Rowan Sharkawy
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someone who love to know anything & share it with every one
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The history of chocolate
If you can't imagine life without chocolate, you're lucky you weren't born before the 16th century. Until then, chocolate only existed in Mesoamerica in a form quite different from what we know. As far back as 1900 BCE, the people of that region had learned to prepare the beans of the native cacao tree. The earliest records tell us the beans were ground and mixed with cornmeal and chili peppers to create a drink - not a relaxing cup of hot cocoa, but a bitter, invigorating concoction frothing with foam. And if you thought we make a big deal about chocolate today, the Mesoamericans had us beat. They believed that cacao was a heavenly food gifted to humans by a feathered serpent god, known to the Maya as Kukulkan and to the Aztecs as Quetzalcoatl. Aztecs used cacao beans as currency and drank chocolate at royal feasts, gave it to soldiers as a reward for success in battle, and used it in rituals. The first transatlantic chocolate encounter occurred in 1519 when Hernán Cortés visited the court of Moctezuma at Tenochtitlan. As recorded by Cortés's lieutenant, the king had 50 jugs of the drink brought out and poured into golden cups. When the colonists returned with shipments of the strange new bean, missionaries' salacious accounts of native customs gave it a reputation as an aphrodisiac. At first, its bitter taste made it suitable as a medicine for ailments, like upset stomachs, but sweetening it with honey, sugar, or vanilla quickly made chocolate a popular delicacy in the Spanish court. And soon, no aristocratic home was complete without dedicated chocolate ware. The fashionable drink was difficult and time consuming to produce on a large scale. That involved using plantations and imported slave labor in the Caribbean and on islands off the coast of Africa. The world of chocolate would change forever in 1828 with the introduction of the cocoa press by Coenraad van Houten of Amsterdam. Van Houten's invention could separate the cocoa's natural fat, or cocoa butter. This left a powder that could be mixed into a drinkable solution or recombined with the cocoa butter to create the solid chocolate we know today. Not long after, a Swiss chocolatier named Daniel Peter added powdered milk to the mix, thus inventing milk chocolate. By the 20th century, chocolate was no longer an elite luxury but had become a treat for the public. Meeting the massive demand required more cultivation of cocoa, which can only grow near the equator. Now, instead of African slaves being shipped to South American cocoa plantations, cocoa production itself would shift to West Africa with Cote d'Ivoire providing two-fifths of the world's cocoa as of 2015. Yet along with the growth of the industry, there have been horrific abuses of human rights. Many of the plantations throughout West Africa, which supply Western companies, use slave and child labor, with an estimation of more than 2 million children affected. This is a complex problem that persists despite efforts from major chocolate companies to partner with African nations to reduce child and indentured labor practices. Today, chocolate has established itself in the rituals of our modern culture. Due to its colonial association with native cultures, combined with the power of advertising, chocolate retains an aura of something sensual, decadent, and forbidden. Yet knowing more about its fascinating and often cruel history, as well as its production today, tells us where these associations originate and what they hide. So as you unwrap your next bar of chocolate, take a moment to consider that not everything about chocolate is sweet. at the end we all love chocolate and one of our favourite things
By Rowan Sharkawy8 months ago in 01
The history of tea
