Rent parties

In 1940s and 1950s, Harlem residents hosted "rent parties." They would charge guests for a night of dancing and socialization and the proceeds would go towards the hosts' rent.

They were never advertised as rent parties, instead of using euphemisms like "Tea Cup Party," and often featured lyrics from popular songs of the day.

Read more at Slate.

Who reads fan fiction?

According to FFN Research, the average user of FanFiction.Net in 2010 was a 15.8-year-old girl from the United States who didn’t write fan fiction herself. Not to say that 45-year-old mothers and adolescent boys don’t also read it, or that fan fiction is only written in English; but the odds are not good. 

Hat tip to The Dish.

Video of an ice climber falling

EU vs. US: eggs

I think of the Europe as a place where everything is highly regulated (e.g. grocery store that you own can't be open after a certain time, even if you want it to be) and US as a place where almost anything goes. Not so much:

Commercial American eggs are federally required to be washed and sanitized before they reach the consumer. EU egg marketing laws, on the other hand, state that Class A eggs – those found on supermarkets shelves, must not be washed, or cleaned in any way.

The reason EU forbids eggs from being washing is to encourage healthy practices and cleanliness in its farmers. The thinking is that if an egg is dirty, no one will want to buy it.

In the US, the approach is that cleaning the eggs makes them safer, which is true. It also increases the risk of contamination if eggs are washed improperly. 

More here. It's way more interesting than I thought.

Ninja angel

From the NYTimes review of a new show:

“The Bible,” might be the first to include an angel skilled in Chinese martial arts.

First we had Sarah Jessica Parker looks like a horse

And now we have a goat singing Taylor Swift's song. I laughed harder than I should have.



Also, http://sarahjessicaparkerlookslikeahorse.com/

F*** the police

Well, not really. 

[Researchers have] concluded that the main law enforcement-related themes in hip-hop are not pleasure and pride in aggressive and criminal acts, but the unfairness of the criminal justice system and the powerlessness felt by those targeted by it.

It appears that rappers don't hate justice but rather its current implementation.

More here.

New game

This morning I reached for a commonly used product and noticed the following description on it:

Do you have any idea what it's for?

So I am starting a new game called "Guess What This Is." If you see anything good, send it to me.

Answer for the above here.

Dolphins Call Each Other By Name

This is cool.

Bottlenose dolphins call out the specific names of loved ones when they become separated, a study finds. 

Other than humans, the dolphins are the only animals known to do this, according to the study, published in the latest Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The big difference with bottlenose dolphins is that these communications consist of whistles, not words.

More here.

You do get stupid(er) when you are sick

When you are sick, your mind feels a bit slow. But you ignore it since you know the cold virus infects the lining of the airways and not the brain. 

Except that appears to be false. You actually do get dumber when you are sick:

This theory could explain why we lose our mental edge when we get sick, Kipnis says. When we’re healthy, T cells keep the immune cells in the meninges from inflaming the brain. But when we get sick, the T cells loosen their hold to let the immune system attack invading pathogens. The resulting inflammation helps clear out the invaders, but it also blunts learning. When we’re sick, Kipnis proposes, it’s more important to launch a powerful immune attack than to have a sharp mind.

More here.