Month: December 2016

How do you photograph a snowflake? It’s an easy enough question, but one that throws up a host of problems. For one, how do you capture one single snowflake, without crushing or damaging it? Secondly, how do you keep it from melting long enough to get it in front of a camera lens? And even then, how on earth do you guarantee that you’ll be able to see it in any kind of detail?

Despite all those difficulties, one man not only managed to photograph a snowflake in astonishingly beautiful detail, but he did so more than 100 years ago—and went on to produce such an impressive library of snowflake images that his research is credited with establishing the theory that no two snowflakes are alike.

Wilson Alwyn “Willie” Bentley was born on a small farmstead in Jericho, Vermont, on February 9, 1865. His mother, a former schoolteacher, owned a microscope which she had used in her lessons and which Bentley—who had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge fueled by reading his mother’s entire set of encyclopedias as a child—soon became fascinated by. But alongside the fragments of stones and birds’ feathers that Bentley collected and observed through his microscope, from an early age his curiosity landed on one subject: snowflakes.

Working during the winter from a freezing cold room at the back of the family farmhouse, Bentley would collect airborne ice crystals on the microscope’s slide, and quickly work to focus on them before they began to melt or lose their shape. In the early days of his work, he simply recorded the countless different shapes and forms he saw by drawing them as best he could in a notebook. But knowing full well that these rough sketches were no substitute for the astonishing complexity that he saw under his microscope, he soon sought other ways to record what he discovered.

Bentley asked his father for a bellows camera—an early type of still camera, with a pleated, accordion-like body that could be used to alter the distance between the lens and the photographic plate—and with no photographic training himself, attached a microscope lens. What followed was a long and immensely frustrating period of trial and error, with innumerable failed attempts along the way. But finally, during a snowstorm on January 15, 1885, Bentley succeeded in taking a single perfect image. He later wrote:

The day that I developed the first negative made by this method, and found it good, I felt almost like falling on my knees beside that apparatus and worshipping it! It was the greatest moment of my life.

Bentley is now credited with taking the earliest known photograph of a single snowflake in the history of photography. He was just shy of 20 years old at the time—and he wasn’t done yet.

For more than a decade, he continued to perfect not only his photographic skills, but his snowflake-collecting technique too. Working swiftly (and mainly outside) to avoid the risk of them melting or evaporating, Bentley would collect the snowflakes on a tray, covered with a swatch of black velvet, that he would leave outside during bad weather. Individual snowflakes could then be transferred onto a pre-chilled glass microscope slide using a small wooden peg, where they could be photographed in astonishing detail. Bentley eventually amassed a library of several hundred snowflake images—and as word spread of his work, it soon attracted the attention of scientists at the nearby University of Vermont.

George Henry Perkins, a professor of natural history and the official state geologist of Vermont [PDF], persuaded Bentley to write, with his assistance, an article outlining both his method of photographing snowflakes, and his groundbreaking findings. Although initially reluctant (Bentley was an introverted character, and reportedly believed his modest home-schooling could not possibly have led to him discovering anything that wasn’t already known to science), he eventually agreed, and in May 1898 published A Study of Snow Crystals. In it, Bentley’s writing shows just how passionate he was about his subject:

A careful study of this internal structure not only reveals new and far greater elegance of form than the simple outlines exhibit, but by means of these wonderfully delicate and exquisite figures much may be learned of the history of each crystal, and the changes through which it has passed in its journey through cloudland. Was ever life history written in more dainty hieroglyphics!

Several more articles in ever more weighty publications—including Harper’s Monthly, Popular Mechanics, and even National Geographic—followed, and soon Wilson “Snowflake” Bentley’s astonishing research became known nationwide. He began giving talks and lectures on his work all over the country, and slides of his astounding snowflake photographs were sold all across America to schools and colleges, museums, and even jewelers and fashion designers looking for inspiration for their latest creations. And throughout it all, Bentley continued to work.