An exhausted Shennong killed himself seventy-two times as he wandered the forest in search of seeds and edible plants throughout his long day. But before the poison died, he put a leaf in his mouth. He chewed it and came back to her, then found the tea. At least one old story says so. Tea does not cure poison, but the story of Shennong, the legendary discoverer of Chinese agriculture, shows the importance of tea in ancient China. Archaeological evidence shows that tea was grown here 6,000 years ago, 1,500 years before the Pharaohs built the Great Pyramid of Giza. The Chinese tea tree is the same type of tea tree grown all over the world today, but it was originally eaten differently. It can be eaten as a vegetable or porridge with grains. Tea went from being a food to a drink about 1,500 years ago when people realized that the combination of heat and moisture could produce complex and different flavors in the green leafy vegetable. . Preparation methods have varied over the centuries, typically heating the tea, filling it into a carrier cake, turning it into a powder, and mixing it with hot water to make a drink called a matcha or matcha. Matcha became so popular that it spawned a Chinese tea tradition. Tea is the subject of books and poems, a favorite drink of emperors, and a language of art. They paint beautiful pictures on the tea foam, like the espresso art you see in coffee shops these days. During the Tang Dynasty in the 9th century AD, a Japanese monk brought the first tea tree to Japan. Eventually the Japanese developed their own unique way of drinking tea, which became the Japanese tea ceremony. During the Ming Dynasty in the 14th century, Chinese emperors changed the standard of pressed tea to loose leaf tea. At that time, China had almost complete control over the world's tea tree, as tea was one of China's top three exports, along with porcelain and silk. As tea drinking spread throughout the world, China's economic power and influence grew. The spread of this tea began in the early 1600s, when Dutch traders brought tea to Europe. Many believe that the tea made by Queen Catherine of Braganza, a Portuguese princess, when she married King Charles II in 1661, was popular with British royalty. At the time, England was expanding its colonial power and becoming a new world power. As England developed, the interest in tea spread throughout the world. In 1700, tea was sold ten times more than coffee in Europe, and the plant was grown only in China. The tea trade was so profitable that competition between Western trading companies led to the birth of the world's fastest ships, the cutter ships. Everyone raced to bring the tea back to Europe first to increase the profits. At first, the British bought this Chinese tea with silver. Since the price was too high, they decided to exchange the tea for another substance, namely opium. This has led to public health concerns in China as people become addicted to the drug. In 1839, a Chinese officer ordered his men to destroy British opium as a protest against British rule in China. This action started the first Opium War between the two countries. The war raged on the Chinese coast until the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1842 and the port of Hong Kong was handed over to the British and trade was resumed on harsh terms. This conflict has weakened China's position in the world for more than a century. The British East India Company also hoped to grow its own tea and gain more market power. So they sent botanist Robert Fortune to run an undercover operation to steal tea from China. Undercover, he embarks on a perilous journey through the tea mountain regions of China, eventually capturing tea trees and skilled tea workers in Darjeeling, India. Since then, this plant has spread and helped the rapid growth of tea as an everyday commodity. Today, tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world after water, and there are almost as many ways to prepare the drink as there are cultures around the world, from Turkish rezzi cheese with salted Tibetan butter cheese.
By Rowan Sharkawy8 months ago in 01
3 tips on how to study effectively
During training, residents learn many techniques, skills, and techniques that they use to save lives. Being able to remember these skills is a matter of life and death. Keeping this in mind, a 2006 study involved a group of doctors learning to suture tendons and split them into two groups. The learning materials were the same for everyone, but the group made few changes to the learning process. When tested a month later, this group performed better than the other residents. The secret to this group's success will be discussed, as well as two other learning techniques that can be used in and out of the classroom. But to understand why this technique works, we must first understand how the brain learns and stores information. Let's say you're trying to remember what it feels like. When you experience a new concept, the memory is encoded in a group of neurons in the hippocampus region of the brain. As you continue to learn how the heart works in class or study the ventricles of the heart on an exam, you will reactivate those neurons. This firing strengthens the connections between the cells, thus stabilizing the memory.
