Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo.

That is actually a sentance.

if c= Buffalo, the city Buffalo,
a= the animal buffalo,
and v= the verb buffalo, meaning to confuse or deceive,

then the sentance is c a c a v v c a, or

the the buffalo from buffalo (Buffalo buffalo, c a), (that) buffalo from buffalo buffalo (confuse) (c a v), buffalo (confuse) buffalo from buffalo (v a c).

Assume that c = Buffalo, New York, a=bison and v = confuse, then the sentance can mean

Bison from Buffalo, New York, who are confused by other bison in their community also happen to confuse other bison in their community.

This is actually an article in Wikipedia.

I feel bad about this

This guy already has enough bad press. But its just too hilarious....

Aleksey Vayner is a Uzbekistanian born student at Yale University. Apparently, he applied to a job at UBS by sending them a video of himself doing physical feats, such as bench pressing almost 500 pounds (says the weights), serving a tennis ball 140 MPH, ballroom dancing, breaking bricks with his bare hands, and skiing (though he admits that the footage of him skiing may not be him...). His resume claimed he was the CEO of an investment firm and that he ran a charitable organization that no one seems to have heard of...

Also, upon getting to Yale a few years ago, he told various students that he was "one of four people in the state of Connecticut qualified to handle nuclear waste", he was employed by the C.I.A. and Mafia as a youth, the Dalai Lama wrote his recommendation, he taught Harrison Ford, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jerry Seinfeld to play tennis, he must register his hands as lethal weapons at airports, and that he's killed at least two dozen men in Tibetan martial arts competitions.

His video is on YouTube (watch at least until the dancing) and he is suing everyone under the sun, including UBS for somehow leaking the video. The video has been mocked in the NY Times, Metro paper, on Fox News, the New York Post, The Sun, MarketWatch, US News & World Report, the New Yorker, and now, Wiki Karmel!

TB v. Tetanus

Because this is something everyone should know:

Tuberculosis is a deadly infectious disease caused by bacteria. The disease is characterized by a persisting cough lasting a few weeks, chest pain, and perhaps even coughing up blood. Also, such oldies but goodies, as chills, night sweats, appetite loss, weight loss, and easy fatigability. Yay...

Did you know that over one third of the people on this planet have TB bacteria in their system and that one person per second gets it? Luckily for us, most of the bacteria is asymptomatic.

Tetanus is "the medical term indicating prolonged contraction of skeletal muscle fibers." A common symptom is lockjaw. Most people in the US (maybe all....) are vaccinated for Tetanus and get booster shots every ten years.

Most people think that you will get tetanus if you scratch yourself with something rusty (ie, step on a rusty nail). Rust, however, has very little to do with tetanus. Tetanus is caused by a bacteria that can often be found in the same environments are rusty objects (its mostly found in soil and animal feces). However, a non-rusty piece of metal (is there a word for the opposite of rusty?*) or a stick or whatever can cause an open wound that can be just as easily infected. If you are in an urban environment, where not as much bacteria may be present, you will likely have a much lower chance to catch tetanus.

Many people, back in the day, associated vampirism with TB. It gave people red eyes, pale skin, sensitivity to light, and coughing blood.

*Loyal reader anonymous pointed out that the opposite of rusty could be uncorroded or unoxidized. Thanks.

The Total Package

So I don't know about ya'll, but Wiki Karmel's favorite wrestler of all time is Lex Luger. Why, you ask? Because apparently the "Total Package" or "Narcissist" (as he is sometimes referred to as) hails from Orchard Park, New York and went to Orchard Park High School (GO QUAKERS!).

In 1988, in one of the most hyped-up wrestling matches ever, Luger had former friend Ric Flair in a Human Torture Rack (his signature finishing move). Flair was about to submit when the ref stopped the fight and delcared Flair the winner because a cut had developed on Lugers forehead and was disqualified due to Maryland State Athletic Competition rules. So sad....

Luger was named rookie of the year in 86, wrestler of the year in 97, and in 03 was named the 20th greatest wrester of all time.

Other famous Orchard Parkians are Dave Hollins, an all star third baseman for the Phillies in 1993 and Rick James (weird, right?)

