smileloki's New Writeups

Pfeffernusse (thing)

2005-01-05T15:30:19Z

When I was fairly young, about five or so, my mother and I still went grocery shopping together. It was December in Richmond, a bit chilly but not the sort of place that expected a white Christmas. We were walking past a holiday cookie display when I heard her exclaim, "Pfeffernusse!".

I would like to claim I said, "Excuse me!", but I wasn't that cool a kid.

They were small spheres which had been cut in half. Clearly brown underneath, dusted in powered sugar all over, with chocolate covering the bottom and criss-crossed across the top. I'd never seen anything like it and my mother proceeded to load a few of the boxes into our cart, with her face still lit up like a child's. When we returned home, one of the boxes was immediately opened and I was treated to a taste. It was the taste of Christmas, but an exotic, wintry Christmas with spices that brought to mind warm fires and rich hot chocolate.

Every year, we…

DNA sequencing (idea)

2004-12-22T23:28:00Z

The ability to distinguish between individuals via their DNA and decode the human genome has revolutionized biology and medical science. Applications such as DNA evidence in court and testing for genes which increase the risk of cancer have already changed the face of their fields. With the knowledge of our genome sequence comes the potential for identifying the proteins which compose our very beings and shape the course of our lives. Only in the last 30 years has the technology become available for these sorts of advances to be possible. It was the Human Genome Project which spurred the refinement of the technology to meet the public project's goal of sequencing the genome within a decade, but it was the combination of advances in a number of fields which contributed to the technology's ultimate success. Of all of the advances biology has made in the past century, the ability to sequence DNA has been one of the most…

Olfaction (idea)

2004-12-21T14:45:45Z

Among the five senses, humanity's understanding is biased toward sight, hearing and touch. The more complex, integrated senses of taste and smell have only become popular fields of inquiry in the last two decades. Smell, or olfaction, is for humans by definition the sense which detects and identifies the presence of chemicals in the surrounding air. Other higher vertebrates have a much more finely developed olfactory sense while lesser vertebrates and invertebrates use other sensors on their bodies to detect chemicals in the air immediately surrounding them. Smell can help one form an opinion on the chemical in question without contact and can continue to influence the perception of the chemical during contact, while contact can reveal different details about the chemical. Despite the somewhat devolved sense of smell in humans, in most mammals the sense of smell is nearly as important as vision.

Air-breathing vertebrates have large cavities in the…

Build-a-Bear Workshop (place)

2004-12-02T20:37:30Z

Build-A-Bear Workshop is a store where you can customize your very own stuffed animal, from how stuffed they are, to the noise they make, to the clothes they wear. The first store opened in the fall of 1997 in St. Louis after almost a year of work by Maxine Clark, the CEO of Build-A-Bear. To date there are over 150 stores around the world and the chain has won numerous concept awards.

First, you need to choose a skin for your fluffy friend. At any given time there are usually 15-20 different options, including:

Various colors of teddy bears
Giant Pandas
Cats and Lions
Dogs, ranging from Beagles to Golden Retrievers
Various holiday themed animals, seasonally

Next comes picking a sound. You can either pick one or two pre-recorded sounds, such as "I love you," or an Elmo noise, or you can pay a bit extra and…

flirting (idea)

2004-11-10T16:40:03Z

Flirting is an art form, a dance, a bit of play, taken far too seriously by some.

It is the curse of our Puritan routes that holding hands is only for lovers, that hugs are only for the intimate and that a touch on the shoulder is an innuendo. It's a game. A game for new friends, complete strangers, old lovers, everyone.

Flirting is a form of the verb flirt, which the OED tells us was first used in the "to flirt with" sense in 1777. Flirting is, "To play at courtship; to practice coquetry; to make love without serious intentions." Dickens brought the term into more common use by using it to hint at playing. Everything from witty word play to Roman hands and Russian fingers has been known to fall under the word's large umbrella. One can even flirt with Death himself, thanks to the English language.

In such a litigation-obsessed society, what is…

The Prose Edda - Prologue (idea)

2004-09-18T22:34:45Z

The Prologue of the Prose Edda starts out with the beginnings of the Christian creation myth and uses it to explain the beginnings of the world and the origins of the Norse Pagan gods. Telling the story of a family from Asia and the marriages and affiliations within, Snorri Sturlason paints the picture of a group of heroes who were the basis for the stories of the gods. He gives the names of the real person and the god he claims their legacy grew into. Also given are locations for the people involved, as well positions they most likely held in reality. This is the defining work of the Prose Edda, as Snorri Sturlason makes the first known attempt to explain the possibly historical basis for the mythology. Snorri also writes the the gods also brought their language from Asia with them, giving a reason why some Northern European languages are part of the same language tree branch of those in the Near East.

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