But not without controversy. When, in 1892, a German scientist named Gustav Hellmann asked a colleague to photograph snowflakes, the resulting flake photos were nowhere near as gorgeous or symmetrical as Bentley’s. Eventually, Hellmann accused Bentley of manipulating his photographs. According to New Scientist [PDF]:

“What is clear is that Bentley gave his white-on-white images a black background by scraping the emulsion off the negatives around the outline of each snowflake. But did he sometimes scrape away asymmetries too? Hellmann claimed he had ‘mutilated the outlines,’ and Bentley’s defense of his methods is not entirely reassuring. ‘A true scientist wishes above all to have his photographs as true to nature as possible, and if retouching will help in this respect, then it is fully justified.'”

Though their feud raged on for decades, Bentley never changed his methods of photographing snowflakes. And though he expanded his studies during warmer weather to include investigations into the structure and formation of dew, mist, and rainfall—he even proposed radical meteorological theories linking raindrop size to different storm types [PDF] and devised a way to measure the size of raindrops that involved letting them hit a tray containing a layer of sifted flour, then weighing the ball of paste each raindrop produced as it hit—Bentley’s first love always remained the same. Having continued his painstaking research, by the 1920s he had amassed a gallery of more than 5000 snowflake images, some 2400 of which were selected for publication in a book, Snow Crystals, in 1931.

Later that year, however, his work finally got the better of him: After walking six miles home during a blinding blizzard, Bentley caught pneumonia and died at the family home in Jericho on December 23, 1931. He left his extraordinary library of photomicrographs to his brother Charlie, whose daughter donated them to the Buffalo Museum of Science in New York in 1947. The entire collection has now been digitized, and is available online here.

Taco Bell has always been the least traditional of the major fast food chains, but it looks like the company is now placing a bet on a hamburger joint staple: French fries. Or, more specifically, “loaded” French fries, according to the food blog Brand Eating.

The chain is testing new Loaded Fries Supreme and Seasoned Fries at one Taco Bell location near the campus of the University of California, Irvine. This might seem like a big deal for Taco Bell devotees in the U.S., but the company already offers similar loaded fries at locations in Japan, Canada, and numerous countries in Latin America.

The loaded fries at the UC Irvine location feature all the staples of a typical Nachos Supreme, like beef, sour cream, tomatoes, and nacho cheese—just don’t expect any beans. The Seasoned Fries, on the other hand, feature a “habanero” seasoning that, according to one employee, “wasn’t all that spicy.” While word of fast food tests never used to leave their designated areas, the Taco Bell fries have already found their way to Instagram, courtesy of some sociable foodies:

The Seasoned Fries go for just $0.50 or $0.75 with cheese, while the Loaded Fries Supreme are $1 for a normal order and $2 for Loaded Fries BellGrande, which is simply a larger order. Brand Eating points out that these low prices are likely just for testing purpose, and the products won’t be that cheap if they reach the national stage. If you want to see these Loaded Fries become a mainstay nationwide, you can show your support at the testing location at 4101 Campus Drive, Irvine, California.

[h/t: Brand Eating]

Bartenders began putting cocktail names and recipes to paper centuries ago. As they soon discovered, many were using different names for the same recipes or the same name for drinks with much different ingredients. The 1913 Bartenders’ Manual, by the Bartenders Association of America, attempted to clear up some of the overlap. “In compiling this book our subject is to come as near as possible to a uniformity of names and methods of mixing and serving drinks with the view of establishing a standard to work from,” the book begins. “There is no actual code universal, either in name or formulas for mixing drinks … Our endeavor is to assemble the various names and methods of concoctions so as to prevent confusion.”

In general, the names that stuck around were the ones that were the easiest to remember. So when bartenders came up with new drinks, they’d try to make theirs memorable by giving them either frank, informative names or totally bizarre ones that no one else would possibly come up with.

Today, bartenders still use this principle when naming their original craft cocktails. Molly Wellmann, who is owner of Japp’s bar in Cincinnati, considers how her new cocktail names will be received in the future. “I believe every craft cocktail will be a classic one day,” she says. “When you make your own cocktail, you should always have a good story behind the name because 100 years from now, there’s going to be a bartender wanting to know about this one drink.”

