Some random stuff:

* Learned the word "Frosttrocknis" this morning. I knew its English counterpart (frost-drought, which is when a plant gets somewhat dessicated because it's trying to photosynthesize - and thus, losing water - but can't replace that water because the soil water is frozen).

I like the old German scientific terms. There are a lot of them because at least some branches of science (ecology/natural history/physical geography seems to be one) that a lot of the early work was done by Germans. (Time was when, if you were working on a degree in the sciences, you were expected to learn at least "reading" German - that is, so you could more or less read a paper in your field in German if you had to.Both my parents did Reading German for their Ph.D.s so it was not SO very long ago (the 1960s). By the time I made the scene, everyone was like, "You learned French in high school? Okay, that's cool, language requirement met." Though I admit if I had more time and energy and brainspace, I'd like to learn both German and Latin)

I will admit to being slightly proud of my French ("In the world of the blind, the one-eyed man is king" - not so many people here learn any language other than English, any more, it seems) and make a point of giving the original French terminology ("pouvoir Hydrogene") for pH (And yes, the convention of capitalizing nouns in French is why pH is written as pH and it's a pet peeve of mine when someone who should know better writes it as Ph.) Apparently some of the early chemistry work was done by French people.

* I dreamed last night that we got so much rain from Bill (we are going to get the remnants of TS Bill later today and tomorrow) they closed campus. They won't, actually - all they'll do is put more buckets out for the leaks and beg our indulgence for students who might be absent because they can't safely get here. But yeah. A little concerned about the heavy rain. Really hoping I don't wind up having to sack out on my office floor tonight because all the roads home are flooded/closed (several of the roads around campus are experiencing construction. Yeah, great.)

Another thing I learned this week: "Brown ocean effect" - when something like a tropical storm or tropical depression manages to hold together over land because the soil is so water saturated (that's the "brown ocean") that the storm can continue to draw moisture from the soil and keep going.

* Driving in this morning, the announcer on Sirius Symphony declared the next piece was Brecht's "Lost Instars" and I was like, "Brecht wrote a piece about insect development?" (an instar is a stage of insect development. A lost instar would mean, I suppose, a species that skipped over an instar other species related to it had).

No. It turns out it's Lost IN THE Stars, and the person was pronouncing sloppily. But now I kind of wish some composer had written a piece about insect development. Even better if it were a song with words, like Lost in the Stars apparently is (they were just playing the instrumental version). ]

(Wasn't someone, somewhere, working on an opera based on Kafka's "Metamorphosis"? If there was ever a situation where a song about lost instars would fit....)

* There was a teaser (goodness, how I hate how EVERYTHING takes on an aura of clickbait in our world now) on the morning news: "Is chocolate bad for your heart?" and I went kind of foamy, in the "NO DON'T TELL ME THAT DON'T TAKE AWAY THE ONE DIETARY INDULGENCE I HAVE LEFT."

Guess what? The answer to "Is chocolate bad for your heart" is "No." (I would note: "STILL no." There have been studies out for a few years suggesting moderate chocolate consumption is good for the cardiovascular system because flavinoids.) But this was reporting a supposedly-new study out of Scotland.

But gosh darn I hate how health reporting is done now, and I hate the whole "grab 'em" style of headlines.

I've taken to putting a small handful (well, okay: some days a generous handful) of chocolate chips (the 60% cacao, bittersweet kind) in my morning oatmeal before microwaving it. I find that it makes me happier in the morning and also less likely to indulge in something not-so-healthy later on in the day. I think it's the "starting the day off with a treat" mentality that helps me.

Also, I've noticed that since I've done this, my blood pressure has been a couple points lower than it was. Could be coincidental, but supposedly one of the good effects of chocolate is that it relaxes the blood vessels, so.

* Because Facepalm images are so useful, and because I love Picard facepalms (and oh, there are so many), I am happy to share a new .gif image

This is from Picard Facepalm.com