By Rowan Sharkawy8 months ago in 01
How to overcome your mistakes
A 2019 study recruited more than 400 participants to learn cryptic coined words. Subject was asked about his three sets of runes. For example, he asked: Which of the two symbols represents an animal? Then, after a pause, he reversed the question and asked about the same pair of runes. Questions like: "Which of these two runes represents an inanimate object?" But this game had a secret. The subject's answer in round one determined the meaning of the rune in round two. In the first round, either all participants' answers were guaranteed to be marked as correct, or they failed all questions. This meant that all participants had the same information during the break and the game was played for real money in round two. However, despite this level playing field, participants who were successful in the first round rose to the top of the ranks, while those who were deemed unsuccessful continued to fail. People often say that failure is a teachable moment, a moment when you inevitably stumble on the path to improvement. However, learning from mistakes is not always easy. Especially if the mistake is demoralizing, overwhelming, or just plain confusing. So what prevents us from turning mistakes into mastery? Perhaps the most obvious hurdle to learning from a mistake is how painful it is. People generally want to see themselves as capable and competent, and experiencing failure threatens this self-image. In a follow-up survey of the Rune study, participants in the failed group reported significantly lower self-confidence after participating. It's tempting to ignore this pain as a temporary setback. However, some studies have shown that our brains often stop processing new information when we feel demoralized or incompetent. This suggests that if the threat to self-esteem is large enough, it can affect learning ability. However, your tolerance for error also depends on your relationship to the task at hand. In a 2011 study, researchers surveyed a group of American students enrolled in introductory and advanced French courses. These students completed a survey asking them what type of teacher they preferred: one who emphasized their strengths and successes, or one who highlighted their mistakes and corrected their weaknesses. In general, responses showed that beginners seek positive reinforcement, whereas advanced learners are more likely to seek critical feedback. Researchers have theorized several explanations for these results. Beginners who are just starting out have not yet decided whether they enjoy learning French or whether they want to continue learning. Therefore, they may crave praise to stay motivated. On the other hand, advanced students may have already made investments and want to improve their skills as efficiently as possible. Because the process of acquiring expertise involves some degree of failure, more advanced students may have a higher tolerance for failure. But whether you're an expert or a beginner, it's usually much easier to learn from success than from failure. For example, imagine getting your grade back on an exam. Once you've done that, you can consider that you've made good decisions about when, what, and how much to study, and you can repeat those decisions for your next test. However, if it fails, there can be various reasons. Maybe you didn't study enough, maybe you studied the wrong information, or maybe you did everything right and the test came up with something you shouldn't have known. In these cases, it's not clear what went wrong, making it difficult to learn how to improve. It's only natural to want to learn from your mistakes, and there's a lot to be gained from being resilient and cultivating a growth mindset. But when you're fixated on your mistakes, it's easy to forget all your successes. And it's more effective to build on what you did right than focus on what you did wrong.
By Rowan Sharkawy8 months ago in 01
weirdo cats
Why do cats do this? Cats are cute and adorable, jumping, jumping, climbing, pushing, creeping, scratching, purring, and more with 26 billion views on over 2 million YouTube videos. Judging by this, one thing is for sure: cats are very funny. . These rather strange cat behaviors are both funny and confusing, but many of us are left wondering, "Why do cats do this?" For a long time, cats were at the same time predators of small animals and prey of larger carnivores. Because they were both predators and prey, the survival of the species depended on important instinctive behaviors that are still seen today in wild and domestic cats. Domestic cat Grizmo's cat-like behavior may seem confusing, but the same behavior that has naturally bred cats for millions of years is what made Grizmo a supercat in the wild. Sho. Felines' unique musculature and excellent balance abilities allowed them to climb to high vantage points to survey their wild territories and find prey. Now, Grizmo doesn't need any special skills to find and track dinner in the food bowl, but instinctively, looking into the living room from the top of the bookshelf is exactly what she evolved to do. is. As wild predators, cats are opportunistic and will hunt whenever prey is available. Because most cat prey is small, wild cats have to eat multiple times a day and employ strategies of creeping, pouncing, killing, and eating to secure food. . Therefore, Grismo prefers to chase and pounce on small toys and eat small meals during the day and night. Additionally, small prey animals tend to hide in tight spaces in their natural environment. So one explanation for Grizmo's propensity to reach into containers and openings is that she is driven by the same curiosity that ensured the survival of her species millions of years ago. It means that it is. In the wild, cats needed sharp claws for climbing trees, hunting, and self-defense. Sharpening my nails on a nearby surface kept me in shape, helped me stretch my back and leg muscles, and also reduced stress. That doesn't mean Grizmo hates your couch, chair, ottoman, pillows, curtains, or anything else you put in your environment. She tears these things and keeps her nails in tip shape. Because that's exactly what her ancestors did to survive. Cats evolved to avoid capture as hunted animals, and cats that are good at avoiding natural predators have flourished in the wild. Today, inside your home, Grismo is adept at squeezing into tight spaces and finding unconventional hiding spots. This also explains why she prefers clean, odor-free toilets. This reduces the chance of their location being revealed to a nearby sniffing predator. Considering everything we know about cats, it seems like her one of the cat's main behaviors remains one of her most mysterious. Cats purr for a variety of reasons, including happiness, stress, and hunger. But strangely, the frequency of their purring ranges from 25 to 150 hertz, which is in the range that can promote tissue regeneration. Their purring makes Grizmo a great nap companion, but their purring can also heal Grizmo's muscles and bones, and possibly yours as well. They evolved over time to become solitary predators that hunted and killed for food, and sneaky prey that hid and ran away to survive. As a result, today's cats retain many of the same instincts that have allowed them to thrive in the wild for millions of years. This explains some of their seemingly strange behavior. For them, our home is a jungle. But if that's the case, who are we in the eyes of our cats? Are there big, stupid, hairless cats competing for resources? A terribly stupid predator who can outwit them at any time? Or maybe they think we are prey.