The Almighty TMQ

So Gregg Easterbrook is sweet. How sweet? Real sweet (on a scale from 1 to 10, he's actually sweet). Anyway....The mighy TMQ likes to poke a little fun at various NFL teams and has made up nicknames for half of them (or maybe all. who knows.....). But his wikipedia page did not reflect that thoroughly, only mentioning one or two. So your very own Wiki Karmel took it upon himself to edit the article and add a section. Such names as Potomac Drainage Basin Indigenous Persons for the Washington Redskins or the Squared Sevens for the San Francisco 49ers are now in a (growing) list. Apparently, TMQ referred to the 49ers once as the 24.5ers because they weren't playing well. Loyal reader E (Austin, Texas) wrote into TMQ that, to keep up with formatting, he should call them the Squared 4.949747s. Ha!

That sounds horrible

Sorry, its been a week since I've written. Anyway... earlier this week I was reading about everyone's favorite memorial arch, The Gateway Arch (ah the Lou...). As most of my loyal readers know, the arch was built in St Louis in the 60's. You can ride a weird, egg-like tram up to the top, where you can look at beautiful St. Louis on one side and farmland on the other...

But did you know that some guy was arrested in 1992 for climbing up the side of the arch using suction cups and then BASE jumping off! He got three months in jail.

Hell House...Sweet!(?)

I was flipping through the pages of one of my favorite magazines, Time Out New York, when I noticed the blurb about Hell House, a haunted house, in DUMBO. I didn't really read the blurb, but later suggested to someone that we should go see it. Well, it's good that your humble blogger loves research! Hell Houses were invented by evangelical Christians in the 70's (most likely our favorite Reverend, Jerry Falwell). They graphically depict "acts of sin" that would get a person sent to hell. These acts of sin? Pre-marital sex, abortion, homosexuality, drug use, alcohol use, etc. A major criticism of these Hell Houses is that they deceive people into thinking they are normal haunted houses when in fact they exist for the soul purpose (sorry, really bad pun) of converting people to fundamentalist Christianity.

I have no interesting thoughts or bits of trivia to add to this. This is more of a public service announcement. Watch out!

Oh those Yardbirds!

As loyal reader Amilee B. (Brooklyn, NY) and I were discussing earlier, the name of one of Agatha Christie's novels was And Then There Were None, not Ten Little Indians (and certainly not 13 Little Indians as I originally thought...). Agatha Christie, who is the best selling novelist of all time with over 2.0 billion books sold, did, however, base the book on the rhyme.

The Yardbirds, WikiKarmel's favorite Jimmy Page/Eric Clapton collaboration, wrote a song based on the rhyme, though each of the Indians' deaths were more 'dismal', whatever that means....

WikiKarmel bonus trivia!:

Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code is the best selling novel of all time with 60.5 million copies sold. I personally did not like the Da Vinci Code. Comments?

Time is running out!

You only have until the end of the year. Hurry up!! For what you might ask? Your address to the future inhabitants of Earth in the year 52007 (or sometime around then...) The KEO satellite is a time capsule designed to return to Earth in 50,000 years. There is enough space on the satellite to carry a four page message from every person on Earth as well as a diamond encased with a drop of human blood, samples of air, sea water, and earth. Engraved on the diamond will be the human genome. Also included will be an astronomical clock, photos of all cultures, and an "encyclopaedic compendium of current human knowledge."

Did you know that there is an International Time Capsule Society charged with keeping track of all time capsules so they aren't lost? That seems to me like the International Federation of Competitive Eating.....

Millburn Pennybags et al

Apparently the guy with the top hat and cane in the monopoly game had his name changed in 1999 to Mr. Monopoly. It was previously Rich Uncle Pennybags, or Millburn Pennybags. The guy who is behind bars in the jail is Jake the Jailbird and the police officer in the advance to jail square is Officer Edgar Mallory. Who knew?

By the way, ol' Millburn is a stab at the robber barons of the 19th century. Once vilified, several, such as Carnegie, Duke, Stanford and Vanderbilt, have schools named after them. Many others, such as Astor, Ford, Frick, Gould, and Morgan, contributed significant amounts of money towards libraries, museums and the arts in general.

Note to loyal readers

I would recommend skipping the Arlen Harris entry. It's not really all that exciting unless you lived next to the Devils Playground....

