Three Gifts

What would you do with the three gifts of the nativity?

Without delving into the labyrinthine theological complexities of the Nativity, what would one do if they received a delivery of gold, frankincense and myrrh?

Gold

You would probably want to get it assayed and valued.

Gold purity is measured as the karat which is a measure of the purity of the substance. Precious metals are often alloyed with other metals to give them different properties such as increasing the durability of the metal.

For example Sterling Silver consists of 92.5% silver and 7.5%, by mass, of other metals, usually copper.

The measure of the karat is used for gold, and is an indication of percentage of gold. It is out of 24, with the highest being 24/24, or 24 karat gold.

If you are lucky, the gold will be in a convenient format, like bullion coin or gold bar.

These are known formats, issued by countries with known weights and purity values.

For example in order to be called a gold bullion, the coin must be stamped and of regulated weight and at one point must have been legal tender. For example a gold United Kingdom Sovereign weights exactly 7.3224g.

Gold bars, known as Good Delivery bars are less regulated due to their shape. Without certificates of authenticity would likely need to be assayed to work out its exact composition and certificates issued.

Regardless, in one of these formats you could then genuinely walk into a suitable bank and sell said gold. It is currently worth about $33,000/kg.

However if it is not in one of the aforementioned formats, then you would need to go a lot further to refine or convince someone of its worth.

Frankincense

Frankincense also known as olibanum is an incense which has particular significance in Jewish tradition, used at the time as an offering, incense and in perfume.

The word 'frankincense' comes from the Frankish Crusaders which introduced it to Europe. However it was known to ancient civilisations like the Greeks and Chinese, being primarily an export from South Arabia.

The actual material is a dried aromatic resin which comes from the Boswellia tree. The resin is collected much the same way as rubber by carving grooves in the trunk and collecting the resin.

The flowers of the Boswellia tree

If you received some now you might use it as an incense (common in Eastern Orthodox Christian churches). It has uses in the perfume industry as well as medical research where it is being investigated for potential use in cancer research.

Myrrh

If you received myrrh, you would want to make sure you weren't getting muddled up with frankincense as they both look very similar, and are used in very similar ways. Traditionally used as a perfume, incense and medicine. Particularly as a medicine myrrh would have been useful for its antiseptic properties. In modern research it is again of interest for its potential anti-cancer effects.

The resin is harvested from another arabian tree, the Commiphora myrrha tree.

Conclusion

In conclusion, if someone gave you the three gifts of the Nativity, you might wonder what was going on. One of them requires extensive paperwork and the other two literally grow on trees.

Eddie Izzard describing the Christmas Nativity - contains swearing Video

Sleep in Ants

Today’s trivia is about Ants, and in particular their sleep patterns.

Firstly we can confirm that Ants do sleep and exhibit demonstrable sleep behaviours.

We will dig further into the subterranean life of these invertebrates to understand more about their sleep patterns.

There is only a handful of research papers on sleep in Ants. (Bees are considerably more researched). The paper we are most interested in is this one:

Polyphasic Wake-Sleep Episodes in the Fire Ant Solenopsis Invicta

The research paper covers a particular species, Solenopsis Invicta famous for its stinging ability.

Sleep in Insects

Sleep in insects is particularly interesting because insects have quite different physiology. Another problem is how to actually determine sleep in insects:

Homeostasis: The balance between sleep and awake periods, sleep deprived flies are more sleepy during the day

Alertness: Insects which are sleeping are slow to respond to external stimulus

Circadian Rhythm: Insects that live above ground are likely to have periods of increased activity and periods of rest in line with a daily cycle, insects which live underground are generally polyphasic with no discernable circadian rhythm

Getting an Ant colony

How does one acquire an ant colony to study sleep patterns? Ant hives are constructed entirely underground with only thermal venting sections placed above ground.

Drip flotation method

In fire ants, the drip floatation method takes advantage of a flood-survival adaptation of the ants to accomplish this task. The key principle is that ants are so small and light that they are naturally buoyant. They also have a waxy coating which helps repel water and allows the entire colony to stay afloat when they cling together. Combined with their ability to self organise they can effectively float an entire colony on water.