Flipping through cocktail books from 100 to 200 years ago, it’s obvious that many bartenders did not have the same foresight. In our search through 50 cocktail books that were published between the 1820s and 1940s, we found quite a few cocktails with names that we’re glad were lost to history. (Many of these titles are available to peruse at the EUVS Digital Collection, an online library of bartending books.)

Whether it’s because tastes have changed or because the words carry completely different connotations today, the following 10 cocktails all have one thing in common: Judging by their names alone, you wouldn’t want to put them anywhere near your mouth.

1. URANIUM FIZZ

This recipe—which called for making a regular gin fizz with the addition of ginger ale—comes from Bill Kelly’s 1946 book The Roving Bartender.

2. AMMONIA AND SELTZER

A medicinal hangover cure conceived in George J. Kappeler’s 1895 book Modern American Drinks: How to Mix and Serve All Kinds of Cups and Drinks, this formula calls for mixing seltzer or plain water with the aromatic ammonia spirit (not the kitchen cleaner!), which was and still is used to prevent fainting and gastric acid.

3. GRIT COCKTAIL

A tiny drink composed of vermouth and whiskey and found in Drinks (1920) by Jacques Straub, this concoction goes down much smoother than you’d imagine. 

4. BOSOM CARESSER

Edward Spencer’s very specific recipe for fondling-in-a-glass, detailed in The Flowing Bowl (1903), consists of sherry, brandy, an egg yolk, sugar, and two grains of cayenne pepper.

5. STOMACH ESSENCE

The Flowing Bowl also contains the recipe for this tummy-clearing cocktail, which is infused with two exotic ingredients: cortex China (a bitter Chinese herb used for releasing toxins) and flores Cassia or cinnamon, which increases blood flow.

6. BEEF TEA

This straightforward drink from Harry Johnson’s Bartenders’ Manual (1900) is made from beef extract, or highly concentrated beef stock, and hot water. Other versions of this recipe call for chilled water or even raw beef. You can add sherry or brandy to the glass for an upcharge. 

7. MONKEY GLAND

This tropical recipe contains gin, orange juice, absinthe and grenadine and can be found in Café Royal Cocktail Book Coronation Edition (1937) by William J. Tarling.

8. HOT INVALID PUNCH

Made for invalids like the hungover, not of them, this hearty punch in Louis’ Mixed Drinks (1906) by Jacques Louis Muckensturm contains chicken consomme, sherry, and poached eggs. 

9. ASSES’ MILK

Probably named after the donkey instead of the body part, this cocktail in Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks (1872) by William Terrington combines aerated lemonade with half a gill (or about 2 ounces) of rum. The gill was a unit of measurement and physical vessel that was used in 14^th Century England like a modern-day jigger.

10. DIARRHEA MIXTURE

There is no way to know if this ginger-peppermint-brandy cocktail, found in Drinks (1920), was meant to resemble its namesake in the glass or cause it after you consumed it. Either way, bottom’s up!

2016 has been a tough year to get through, especially if you’re a celebrity. In the past 12 months, we’ve lost notable figures from all walks of life, including Carrie Fisher, David Bowie, Prince, Abe Vigoda, George Michael, Alan Rickman, Alan Thicke, Muhammad Ali, Anton Yelchin, and Jose Fernandez, just to name a few. But as the calendar makes its highly anticipated march toward 2017, one South Carolina man is taking an unusual step to make sure 2016 doesn’t claim the internet’s favorite 94-year-old: Betty White.

Demetrios Hrysikos of Spartanburg, South Carolina, set up a GoFundMe page to raise money so he can travel to wherever the actress is in order to ward off the malicious spirit that is 2016. “Help 2016 catch these hands if it goes anywhere near Betty White!” Hrysikos wrote. “If she’s okay with it, I will fly to where ever Betty White is and keep her safe till Jan 1, 2017.”

The odds that Betty White will want this stranger to hold vigil over her until the stroke midnight on January 1, 2017 are pretty slim, so Hrysikos will be donating the actual funds raised to the Spartanburg Little Theater in order to, “help craft new stars of stage and screen to carry [the] mantle of the legends that have left [us] this year.”

