Today Is... 📆

#270

:wave: Good morning! :cloud_with_rain:

It’s Friday, 15 January 2021 (W2/D15)

Today is:

:star: Hat Day :tophat: - Again, no definitive idea of who or when this unofficial holiday started, but it has become a fairly well supported event over the past few years (at least in the US) and is definitely a wholesome and harmless enough way to celebrate human headwear. Wear a hat to work, school, the shops, or just around the house all day today. Because why not?

:star: Pothole Day :hole: - Another day that deserves more widespread coverage. Both the UK and the States acknowledge today as Pothole Day - a day aimed at highlighting the pothole plight of the average road user to local councils and municipalities. With the size and age of some of the potholes dongas in my neighbourhood I’m considering taking up pothole activism too. One creative (but illegal!!) solution worth copying here perhaps: spray paint a penis around all the offending holes with bright yellow or neon green spray paint. Bonus points if it’s glow-in-the-dark paint :grinning:

Have a flippen fine Friday friendos! :+1:

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#271

Your old posts being merged into this thread confused me greatly! Interesting to see how Discourse handles that, though


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#272

Just think how I felt having them moved from the threadtopickiller I started :sweat_smile:

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#273

Is that what was happening? I was confused af

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#274

Today is
 Wednesday my dudes.

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#275

:wave: Good morning! :sun_behind_small_cloud:

It’s Wednesday, 3 March 2021 (W9/D62/303 rem)

Today is: :star: World Wildlife Day

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The world is full of amazing creatures. From the birds of the air to the majestic whales of the sea, wildlife abounds in the most unusual and unexpected places.

World Wildlife Day is a day to remind us of our responsibilities to our world and the lifeforms we share it with.

Wildlife isn’t just something that we passively observe; it’s part of our world, and something we need to care for. World Wildlife Day is your chance to celebrate all wildlife, from the smallest insect to blue whales. No matter what you love about wildlife, you can spend the day taking action to help protect it.

This day is all about raising awareness of wild flora and fauna across the world. Whether you love animals, you’re passionate about plants, or you’re concerned about climate change, it’s the day that you can use to educate yourself or others. You can celebrate the incredible biodiversity across the world and perhaps get out there to explore the huge range of flora and fauna the world has to offer. Celebrating World Wildlife Day is a must for anyone who loves our planet.

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On March 3rd, 1973 the United Nations General Assembly took a stand to protect Endangered Species throughout the world. Whether plant or animal, the importance of these species in every area of human life, from culinary to medical, could not be understated. At this time hundreds of endangered species were being threatened every year, and extinction was at a staggeringly high rate. CITES was put into place (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) to ensure that the world did not continue to hemorrhage species that would never be seen from again.

On December 20th, 2013 another step was taken to help spread awareness of the fragility of endangered species in the world. At its 68th session, the UN declared that each year World Wildlife Day would be dedicated to a new purpose and idea to help keep people abreast of the changing nature of our world, and the treasures we stand to lose from the animal and plant kingdom if we don’t take care.

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World Wildlife Day will be celebrated in 2021 under the theme “Forests and Livelihoods: Sustaining People and Planet”, as a way to highlight the central role of forests, forest species and ecosystems services in sustaining the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people globally, and particularly of Indigenous and local communities with historic ties to forested and forest-adjacent areas.

Find out more about World Wildlife Day 2021 and how you and yours can celebrate it at https://www.wildlifeday.org/

Have a wild Wednesday! :frog::+1:

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The 10,000 Best Forum Posts on the Internet Right Now! (Part 1)
#276

Yeah, sorry about the confusion all. I honestly didn’t think that the posts I moved would all get dumped at the end of the topic. Thought they’d slot into the correct places by date order. Live and learn.

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#277

Exactly! Now we all know :smile:

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#278
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#279

:wave: Good morning! :sun_behind_small_cloud:

It’s Thursday, 4 March 2021 (W9/D63/302 rem)

Today is: :star: World Obesity Day

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Back-to-back “World Days” for you. We go from yesterday’s focus on wildlife to today’s focus on the result of humans enjoying the wild life: obesity.