By Rowan Sharkawy8 months ago in 01
the oldest tree on earth
What is the oldest tree in the world? Well, if you start talking about the oldest or the largest or almost any other superlative of nature, you probably won't find a clear answer. In fact, there are two candidates for the title of "oldest tree," depending on how you define the term. The oldest known individual tree was discovered in 2012 in the White Mountains of central-eastern California. A 5,063 year old Great Northern Bristlecone Pine! This is older than the pyramids! Here is a photo of a similar Igamatsu, but now it looks completely lifeless, but that may be part of the secret to its success. The extremely cold and dry climate of the White Mountains proves to be the perfect environment to care for these ancient trees. Curiously, the higher you climb these mountains, the older the trees become, and some studies suggest that the longevity of the pines there is directly related to poor growing conditions.
By Rowan Sharkawy8 months ago in Fiction
left-handed people
If you know an adult left-handed person, they should learn to write and eat right-handed. In many parts of the world, encouraging children to use their "right" hand is common practice. In fact, the word "right" means right or good, not only in English but in many other languages. But if the left is wrong, why is it so? Currently, about 1/10 of the world's population is left-handed. According to archeological evidence this has been the case for 500,000 years, about 10% of human remains show differences in hand length and bone density, and some tools and antiques showing signs of left handedness. Despite what many people think, the left is not a job. It can be diagnosed before birth based on the position of the fetus in the womb. So, if left-handedness is hereditary, does it mean it's genetic? Yes and no. Identical twins with identical genes have different dominant hands. In fact, this often happens to other siblings. But the probability that you are left- or right-handed is determined by whether your parents are left-handed, and the ratio is found to be the same. If your father is left-handed, but your mother is left-handed, you have a 17% chance of being born left-handed, whereas two right-handed people have only a 10% chance of being left-handed. Power seems to be decided by rolling the dice, but your genes decide the odds. All of this points to a reason why evolution produced a minority of left-handed people and maintained that proportion for thousands of years. Although there are many theories that try to explain why handedness or why most people are right-handed, current mathematical models suggest that the ratio describes the balance between competitive and cooperative pressures in human development. The advantages of being left-handed are most evident in activities involving opponents, such as fighting or competitive sports. For example, about 50 percent of the best baseball players are left-handed. Why? Consider this an amazing benefit. Since there are few left-handers, left-handers and right-handers tend to play on the left side. Therefore, when two men face each other, it is better to raise the left hand to the opponent with the right hand, and throw the left hand outside. This fighting hypothesis, which suggests that a population imbalance results in an advantage for left-handed boxers or athletes, is an example of selection dependent on adverse frequency. However, according to the principles of evolution, groups that have an advantage grow until that advantage disappears. If humans continued to struggle and compete throughout human evolution, left-handed people would have become more and more left-handed so that they would no longer be a rare commodity. So, in a real competitive world, 50% of the population is left-handed. Yet cooperation and competition shaped human development. Conversely, cooperative pressure pushes the distribution of arbitrage in the opposite direction. In golf, performance does not depend on opponents, with only 4% of top players left, an example of the general trend of equipment sharing. Since it's easier for aspiring youth golfers to find a set of right-handed golf clubs, many of the great tools that have created the community are designed for the majority of right-handed players. Because leftists are less skilled at using these tools and more prone to accidents, they will not succeed in the cooperative world and will eventually disappear from the population. Thus, by accurately predicting the distribution of left-handers in the general population, and by comparing the data across multiple sports, the model shows that left-handers persist as minorities. but it is maintained that it reflects the balance produced by competitive and cooperative interests. occur at the same time in a given period. The best part is what these numbers can tell about different groups of people. From the unequal distribution of hooves in cooperative animals to the smaller proportion of left-handed animals in competitive hunter-gatherer societies, we may also discover the answers to some of the mysteries of the evolution of the early man within us.