So far, the GoFundMe campaign has raised more than $3500 from 341 people in just one day. 2016 may have been designed to seemingly crush our spirits, but the collective sense of humor (and irony) of the internet can never be extinguished.

[h/t: CNBC]

It’s a crucial line in the 1990 movie Ghost, a favorite phrase of Rush Limbaugh’s dittoheads, and the reigning copy machine of the mid-20th century, but what does ditto really mean, and where did it come from?

“Ditto” as a response meant as “same here” or “what you said” has a modern, almost slangy feel to it, so many people assume that it was taken from the copy machine use. The reading is that a ditto machine makes copies, so saying ditto creates a “copy” of something that was just said. But the “what you said” use is centuries older than the machine.

It comes from Italian ditto, a dialect variation on detto, meaning “said,” the past participle of dice, “to say.” It was used in Italian as in il ditto libro, “the aforesaid book.” In English, it came to be used in the 17th century to avoid having to repeat words and phrases in accounting and commercial language. Instead of repeating something like January 29 or Newcastle upon Tyne in a list, one could just put ditto in after the first occurrence.

Ditto gradually drifted from a noun meaning “the aforesaid” or “the same” (as in a 1759 cookbook: “Parsley roots, and leaves of ditto”) to an adverb meaning “I agree with what you just said.”

The force of ditto goes beyond mere agreement though. If the Patrick Swayze character in Ghost said “I love you” and Demi Moore said “Agreed” or “I concur,” it would sound like she was agreeing only with the proposition he expressed: that he loved her. Kind of rude. What she means is not just “I agree,” but “I hereby say the same.” Ditto still carries the concept of actual saying with it. It performs an act of saying by merely pointing back to already said words.

Have you got a Big Question you’d like us to answer? If so, let us know by emailing us at bigquestions@mentalfloss.com.

If you want to get your finances in shape in 2017, a money challenge is a good place to start. Not only can tackling one serve the practical purpose of helping you save some cash, it can also teach you a thing or two about your own money habits. The idea of any financial challenge is to motivate you to take action; and once you see the progress of your actions, you’re motivated to keep going.

If you’re looking to kick off a challenge on January 1, try one of these five free ones recommended by personal finance experts.

1. THE ROCKSTAR FINANCE WEEKLY CHALLENGE

The popular personal finance site Rockstar Finance recently launched a series of weekly challenges hosted by Derek Olsen of the blog HowDoIMoney.com. Olsen lists a new challenge every Monday, inviting readers to join and share their progress via Rockstar’s online forums. The first challenge prompted readers to dig deep and come up with a meaningful financial goal, while the second one challenged them to sell something on Craigslist. Each challenge includes actionable, quantifiable steps.

2. THE CASH CONFIDENCE CHALLENGE

Stefanie O’Connell is a personal finance expert who often writes about the unique roadblocks women face when it comes to their finances—namely, the wage gap. “The crisis here isn’t competence, it’s confidence,” O’Connell tells mental_floss. “Unfortunately, the result of that lower confidence isn’t making bad choices, it’s making no choices. Which, when it comes to money, career, and our respective financial futures, holds us back from affording and enjoying all the things we really want.”

O’Connell cites a BlackRock Investor study, which found that 42 percent of women feel confident about their finances—compared to 71 percent of men. In response, she recently launched the Cash Confidence Challenge to empower women when it comes to personal finance. The challenge includes seven days of lessons, guidance, and worksheets. While it’s aimed at women, anyone can join.

“We start out by defining what it is we actually want—without putting personal contingencies, limitations, or judgments on those goals,” O’Connell says. “We’ll then break down our respective dream lifestyles into tangible, financial metrics, identifying next steps as well as available resources to help us follow through, and [create] an action plan for managing potential obstacles and mental roadblocks.”

3. A “NO SPEND” MONTH

This challenge is a little extra challenging, but that’s what makes it interesting. The goal is to see how much you can save in a month by cutting back on any expense that isn’t an absolute necessity. Some variations of the challenge focus on cutting out a specific expense in your budget, such as restaurants, movies, or impulse spending.

Aside from the practical purpose of saving money to pay down debt or put towards your goals, a “no spend” month can help you spend more mindfully. You’re forced to think twice about your habits and decisions, which can shed some light on how those habits serve you to begin with.