Some hard facts:

  • 800 million people around the world are living with obesity.
  • The medical consequences of dealing with obesity will cost in excess of $1-trillion by 2025
  • People living with obesity are twice as likely to be hospitalized if tested positive for COVID-19.
  • Childhood obesity is expected to increase by 60% over the next decade, reaching 250 million by 2030.
  • Worldwide obesity has nearly tripled since 1975 with more than 1.9 billion adults considered overweight and 650 million of these adults considered obese.
  • In South Africa, 70% of women, 31% of men, and 13% of children are considered overweight or obese.
  • The World Health Organisation states that obesity and being overweight are linked to significantly more deaths worldwide than being underweight.
  • Being overweight/obesity is a serious medical condition that can lead to complications such as high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, heart disease, diabetes, high blood cholesterol, cancers, and sleep disorders.

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I’m glad that a number of MEWbs have been making an effort in recent months to address their weight and general levels of activity. But we could all do more in terms of not only our own health but also by helping to spread awareness and helping others - especially children and the elderly - to overcome the challenges they may be having with obesity.

World Obesity Day is about coming together and calling upon everybody to acknowledge that obesity is a disease. This is a call on broader society, governments, policymakers, food industries, healthcare professionals, and corporations to play their part in combating this crisis and not contribute to it.

INCREASE AWARENESS
Obesity is a disease. We are raising awareness and improving understanding of its root causes and the actions needed to address them.

ENCOURAGE ADVOCACY
Changing the way obesity is addressed across society, we’re encouraging people to become advocates, standing up and calling for change.

IMPROVE POLICIES
Creating a healthy environment that prioritises obesity as a health issue, we’re working to change policy to build the right support systems for the future.

SHARE EXPERIENCES
Stronger together, we’re creating platforms to share experiences, inspiring and uniting a global community to work towards our common goal.

Obesity is a disease and must be treated as one. We all have a role to play in supporting and advocating for people living with obesity. We must recognise that every body matters if we are to build a healthier world for everybody.

Monitor and track not just your weight, but your overall Body Mass Index (BMI) which is the measure used to establish where you are on the Obesity Scale.

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There are a large number of BMI calculators and tools available. Here’s a simple, but seemingly fairly accurate, one that allows metric measures, and also factors in age and gender: BMI Calculator

Have a healthy and energised Thursday! :+1:

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#280

More stats


Countries where more than half of adults are overweight have recorded Covid-19 mortality rates in excess of 10 times those in other nations.

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#281

:wave: Good morning! :sunny:

It’s Friday, 5 March 2021 (W9/D64/301 rem)

Today is: :star: Absinthe Day

After yesterday’s somber warnings to take care of our health and watch out weight, let’s lighten the mood and go chase the green fairy like Hemingway and Van Gogh today!

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Celebrated by artists and aristocrats alike for centuries, absinthe has long been the drink of choice for those creative types who dabble in the artistic world. Also known as The Green Goddess, The Green Lady, or The Green Fairy, this controversial drink used to be a favourite among artists and writers due to its supposed ability to help with their creative flow.

Absinthe Day aims to bring awareness and celebration to the strong alcoholic drink by observing its history and legacy, as well as encouraging adults to enjoy a couple of sips of its strong green charm.

Absinthe was banned in many countries after a moral panic caused the belief that it was absinthe, rather than alcoholism or syphilis, that was sending both Bohemians and ordinary working folk mad. It is precisely this ban that makes today Absinthe Day, for it was on this day in 2007 that absinthe went back on legal sale in the USA since its 1912 ban.

The key ingredient in absinthe is wormwood. Thujone, a component of wormwood, is purported to have psychotropic properties. In extreme quantities there is research to suggest that thujone could theoretically cause delirium, but in order to consume that much of it, you would be long dead from alcohol poisoning. And very little thujone survives the distillation process.