• Dig up an ant colony and place it in a large bucket
• After 24 hours the ants will reestablish the structure of the colony with brood in chambers and tunnels to the surface excavated
• Talc powder is used on the sides of the container to prevent the ants climbing the sides.
• Water is dripped slowly into the bucket
• After 4-8 hours the water level rises slowly enough the the colony has gathered on the surface, brood and queens included
• Eventually the colony will form a raft, floating on the surface which can then be transferred to an artificial nest.

Sleep Patterns

Key observation about the sleep behavior as anticipated is that because they are a subterranean species they are not affected by day/night cycles, rather sleep patterns are determined by activity in the hive.

Workers

• Average 253 sleeps per day
• Each sleep about 1 minute
• Total 4.8 hours of sleeping a day

Workers tend to sleep in one of three locations, the chamber floor, ceiling or side of chamber. Those that sleep on the chamber floor were most likely to be woken by other workers passing by. Seemingly the best place to sleep was the side of the chamber.

Queens

• Average of 92 sleeps per day
• Each sleep about 6 minutes
• Total 9.6 hours of sleeping per day

Queens exhibited two observable sleep patterns:

Dozing: antenna extended, stationary, likely to be woken by contact from a worker.

Deep sleep: antenna tucked in close, stationary, unresponsive to external stimulus. Prone to random antenna movement during deep sleep.

Delightfully the queens would synchronise their sleep patterns so that they all would sleep at the same time, and woke up at the same time. They did this by huddling together when they slept, like hounds. When one started to stir the others would wake up as well.

Conclusion

The net result of this experiment found that at any given time there was on average 80% of the work force available to work on grooming, feeding or excavating sand. Queens in this species can live for 6 years, workers only one month.

The hive is always busy (hyper active) at attending to the needs of the Queens and buffering them from environmental effects which might be detrimental. This allows the queens to maintain a high reproductive efficiency and extend their longevity.

References

More about Fire Ants

Video of a sleeping Bee

Contraptions

"Man will always find a difficult means to perform a simple task"

Today's trivia is all about a particular class of contraption or machine which attempts to complete an everyday activity in the most complicated way possible.

Known as Heath Robinson or Rube Goldberg machines after their respective authors, we will attempt to understand what these machines are, and how one might go about making one. Of course avoiding the obvious question of why one might want to do this in the first place.

Rube Goldberg: A simple pencil sharpener Full Size

Both are famous for creating cartoons depicting seemingly improbably machines. In the case of Rube Goldberg we know he authored something like 50,000 comics as a regular feature in a newspaper.

Heath Robinson: A bridge opening mechansim

Clearly the entertainment of these comics was derived both from the reader following or working out the machine, followed by the punch line of the joke being the end result; a simple action performed.

The comics are timely and sometimes political in nature being created around the time of the first world war onwards.

Rube Goldberg: The War Machine Full Size

Heath Robinson: A multi-movement bomb catcher

As a Phrase

Clearly these contraptions and ideas became incredibly popular. Being firmly rooted in public consciousness during the early 20th century.

In British English, to do a "Heath Robinson" is exactly what you might expect. To create some seemingly improbably contraption to solve a problem. The same applies in the US. Both Rube Goldberg and Heath Robinson have entries in dictionaries explaining the meaning:

accomplishing by complex means what seemingly could be done simply. A kind of Rube Goldberg contraption ... with five hundred moving parts — L. T. Grant; also : characterized by such complex means

if a machine or system is Heath Robinson, it is very complicated in a way that is funny, but not practical or effective

Competitions

Spinning out of this is of course the desire to indeed create machines that are overly complex in the tast they are trying to solve. So much so that there are a number of competitions which enthusiastic machine creators can partake in:

• Rube Goldberg
• NASA Creativity and Innovation Challenge
• Purdue University

The last is a large American university contest which is held each year hosted by Purdue University. The winning machines are those machines that most effectively combine creativity with inefficiency and complexity.

Details of the latest 2012 winner:

This year's machine had an end-of-the-world theme that incorporated music throughout the run, ranging from the "Jaws" theme to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony to the "Indiana Jones" theme.

The St. Olaf machine had 191 steps. The team completed one perfect run and one run with one human intervention.

Full Size

Mouse Trap

Interestingly and perhaps unsurprisingly the famous game "Mouse Trap" was inspired by a Rube Goldberg comic.