For accountability purposes, you could ask friends or family members to join, too, then track and share your progress with each other throughout the month.

4. SAVE $1000 IN A WEEK

Ramit Sethi, author of I Will Teach You to Be Rich, is a fan of big wins: actions that make the biggest difference to your finances. In his “Save $1000 in 1 Week” challenge, Sethi shows participants the most lucrative methods to cut back on expenses.

Participants sign up via email and are sent a new challenge every day. Challenges include saving on cable, car insurance, gym memberships, and more. Sethi gives readers the exact scripts they should use to haggle down these expenses, and the goal is to save at least $1000 in seven days.

5. THE “LIVE RICHER” CREDIT CHALLENGE

Tiffany “The Budgetnista” Aliche launched the Live Richer Challenge a few years ago, and it’s grown into a movement that includes over 200,000 women who have saved a collective $25 million. “The previous challenges were so successful that I decided to host a new LIVE RICHER Challenge every year,” Aliche writes on her blog. “The 2017 Challenge will focus on helping you to improve your credit.”

The challenge is 22 days long and is organized into three weeks. The first week will cover credit knowledge, the second will show participants how to improve credit, and the third challenge will cover credit maintenance. When you sign up, you’ll receive a starter kit via email along with weekly challenge updates.

If the holiday season has taught us anything, it’s that you can fit just about anything in a box—scarves, Power Rangers, grandma’s favorite toffee. Now, Smithsonian Magazine reports, two agricultural entrepreneurs are putting an entire two-acre farm “in a box.”

By “box,” they really mean a modified shipping container. But Brandi DeCarli and Scott Thompson promise everything you need to build a sustainable farm in one $50,000 toolkit with their new venture, Farm From a Box.

The concept originated in 2009, when DeCarli and Thompson were working on a youth center in Kisumu, Kenya. The construction called for several shipping containers to be placed around a soccer field, which housed items and services designed to further the education and health of local kids. Inspired, DeCarli and Thompson wondered if they could replicate this scheme to help communities boost their food production.

Now, one Farm From a Box prototype (known as “Adam”) can be found at a school in Sonoma County, California—and the company is set to expand into West Sacramento and Virginia next.

So what do communities get when they order up this box? It’s not seeds and shovels. As DeCarli told Smithsonian Magazine, the contents “can be narrowed down to an off-grid power system, a complete water system with a solar-powered pump and drip irrigation system, and connectivity.” There’s also a training program that comes with the container, and customers have the option to add items that are essential to their area, like a water purification system or internal cold storage to keep produce fresh.

Of course, those extras factor into Farm From a Box’s normal price range of $50,000 to $60,000. But that cost may change as DeCarli and Thompson continue to experiment with smaller models—which would be ideal for urban farms or refugee camps—in the new year.

[h/t Smithsonian Magazine]

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was a more critically and commercially successful version of the film it was “remaking”—the 1964 David Niven/Marlon Brando comedy Bedtime Story. The 1988 version starred Michael Caine as classy con man Lawrence Jamieson, and Steve Martin as the more lowbrow, American upstart huckster Freddy Benson. The two make a bet that they can con Janet Colgate (Glenne Headly) out of her money, with the loser having to leave the French Riviera. Here are 12 facts you need to know about the popular con man comedy. 

1. IT WAS ORIGINALLY MEANT FOR MICK JAGGER AND DAVID BOWIE.

The two singers, fresh off their collaboration with their “Dancing in the Street” cover, wanted to do a movie together. Jagger, who found screenwriter Dale Launer’s first produced screenplay Ruthless People (1986) to be brilliant, suggested that Launer write a script for them. The writer thought Bedtime Story, starring David Niven and Marlon Brando, would work for them. Launer, as instructed, thought up ways to allow Jagger’s character to sing in the movie without turning it into a musical. Eventually, Launer was told Jagger and Bowie wanted a “more serious” project. In 1992, Bowie expressed displeasure at not getting to do Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. “How ’bout them apples! Mick and I were a bit tweezed that we lost out on a script that could have been reasonably good,” he told Movieline.