By Rowan Sharkawy8 months ago in Humans
different blood types
It's often said that despite humanity's many conflicts, we all bleed the same blood. It's a nice thought but not quite accurate. In fact, our blood comes in a few different varieties. Our red blood cells contain a protein called hemoglobin that binds to oxygen, allowing the cells to transport it throughout the body. But they also have another kind of complex protein on the outside of the cell membrane. These proteins, known as antigens, communicate with white blood cells, immune cells that protect against infection. Antigens serve as identifying markers, allowing the immune system to recognize your body's own cells without attacking them as foreign bodies. The two main kinds of antigens, A and B, determine your blood type. But how do we get four blood types from only two antigens? Well, the antigens are coded for by three different alleles, varieties of a particular gene. While the A and B alleles code for A and B antigens, the O allele codes for neither, and because we inherit one copy of each gene from each parent, every individual has two alleles determining blood type. When these happen to be different, one overrides the other depending on their relative dominance. For blood types, the A and B alleles are both dominant, while O is recessive. So A and A gives you type A blood, while B and B gives you type B. If you inherit one of each, the resulting codominance will produce both A and B antigens, which is type AB. The O allele is recessive, so either of the others will override it when they're paired, resulting in either type A or type B. But if you happen to inherit two Os, instructions will be expressed that make blood cells without the A or the B antigen. Because of these interactions, knowing both parents' blood types lets us predict the relative probability of their children's blood types. Why do blood types matter? For blood transfusions, finding the correct one is a matter of life and death. If someone with type A blood is given type B blood, or vice versa, their antibodies will reject the foreign antigens and attack them, potentially causing the transfused blood to clot. But because people with type AB blood produce both A and B antigens, they don't make antibodies against them, so they will recognize either as safe, making them universal recipients. On the other hand, people with blood type O do not produce either antigen, which makes them universal donors, but will cause their immune system to make antibodies that reject any other blood type. Unfortunately, matching donors and recipients is a bit more complicated due to additional antigen systems, particular the Rh factor, named after the Rhesus monkeys in which it was first isolated. Rh+ or Rh- refers to the presence or absence of the D antigen of the Rh blood group system. And in addition to impeding some blood transfusions, it can cause severe complications in pregnancy. If an Rh- mother is carrying an Rh+ child, her body will produce Rh antibodies that may cross the placenta and attack the fetus, a condition known as hemolytic disease of the newborn. Some cultures believe blood type to be associated with personality, though this is not supported by science. And though the proportions of different blood types vary between human populations, scientists aren't sure why they evolved; perhaps as protection against blood born diseases, or due to random genetic drift. Finally, different species have different sets of antigens. In fact, the four main blood types shared by us apes seem paltry in comparison to the thirteen types found in dogs.
By Rowan Sharkawy8 months ago in Education
why do we use the word "ok"
There's a two-letter word you hear everywhere. got it. got it. OK, okay, Annie? OK Ok OK, OK, guys... OK is probably the most well-known word on the planet. got it! got it. This is important both for the way we communicate with each other and for technology. Alexa, turn off the living room lights. got it. You probably use it every day, even if you don't realize it. But what does OK actually mean and where does it come from? Hmm, okay. got it. I got it. Thank you. The origins of OK date back to the 1830s, when there was a trend for intentionally misspelling abbreviations.
By Rowan Sharkawy8 months ago in Humans
why do we love?
Oh, romantic love—beautiful, intoxicating, heartbreaking, soul-destroying, often all at once. Why do we choose to put ourselves through heartache? Does love give meaning to our lives, or does it free us from loneliness and pain? Is love a product of our sexual desires or a biological trick that allows us to reproduce? Is this what we need? Do we really need it? If romantic love has a purpose, science and psychology have yet to discover it. But throughout history, some of our great philosophers have come up with some interesting theories. Love brings us back to life. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato explored the idea that we love in order to live. In his "Symposium," he wrote about a dinner party at which the comedian Aristophanes told his guests the following: Man is a creature with four arms and four legs. , two faces. One day they angered the gods and Zeus cut them all in half.