However even though the manufacturer manufacturer Marvin Glass (and his company, Marvin Glass and Associates) admits he was inspired by Rube, he refused to pay royalty payments. Rube, an old man by this point declined to take legal action and instead licensed the comics to another company to manufacture toys based on the ideas from which he could then collect royalties.

Popular Examples

A rather excellent contraption by Honda Video

OK Go! This Too Shall Pass Video

Great Ball Counting Machine Video

Tcl/TK Demo Detail Download

References

More Images

Recent Article

10 Amazing Machines

Evolution of Medieval Helmets

Today's trivia is all about the evolutionary development of the western medieval helmet.

Helmets have occupied a permanent role in personal defense for any professional soldier.

In this Trivia, we will attempt to examine some of the archetype helmet styles of the medieval era and explore the surrounding factors why armour changed over time.

Evolutionary Diagram

Diagram created by Dean Bashford in his book Helmets and Body Armor in Modern Warfare

This diagram is particularly interesting as it highlights the interconnected nature of the development of helmets.

Spangenhelm (apx 600-1000AD)

Attaching mail to the back of the neck (aventail) afforded increased protection

A German word for an early Medieval helmet design. "Spangen" meaning "braces" and "helm", of course "helmet".

Making this style of helmet is technically quite simple and this was its characterising feature. A helmet made of small shaped strips of metal riveted together. Sometimes cheek flaps were added, and or a nasal to protect the front of the face.

By the 6th century it was the most common helmet design in Europe and in popular use throughout the Middle East. They were used for quite some time afterwards due to the simple nature of their construction.

The Anglian Helmet: 8th Century Anglo Saxon helmet based on same design principles

Nasal Helmet (apx 1000-1200 AD)

The conical shape of the Nasal helmet offers better protection from vertical strikes

The Nasal helmet is characterised by the rather obvious protection for the front of the face, but also being made out of one piece of metal. This reinforced protection and conical shape both combined to provide increased protection which explains why it became a common design.

The development of the smithing technology required to shape a strong helmet out of one piece of steel or iron was a crucial step in the development of helmets. All subsequent helmet designs included this feature.

Helmets of most styles could be worn with a mail coif to provide protection for the neck

Great Helm (apx 1200-1300)

A dramatic change in design from earlier open faced helmets

Popularised by knights and heavy infantry of the Crusades, this helmet represents a significant change in purpose. Unlike earlier helmet designs which were more general purpose, the great helm was built for one specific job. To make sure the wearer was protected from almost anything.

This of course comes at a great compromise in visibility and ventilation.

These would have been hot to wear, hard to hear instructions and heavy for prolonged use. The eye slits reduced situational visibility dramatically to a thin horizontal strip.

Underneath the great helm the wearer would wear both a padded coif and a mail coif to protect the wearer against blunt force impact against the helmet. They may also have worn a smaller helmet which represents a precursor to the bascinet.

Reenactment of crusades style heavy infantry armor

Note: fashion of the time has dictated the flat top which was lost from earlier helmets. This disapears in later great helms in favor of the familiar conical or rounded shape.

Basinet (apx 1300-1400 AD)

Helmets of this style would have seen action in pivotal battles like Agincourt

The next major development in helmet technology was the characteristic movable visor of the bascinet. This gave the wearer options as to whether they wanted more visibility and ventilation, or more protection.

In addition to the movable visor a number of other improvements in protection can be seen over previous designs.

• The eye slits are now further away from the user’s face, trading off visibility for protection from the occasional lucky arrow or sword thrust.
• The shaping of visor is ideal for deflecting strikes and arrows from the front. Arrows would have less surface to deliver their kinetic energy through.
• The skull of the helmet is rounded or conical in shape allowing most blows to glance off.
• The eye slits are raised to deflect strikes away from the eyes.

Later example shows a change in fashion for the visor and use of a gorget to protect the neck rather than a mail coif

Sallet (apx 1400-1500 AD)

Later sallet type helmets include a fixed bevor, the front of neck protection shown here

First developed in Italy and then spreading rapidly to Germany and England, the sallet type helmet is characterised by the low sides and back of neck protection.

This helmet design was created at a time when the professional soldier would have been armed full plate armour, and expected to meet other soldiers in equal armour. Visibility, maneuverability and protection were all equally competing requirements.