Despite consumers wanting it to be so, there really are no hallucinogenic properties in absinthe. The hallucination claims more likely arose from the fact that absinthe has an alcohol content of between 55 – 70%, (110 – 140 proof), and during the late 19th and early 20th century, was occasionally chased with a puff of opium.

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It’s moniker, The Green Fairy (La FĂ©e Verte), is attributed to its verdant colour and the bohemian fantasy associated with it. The colour comes from chlorophyll, the green plant pigment, in the herbs that make up the liquor. Absinthe, unadulterated by synthetic colourants, will have a gold-green hue, more chartreuse than emerald. Gradually, the chlorophyll will break down as light damages the pigment in the fluid, and it will start to turn a more amber colour. The French call it feuille morte, a rather poetic term that translates to fallen leaves.

Part of the alluring appeal of absinthe is how you drink it. It has a ritualistic component that has been described as ‘sensual’.

This classic method is known as louching (pronounced looshing). This involves putting a small measure of the absinthe at the bottom of a reservoir glass, then placing a flat, slotted spoon over the rim, with a cube of sugar on top. Iced water is then slowly poured over the sugar, crumbling it. As the water dilutes the alcohol solution, the essential oils from the herbs precipitate out and the emulsion turns opaque. Historical absinthe labels recommended a ratio of about 150ml of water around 30ml of absinthe, making a tempered drink that has a reduced alcohol volume equivalent to a glass of wine.

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Or, if you are feeling brave, you can try Ernest Hemingway’s version, a cocktail that replaces the water with chilled champagne. It’s called Death in the Afternoon, and that might have something to do with his recommending three to five of these be consumed.

“Pour one jigger absinthe into a Champagne glass. Add iced Champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness. Drink three to five of these slowly.”

(If you do go the full Hemingway and drop five absinthe cocktails, I strongly recommend that you do not go anywhere near any form of keyboard for the rest of the day!)

If you’re interested in a local absinthe, check out Durban-based Distillery 301’s Ancestors Absinthe. Made in the traditional French style, but using African wormwood, and flavoured with Impepho.

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https://www.distillery031.com/our-spiritsgin/absinthe/

It’s available online from Distillery 301, or a number of other local online stores.

It’s Friday! Make it great, but do it responsibly! :+1:

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#282

Too bad no one can buy any today :expressionless:

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#283

We’re on Level One baby!!

All of the current restrictions on alcohol sales are lifted, and normal trade will be allowed – except for sales during curfew hours, which won’t be allowed.

Buy South Africa!

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#284

I think he’s referring to the fact that proper Absinthe, ie. hallucinogenic Absinthe, is no longer available for legal purchase.

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#285

Nah. That’s all “1900s fake news”.

The research team suggests that the most likely cause of absinthism, as the collective symptoms are called, is that its victims simply drank so much that they became flat-out drunk.

“The paper refutes step-by-step the many lies and myths surrounding absinthe,” notes biochemist Elizabeth Waters, research manager at the Australian Wine Research Institute, in Urrbrae, and an associate editor of the Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry. “Modern absinthes are considered safe, but the perception still exists that vintage absinthes contained much higher levels of thujone. This led to the supposition that vintage absinthes were psychoactive, which was the basis for the drink’s appeal.” Lachenmeier and coworkers’ research “disproves the hypothesis that there is a difference between vintage and modern absinthes,” Waters says.

https://cen.acs.org/articles/86/i18/Absinthe-Myths-Finally-Laid-Rest.html

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#286

NO!

Just no. Bad experiences. So, no!

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#287

And now the bad memories have returned

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#288

While I note the interesting information you present, I will continue to tell people that it used to hallucinogenic, as it’s a much cooler story. I shall preface it with “I read on the internet” so as to cover myself, should I have to defend myself in the court of law.

In short, @GregRedd:

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#289

When did that happen?

I missed the family meeting


No, he was right. I thought we were still in advanced level 3
 But there are definitely good absinthe and not good absinthe. I’ve had a few kinds in my life, but only a small swig of some top shelf stuff out of a flask, obviously not taken the correct way.

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