By Rowan Sharkawy8 months ago in Humans
the impact of self-talking
When your alarm goes off in the morning, you wonder, "Why did I set it so early?" As you brush your teeth, you think, "Do I need a haircut… or not?" When you run out the front door and reach for the key, the key isn't there. Frustrated, you shout, "I can't do anything right!" you see your neighbors. Talking to yourself can be embarrassing, and some people think this behavior is a sign of mental weakness. But decades of psychological research show that talking to yourself is common.
By Rowan Sharkawy8 months ago in Humans
getting better at talking to people
improvement pill here welcome to the beefriend course where I show you how to befriend more people today I want to reveal to you the secret to getting better at talking to people so let's dive right into it so the first thing you have to understand is that you were not born socially handicapped we humans are very social species so much in fact that you can take a baby and put him or her in a room full of people and over time he or she will learn to speak purely through observation no one needs to go up to the baby and say hey that's a cat yes cat CA T meow meow say with me you don't have to do any of that if you just talk and go about your daily activities the baby is capable of learning your language by pure observation and this is because the human brain is actually extremely good and identifying patterns and rules when it comes to social interactions which is basically what language is if you think about it patterns and rules so it's not that you were born socially handicapped the reason your social skills aren't that great is simply because you haven't given your brain enough time so observe interactions and become fluent in all of the patterns and rules in short you lack practice and for the most part it's not really your fault because if you think about it in modern times we spend the large majority of our time behind screens interacting with each other and it's only been getting worse and worse every generation I didn't get a smartphone until I was almost like 20 years old but nowadays most kids get their first smartphone before they're even ten and we all know that it doesn't take much skill or practice to accept the friend request and shoot someone a message we can type and use emojis to communicate with each other but it's really really different from actually talking to someone in real life when you're texting there are hundreds of little components that are not there hundreds of little patterns and rules that your brain isn't able to observe about the other person for example things like their body language facial expressions tonality speed of talking proximity eye contact etc these are all components that you have to pay attention to when talking to someone else in real life if you want to make friends but all of these factors are completely missing when you text or message someone using your magic little rectangle in a way talking to people in real life is like a completely different language the reason why your social skills aren't that great and why you feel nervous about meeting new people is simply because you haven't been giving your brain enough time to properly learn this language you're fluent in texting but you're barely passing real-life talking sort of like how I barely passed Chinese in high school the secret to getting better at talking to people or learning any language is to simply get more practice to interact with more people to give your brain more opportunities to observe and learn the unique patterns and rules of this language now you might be wondering an improvement pill okay that makes sense and all but how do I get more practice well when I was about 18 years old I decided to take on what's called the hundred interaction challenge to improve my social skills basically you have a month to interact with 100 people it doesn't really matter how deep the interactions are heck you could run up to people and just say hi and then run away and that would still count as an interaction the majority of my interactions during this challenge involved asking people for directions while pretending that my phone died and that I was lost and although these interactions on a surface level seemed very simple and short I eventually found myself transitioning into deeper conversations and this actually led to a whole lot of practice for my brain and I did see a pretty significant boost in my social skills by the time the challenge was over now a quick little side note people always ask me to make a course for the hundred interaction challenge whenever I talk about it but to be honest it wouldn't really even be a course I literally just explained to you all you have to do but then they'd often say something like oh but it'd be helpful to have an accountability group and also if you can motivate us every day of the challenge so if that's something you're interested in I guess why not I'll make the program cuz I do enjoy helping you out all you got to do is sign up for my mailing list using the link in the description box below and I'll let you know the next time we run this experimental program back to the topic at hand here's a good analogy that I want to leave you with when it comes to getting better at talking to people watching videos to learn social skills is sort of like watching videos when you're trying to learn how to ride a bike yes it can be very helpful to watch others do it it can be helpful to learn exactly how bikes even work but the fastest way to learn how to ride a bike is to just jump on and start pedaling sure you'll probably fall over and over again but eventually you'll get it right eventually you'll figure out how to balance properly and this is basically what happens when you go out and start talking to more people sure you'll probably have a couple of awkward interactions but eventually you will learn the patterns and rules of the culture.
By Rowan Sharkawy8 months ago in Education