Isegoria

Much of the information in How to Survive in the Woods is straightforward, even obvious — plan ahead, make sure someone knows where you are going, etc. — but these tidbits on berries, of all things, caught my eye:

Color test: White and yellow berries are poisonous 90% of the time, blue and black berries are good to eat 90% of the time (however, deadly nightshade berries are dark blue or black and they taste sweet, but a couple can kill you fairly quickly), and red berries are a 50/50 shot.

Aggregate berries, (bumpy ones like raspberries, blackberries, etc.), are almost 100% good to eat. The only exception to that rule is a white berry that grows only in Alaska.

Richard Gray notes that babies are not as innocent as they pretend:

Whether lying about raiding the biscuit tin or denying they broke a toy, all children try to mislead their parents at some time. Yet it now appears that babies learn to deceive from a far younger age than anyone previously suspected.

Behavioural experts have found that infants begin to lie from as young as six months. Simple fibs help to train them for more complex deceptions in later life.

Until now, psychologists had thought the developing brains were not capable of the difficult art of lying until four years old.

Following studies of more than 50 children and interviews with parents, Dr Vasudevi Reddy, of the University of Portsmouth’s psychology department, says she has identified seven categories of deception used between six months and three-years-old.

Infants quickly learnt that using tactics such as fake crying and pretend laughing could win them attention. By eight months, more difficult deceptions became apparent, such as concealing forbidden activities or trying to distract parents’ attention.

By the age of two, toddlers could use far more devious techniques, such as bluffing when threatened with a punishment.

Dr Reddy said: “Fake crying is one of the earliest forms of deception to emerge, and infants use it to get attention even though nothing is wrong. You can tell, as they will then pause while they wait to hear if their mother is responding, before crying again.

“It demonstrates they’re clearly able to distinguish that what they are doing will have an effect. This is essentially all adults do when they tell lies, except in adults it becomes more morally loaded.”

She added: “Later it becomes more sophisticated by saying, ‘I don’t care’ when threatened with a punishment — when they clearly do.”

Dr Reddy thinks children use early fibs to discover what kinds of lie work in certain situations, and also learn the negative consequences of lying too much.

I was not aware of eggs’ egg-straordinary resistance to decay:

Everyone knows that food left out for long enough will go mouldy. But according to Sir Tim Hunt, of Cancer Research UK, egg white will dry out first — and this resistance to rotting is why you do not have to put eggs in the fridge.
[...]
The reason the egg white doesn’t rot is the existence of at least three antimicrobials in it, says Sir Tim. Lysozyme will dissolve the outer coat of most bacteria, making it a potent antibiotic.

It was studies of lysozyme that gave Fleming and then Florey (who came up with penicillin) the idea of looking for antibiotics, he added.

Ovotransferrin in the egg white absorbs the iron that helps microbes exploit air and avidin absorbs biotin, an essential nutrient.

“Which is why eating too many raw eggs is not advisable, said Sir Tim, explaining that when large amounts of raw egg whites were given to rats caused severe dermatitis, loss of hair, and lack of muscular coordination.

The proof of this potent anti microbial action comes in the heating of said egg-white. As the scotch egg demonstrated, once these antimicrobials have been destroyed by cooking, the egg white is at the mercy of local microorganisms.

China finds secret tomb chamber near the famous terracotta warriors:

Historical records describing the tomb of Qin Shihuang, China’s first emperor, do not mention the room which is 30 metres (98 feet) deep.

The unopened chamber was found at the site near the old imperial capital of Xian using remote sensing technology.

One expert says it may have been built for the soul of the emperor.

More than 2,000 years old, the chamber is buried inside a pyramidal earth mound 51m (170 feet) high on top of Qin’s tomb.

It is situated near the life-size terracotta warriors and has four stair-like walls, says Duan Qingbo, a researcher with the Shaanxi Institute of Archaeology.

The Chinese authorities have not given permission to excavate the site.

It is believed that they wish to perfect archaeological techniques before probing any further, and archaeologists have had to use the sensing technology at the site since 2002.

Terra cotta, by the way, is simply Latin for baked earth.

Here’s a fun story about the terracotta army:

On September 16, 2006, a German art student, Pablo Wendel, infiltrated a Terracotta Army exhibit in a Xi’an museum and disguised himself as one of the soldiers. According to museum officials, his disguise was good enough to make it difficult for security to discern him among the statues; he was able to hide with the Terracotta Army for several minutes before being found. However, because Wendel had no malicious intentions against the historic exhibits — he merely wanted to live out his fantasy of being one of the warriors — and he had damaged none of the statues, he was let off with only an official rebuke and no serious legal consequences.