "what are the principles of their theories, on what evidence are they based, what do they explain that wasn’t already obvious, etc.?..If [these requests] can’t be met, then I’d suggest recourse to Hume’s advice in similar circumstances: ‘to the flames’.
The Flames is an NHL team that played in Atlanta from 1972-80. The team then relocated to Calgary.
The NHL replaced the Flames with the expansion Atlanta Thrashers, who existed 1999-2011 before also relocating to Canada, as the new Winnipeg Jets. The previous Winnipeg Jets moved to Phoenix and are now the Arizona Coyotes. Between the lives of the Flames and Thrashers, Atlanta had the International Hockey League’s Atlanta Knights - who also moved to Canada, as the Quebec Rafales.
“Quebec” is the name of both the province and the city. To distinguish between them in English, the city is normally referred to as “Quebec City”.
This distinction isn’t needed when writing in French, because different prepositions are used to refer to regions and municipalities. “Au Québec” is a reference to the province, while “À Québec” is a reference to the city.
[Off game]But what about when you are saying where you are from? Isn’t it du Quebec, regardless of city or province?
No, “du Québec” means you’re from the province, “de Québec” means from the City.
For example, the “Barreau du Québec” is the law society for the province.
The “Barreau de Québec” is the bar association for the city.
Tenor saxophonist Ike Quebec started his recording career in 1940, with the Barons of Rhythm. Later on, he recorded or performed with Frankie Newton, Hot Lips Page, Roy Eldridge, Trummy Young, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Carter and Coleman Hawkins. Between 1944 and 1951, he worked intermittently with Cab Calloway. He recorded for Blue Note records in this era, and also served as a talent scout for the label (helping pianists Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell come to wider attention).
Ray Charles once commented on Oscar Peterson’s talents as a jazz and blues pianist: “Oscar could play like a motherfucker!”
Embracing Internet buzz over their upcoming production of Snakes on a Plane, in 2006 New Line Cinemas brought Samuel L. Jackson back into the studio to perform the scene so many fans had said they dearly wanted in the film: “Enough is enough! I’ve *had *it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!”
buzz is a javascript library for HTML5 to handle sounds.
“What’s the Buzz” is one of the songs in Jesus Christ Superstar, where the apostles are quizzing Jesus about what’s happening. In his responses he tries to steer them away from worldly events.
The first US production of Jesus Christ Superstar – four months before it opened on Broadway – was performed at Southold High School in Southold, NY in June of 1971.
Jesus Christ Superstar generated a certain amount of controversy in the 70s, with Christian groups and churches claiming it was blasphemous for its depiction of Judas as a somewhat sympathetic victim and for its perceived criticisms of Jesus; and Jewish groups claiming it was anti-semitic because most of the villains in the film were Jewish. It was banned in South Africa for being “irreligious”.
Sympathetic magic is a type of magic based on imitation or correspondence. Imitation involves using effigies, fetishes or poppets (like Voodoo dolls), to affect the environment of people. Correspondence is based on the idea that one can influence something based on its relationship or resemblance to another thing. Many popular beliefs regarding properties of plants, fruits and vegetables have evolved in the folk-medicine of different societies owing to sympathetic magic
The character of Elizabeth Proctor in The Crucible is framed by Abigail Williams with an incriminating poppet planted in her house. Elizabeth is perhaps the main character closest in the play to her real life counterpart as she really was saved from hanging because she was pregnant and by the time she gave birth the public outcries against the trials had stopped them. Little is known of her life after the trials other than she remarried and did live long enough to receive a formal apology and formal reversal of attainder ten years after her conviction.
British actress Keira Knightley played characters named Elizabeth several times early in her career - Swann, in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and Bennet, in Pride & Prejudice, for which she was nominated for an Oscar.