Oh Arlen Harris...

So I just got my first comment from anonymous (thanks E). I guess at some point this blog was going to have to address this: Arlen Harris does indeed suck. Now this is meant as nothing personal to Mr. Harris. I have never met him. I'm sure he is a nice guy (and if not, well then maybe I do mean it). Anyway... Mr. Harris is a professional football player. He was an undrafted rookie free agent out of Virginia in 2003 and was signed by the St Louis Rams (go Lou). For those of you who don't know, the St. Louis Rams at that time had one of the greatest running backs of all time, Marshall Faulk. Mr. Faulk has lead the league numerous times in such categories as rushing touchdowns, total touchdowns, and yards from scrimmage. He was a dual receiving and rushing threat and a 7 time pro bowler.

Well Marshall was on the downside of his career that year. He was injured for the game in Pittsburg on October 26. The second string running back, Lamar Gordon was also injured. The running game was to be trusted in the hands of one Arlen Harris.

Now if you just look at the box score of the game quickly, you would see A. Harris, 81 yards and 3 touchdowns. Great game? Well loyal reader FGS would like to think so. However, there are more numbers in football than yards and touchdowns (ahh.....numbers....). Anyway.... you will first note that Harris had 34 carries. That's an average of 2.4 yards per carry. Certainly an anemic number for a professional football player (rushing plays should average in the 3.5 to 4.5 yards per play range and pass plays should be in the 7-8 yards per attempt range). However, delving even deeper, his long run of the day was 12 yards. He had a touchdown run of 8 yards. Thus he had 61 yards on 32 of his carries, or 1.9 yards per carry.

1.9 yards per carry is a pathetic number. No football player, on any level, should ever have numbers that ugly. Sure, Mr. Harris had three touchdowns. Sure, his team won the game. But E and I argue that he hurt his team. The official AP recap of the game states, "Despite St. Louis' huge advantages in almost every statistic -- including 2-to-1 in time of possession and Bulger outpassing Maddox 375-159 -- the Rams twice settled for field goals after driving to first downs inside the Pittsburgh 5." Why, you might ask? Because they had no running game.

I could go on and on providing examples as to why this was just an awful game (I won't because I'm at work...), but the fact of the matter is, any replacement player in the NFL could have done a better job. Harris's VORP (value over replacement player- maybe I'll address this another day- its very interesting if you are a math geek and a sports nerd) had to be negative. SO SUCK IT, FGS.

The Endemic....

In my random wikiings last night, I came across Fynbos, a natural shrubland vegetation that grows in South Africa. Fynbos grows in one place in the world, a 100-200km belt in SA. There are apparently six floral kingdoms, an area of similar vegetation, in the world. Most of these kingdoms are broken down into quite a few subsections. For example, the Holarctic kingdom has 9 regions, some of which are the eastern asiatic region, the saharo-arabian region, and the irano-turanian region. Anyway... The South African region is the smallest in the world, with the cape region being its biggest sub region.

So, to the title of the post. The SA region is the smallest kingdom, but one of the richest. There are 8000 native plants in this area, 5000 of which are endemic, or grow no where else in the world. Endemic is different from indigenous in that indigenous plants may grow in other areas as well. There is greater biodiversity in the South African shrublands than in the rainforests....
weird, right?

Not for those with a weak stomach

I just looked up gangrene. For those of you who don't know why I would look that up, just wait a few weeks - it's gonna be sweet (don't worry Mom, this doesn't mean I'm dying or anything like that). Well anyway... I wouldn't recommend anyone else going to wiki about this- the pictures are making me sick to my stomach....

But did you know that the brown recluse is the only spider in North America that can cause necrosis? Well I did. A college friend was bit by one- it freaked the hell out of me. Spiders are gross...

Paul Pierce

This one was brought to my attention by loyal reader FGS. Paul Pierce, a basketball player for the Boston Celtics, was stabbed eleven times in the head, neck and back in a nightclub in 2000. He quickly recovered and was able to play the entire upcoming season.

By the 2002 playoffs, Pierce had become one of the NBA's best players. During a game in New Jersey, a fan held up a sign that said, "Will somebody please stab Paul Pierce?" Hilarious? Creative? Disgusting? Take your pick...