Characteristic features are the shape of the back of neck protection and the visor shape. Intended to protect much of the face and worn in conjunction with a fixed or movable bevor to cover the front of neck, allowing for increased ventilation as there was no fixed connection between visor and bevor.

Plate, padding and mail would be combined together to provide high degrees of protection and mobility

Armet (apx 1500-1600 AD)

Following on from the technical developments that lead to movable visors and bevors in the sallet. The armet type builds on this further by increasing the articulation of the helmet. Characterised by fully enclosing the wearer in a contoured shape which articulates at the neck allowing a great deal of movement.

The typical armet consisted of four pieces:

• the skull
• two large hinged cheek-pieces which locked at the front over the chin
• a visor

Once closed around the wearer the plates could be locked in place by locking mechanism like a metal pin or swinging clip.

Example of an armet type helmet opened up

Example of exquisite Millanese armour including armet made for jousting full size

Another jousting armour set, most likely also Millanese

The above armour is an example of the extravagance that could be afforded by the richest. Armour with such complexity that it offers the wearer almost complete protection against the hazards of jousting which must be remember was very much a sport rather than a martial activity.

References

For those that want to go further these are some useful video based resources:

• Mike Loades: Documentary on armour
• Lindy Beige: Great Helm
• Lindy Beige: Bascinet
• Mobility Demonstration

LEGO

Today's trivia is all about LEGO and some of the interesting things people have done with it.

History

Lego History

The LEGO company was not called LEGO to start with. It was founded in the early 1930's as a carpentry business, and later moves into wooden toys, they take on the name LEGO from Leg Godt "Play well" in Danish and establish a motto of "Only the best is good enough".

In 1942 their factory producing wooden toys burned down. However they seemed to bounce back from this setback quickly. The first patent for a LEGO brick we recognize today was issued in 1958, but the company had been building a brick system before that and finally settling on a plastic style brick.

Automatic Binding Brick design around 1950

Scale of Production

LEGO Facts

There is a lot of LEGO in the world. In 2012, 45.7 billion LEGO bricks were produced in a single year at a rate of 5.2 million per hour.

The modern manufacturing process for LEGO operates on huge and almost completely automated scale.

A video detailing the entire manufacturing process

• Large silos store coloured plastic granules in huge quantities.
• The plastic is melted at 232 degrees C and injected into a mold before cooling and storing in a tub.
• Robotic vehicles travel the factory collecting the filled boxes for storage.
• LEGO kits are made up from the stored blocks (by hand? uncertain.)

There are currently around 4,200 different parts or elements in the current LEGO range.

Minifigures

Boba Fett from the Star Wars Cloud City LEGO set is one of rarest and most collectable minifigures ever created.

Minifigures are the little characters in LEGO.

• First developed in 1978 and exactly four blocks high (without a hat) they are made in a similar automatic fashion.
• LEGO designers chose the color yellow to best represent all races and ethnicities.
• An estimated 4 billion have been made – making it the world’s largest population group!

Life Hacks

Google

People understandably find LEGO rather useful, here are some of the things they've created using it:

Repairing walls

Lots of different things

Model Building

People are also rather enthusiastic about building almost anything LEGO:

The world’s tallest LEGO tower at 34.76 meters

A 1:1 Scale model of the LEGO X-Wing model Article

Creating models from science fiction games like Mechwarrior - Full Size

Castles

I don't know what this is, but its quite impressive Link Full Size

Going Further

Even more facts about LEGO

Re-Brick

CONPLAN 8888 Counter-Zombie Dominance

You know you're having a bad day when you're stuck in a camper van.

Download: CONPLAN-8888

Today’s trivia is all about a document produced by the United States Strategic Command and details a plan on how to counter a Zombie outbreak.

This is not an actual plan, but rather the output of training exercises used to train new staff in strategic contingency planning. To make the training easier they chose something popular that was in the public mind as the subject matter. Then presumably for amusement factor they ensured it was unclassified and made available for public redistribution.

Obviously it is based on popular fiction and tries to enumerate the detail around what an actual full scale Zombie outbreak might look like.

The interesting part I thought was that whilst the plan is clearly at times humorous it does gives us a view into actual strategic level contingency planning that an organisation like USSTRATCON might actually be involved in.