2. AT ONE POINT, IT WAS GOING TO BE AN EDDIE MURPHY MOVIE.

Murphy had seen Bedtime Story on his uncle’s recommendation. His production company, Eddie Murphy Productions, asked Launer to re-write it if they could get the rights to the movie from Universal. It would later be revealed that everyone had mistakenly thought Universal owned the rights; it had reverted back two years earlier to co-writer and producer Stanley Shapiro. Launer and his lawyer bought the rights from him. Launer then tried to sell the film to Paramount Pictures, with Eddie Murphy attached. To Launer’s surprise, they said no. Murphy then dropped out.

3. IT COULD HAVE BEEN A MONTY PYTHON REUNION.

John Cleese claimed he was offered the role that would later go to Michael Caine, but he turned it down because filming would have taken place right after six weeks of publicity work for another movie. It was a decision he would later regret. Michael Palin read for Lawrence and was one of the finalists for the part.

It wasn’t just former Pythoners—Richard Dreyfuss and Matthew Broderick were also in the running to star.

4. STEVE MARTIN WANTED TO PLAY LAWRENCE.

Director Frank Oz gave Steve Martin the script, and Launer was told that Martin “swooned” over it and was to play David Niven’s role. Launer, however, saw him as Freddy, since Freddy was a “lout” just like Martin’s stand-up persona. To Oz’s surprise, Martin changed his mind.

5. IT WAS SHOT ENTIRELY IN FRANCE.

Scoundrels was shot, as was explained in the end credits, entirely on location in the south of France and at La Victorine Cote D’Azur Studios in Nice. Caine stayed in a St. Paul villa during shooting and later recalled with a laugh, “It’s tough duty, but someone’s got to do it, you know?”

6. THE TEASER FEATURED A SCENE THAT ISN’T IN THE MOVIE.

Frank Oz, believing he didn’t have enough footage yet to make a good trailer, shot a scene not in the movie of Caine and Martin taking a little stroll.

7. THE CREW DIDN’T LAUGH.

When Michael Caine was asked what the most important lesson he learned in making movies over the decades, he had Scoundrels in mind. “If you’re doing a comedy and the crew laughs, it’s not funny [laughs]. I did Dirty Rotten Scoundrels with Steve Martin. The crew never laughed once at anything. It’s the funniest film I ever made.”

8. CAINE WONDERED WHY THEY WERE REMAKING A FLOP.

When Caine asked Oz why they were remaking a commercial flop, Oz said there would be no point in remaking a film that had been a success. That was good enough for the actor.

9. CAINE HAS A FAVORITE SCENE.

“It’s one of those films where you’re just waiting for your favorite bits to happen,” he said. “For me, it’s when I’m hitting Steve’s knees playing Dr. Shauffhausen. (laughs) I’m laughing now thinking about it.”

10. FREDDY GETTING UP FROM HIS WHEELCHAIR WASN’T FUNNY AT FIRST.

In a test screening, the scene didn’t get many laughs, to the surprise of Frank Oz and the editors, Stephen A. Rotter and William S. Scharf. Launer then had an idea. “I suggested laying in some inspirational music, something hugely dramatic like Thus Spake Zarathustra, or Handel’s Messiah (the “Hallelujah” chorus) and they tried it, played it and it got a good solid laugh.”

11. OZ AND THE EDITORS MADE A POTENTIALLY BIG DECISION ABOUT LAWRENCE.

Launer revealed that at the end of his script, it turned out that Lawrence Jamison knew all along that Janet was The Jackal. “And he’s fallen in love with her. You think he’s fallen in love with her because she’s so guileless, so honest, so decent – and then she takes him – and you feel bad for him. But, in the end, you find out he did fall in love with her, but not because of her guilelessness, but because she was such a good con artist. I think the director and editor saw that it could work either way, so they changed it. Maybe it’s better, but it’s an editing change. It’s not much different actually.”

12. REBEL WILSON IS ATTACHED TO STAR IN A FEMALE REMAKE.

Two female scam artists, one being Wilson, will compete to con a naive tech prodigy out of his fortune.