Mission Statement

The official seal of the United States Strategic Command

"On order, CDRUSSTRATCOM will execute global military operations to protect humankind from zombies and, if directed, eradicate zombie threats to human safety and aid civil authorities in maintaining law and order and restoring basic services during and after a zombie attack."

Define Enemy Capability

There are a number of assumptions about Zombies that the plan makes:

• They cannot be deterred or reasoned with
• No known cure; every human lost is an enemy gained
• Zombies have human hosts whose bodies will cease to function after 40 days
• Laws of Armed Combat do not apply to Zombies
• The only assumed way to effectively cause casualties to the zombie ranks by tactical force is the concentration of all firepower to the head, specifically the brain

Types of Zombies

Pathogenic Zombies - Created after a life form is infected by a virus or bacteria

Radiation Zombies - Zombie life forms created by exposure to extreme radiation

Evil Magic Zombies - The result of some occult experimentation otherwise known as evil magic

Space Zombies - Zombie life forms originating from space or created by toxic contamination via an extraterrestrial toxin

Weaponized Zombies - A Zombie deliberately created via biomechanical engineering

Symbiant-Induced Zombies - Created by the introduction of a symbiont life form into a human host

Vegetarian Zombies - From the popular game Plants vs Zombies, will attack human food sources rather than humans and thus a high threat

Chicken Zombies - Chicken Zombies pose no threat to humans and actions to counter CZ's are the responsibilities of the US Depts of Justice. An example of this can be searched up in news articles. CZ are ignored for the rest of this article.

Centers of Gravity

These are the areas where the conflict will focus.

Human Population Centres

All Zombie classes will target human population centers or create effects against human population centers that will undermine human safety, security and the delivery of basic services. VZ's will target agriculture resources that humans depend upon.

Lines of Communication

Zombies cannot drive, climb or swim (although zombies can wade into water they cannot float or swim). Zombies will utilize surface roads to reach human population centers and to increase their numbers by attacking fleeing humans.

Waterways may remain viable as long as Zombies cannot attach humans entering and leaving the waterway. LOCs are crucial as a means of humans travelling around and getting supplies to human population centers.

Portable Water Sources

Zombies do not drink water, humans do. Therefore they will target humans attempting to get water from waterways. Contamination of waterways is to be expected potentially further spreading the infection.

Critical Capabilities

These are capabilities that are critical for supporting human life and will be critical in repelling the Zombie invasion.

Medical Infrastructure - Failure to triage and separate out human casualties from those infected will lead to medical facilities becoming centres for further Zombie outbreak. Zombies within medical facilities will deny healthy humans access to medical equipment and supplies.

Law Enforcement Infrastructure - Zombies will elicit call outs from local law enforcement resulting in casualties to law enforcement personnel. Law enforcement will be vital in enforcing law and order and helping with evacuating people from Zombie infested areas. Provide security for key resources such as food, water, transit choke points etc. People fearing Zombies might raid police infrastructure to arm themselves further reducing the ability of law enforcement to keep LOCs open.

Power and Distribution Infrastructure - Required to maintain human existence. Requires significant maintenance and supervision to operate and supports LOCs and other critical capabilities. If humans are unable to maintain and operate this equipment due to Zombie outbreak then robots may need to be used instead.

Critical Requirements

Failure to establish these requirements may undermine all crucial capabilities detailed.

Effective Triage - Identifying Zombies from healthy humans and keeping them separate will be crucial for limiting the rate of infection.

Local/Tribal/State/Federal Emergency Management Integration - Coordination and synchronising plans will be critical for securing human populations.

Effective Infrastructure Security - Energy, water and food will all be required for a population to survive. Undermining law and order will reduce the ability of everyone to resist the infection.

Effective Threat Surveillance and Warning Program - Without the ability to monitor Zombie movements, they could amass and attack a population center without time to mount the appropriate defense to repel.

Conclusion

The final harrowing conclusion of plan (paraphrased):

"A zombie outbreak can affect thousands of humans in the span of minutes."

"Humans must not be allowed to "go back for" family, friends, or other personnel who cannot get away from zombies quickly enough. All humans who fall behind must be left behind."

"Healthy humans can wait out a zombie outbreak if they are prudent-nothing can be done to cure a human if they become a zombie."

"Every human that becomes a zombie increases the enemy's numbers and decreases the chances that healthy humans will survive."