I was researching the Picts and got distracted by information about the Druids.  So the Wikipedia entry on Druids is great, except within the first couple of sentences, some misogynist has made a gender statement about Druids.  I don't see why this is even in the heading. 

Anyway, there are references to both male and female Druids in history.  So I edited the page.  With great links to articles and books.  And this little penis man deleted my links and put his comment about "no female druids" back in the article. 

I think this is wrong, since my research was well cited, and this guy obviously just has a problem with women.  I encourage everyone with a brain to edit the page and include druidesses in the information. 

Thank you for listening to my soap box.  I now continue on my journey of expanding historical knowledge and cleansing all incorrect, blatantly sexist, misinformation.

Around 600 B.C., Greek colonists in North Africa discovered a great treasure: Silphion, reputedly the first oral contraceptive. Silphion was an herb -- thought to be a kind of giant fennel -- that grew only in the area now known as Libya. Despite heroic efforts, it could not be cultivated. Worth its weight in silver (don't we know it!), silphion was harvested to extinction by 100 A.D.

Traditional Italian food did not include tomatoes.  Italian cuisine changed significantly with the discovery of the New World which introduced tomatoes, potatoes, bell pepper, and maize, all of which are central parts of the cuisine in modern times but were not introduced in scale until the 18th century.  Tomatoes probably came from Peru.

Catherine the Great of Russia was a minor German princess and only had very remote Russian ties in her family.  She became the famous leader of Russia after she helped depose her husband, Peter.  You've got to love strong women who depose their annoying and incompetent husbands.

Ghandi originally practiced law.  Yes, he was a lawyer.  So stop insulting lawyers.

Isabella Rossellini is the daughter of Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and the Italian director Roberto Rossellini.   

You are far more likely to be killed by a pig than a shark. 

If the sun exploded, we wouldn't know about it for 8 1/2 minutes.  So enjoy your 8 1/2 minutes worry free.

Men and women really do see differently. Men have have more cones in their retina, resulting in greater focus and depth perception. Women have better night vision, have better visual memory, and as the female retina has more rods, greater peripheral vision.  

It is a myth that parent birds will abandon a baby bird if a human touches it.  The myth seems to derive from the belief that birds can smell human scent.  Actually, birds have relatively small and simple olfactory nerves, which limit their sense of smell.  They are also unlikely to abandon their offspring, unlike a lot of people I see on Boulevard.

Gala Dali, Salvador Dali's wife and muse, was originally married to Paul Eluard, the French poet, and was also his muse.  Gala and Eluard met at a tuberculosis sanitorium in Switzerland.  Gala and Dali met when she & Eluard visited Dali with some friends in Spain.  Eluard probably regrets that visit.

Joe Kennedy had his daughter, Rosemary, lobotomized.  She was "slower" than the rest of the family and "prone to outbursts", which was apparently a hassle for Joe. The lobotomy, a new procedure at the time, reduced Rosemary to an infantile mentality that left her incontinent and staring blankly at walls for hours. Her verbal skills were reduced to unintelligible babble, and she was discarded to an institution for the rest of her life.  I don't recommend lobotomizing inconvenient family members.  Perhaps one could try an exercise regime first. 

Agnes Bojaxhiu, better known as Mother Teresa, suffered a crisis of faith many times over the years.  Some of her letters, published in "Come Be My Light," reveal that over the last fifty years of her life, she struggled with this and even stated she "felt as if God had withdrawn his presence from her and would not respond to her prayers."  She continued her work with the poor despite this.

For movie buffs, the end of Con Air with Nicholas Cage has an ending almost identical to one of his scenes near the end of Wild at Heart, a most stellar movie.  He's really good at "convict meets his 6 year old child for the first time, with a stuffed animal" scenes, which I guess is why he keeps doing them.  I love Nicholas Cage.

Che Guevara was originally a medical student.  His travels through Latin America as a student led to his revolutionary beliefs and life's work.

Clovers, as in 4 leaf clovers, are a valuable survival food, as they are high in protein, widespread, and abundant. There are also a lot of them trying to take over Natalie's tulip bed.  They are not easy to digest raw, but this can be easily fixed by juicing them or boiling them for 5-10 minutes. Dried flowerheads and seedpods can also be ground up into a nutritious flour and mixed with other foods. Dried flowerheads can also be steeped in hot water for a "healthy, tasty tea."

There are more bacteriophages on Earth than any other life-like form. These small viruses are not clearly a form of life, since when not attached to bacteria they are completely dormant. Bacteriophages attack and eat bacteria and have likely been doing so for over 3 billion years, making them a good possible option for fighting resistant diseases.  A large portion of microbial phages are thought to have been brought to the earth during its formative period by comets and asteriods from the outer solar system.  Fun fact: Russian military first aid kits have had bacteriophages in them for years.

Every single atom of every single molecule of everything around you was created inside the core of a star and then dispersed through the universe by nova and supernova explosions.

Salman Rushdie's 4th wife was the very beautiful and supposedly very dull woman on Top Chef, Padma Lakshmi.  That's a great name to have, since...

Lakshmi represents the goal of life, and is the Hindue goddess of wealth and prosperity, both material and spiritual. She is the lotus dweller, and her palm is always extended to bless people. 

Mob Not Angry At Monster, Just Disappointed

July 26, 2008 | Issue 44•30

Townsfolk gather at dusk to chastise the monster for being so destructive and inconsiderate.

CEAMURLIA, ROMANIA—Clearly frustrated by the third disheartening rampage on their town this week, a band of perturbed, torch-wielding villagers gathered at the gates of Dr. Benedikte Cojocaru's castle Monday to confront the monster that had left a trail of inappropriate destruction and chaos, in hopes of communicating how let down they all felt by his murderous actions, sources said.

"What were you thinking?" respected village elder Petar Grul said. "You've been out all night, doing God knows what, while we cower in our homes unable to sleep. Frankly, we're at the end of our rope here."

"Just—just don't say anything," Grul added after the raging creature hurled a massive chunk of masonry down from the parapet at the assembled crowd. "You go think about what you did."

The stern, no-nonsense confrontation was only the latest in a series of vexing monster-related incidents. Over the past year, similar rampages have killed 22 people and an entire flock of sheep, destroyed a flour mill, and left the townspeople wondering if the beast ever even considers their feelings at all.

A number of residents who have lost their patience with the unholy creation said they have tried being mad, but decided it is not worth the effort if the monster is just going to keep crushing the skull of every innocent blacksmith's daughter who makes the mistake of offering him a flower. According to Grul, the townspeople have "had just about enough of this business," and resolved to address the issue openly with a full and frank discussion, "no matter how painful it may be." A two-hour chase through foggy moors ensued, at which point the monster took refuge in the closest thing he had to a home, the castle of his creation.

Abandoning previous tactics of setting more specific boundaries, taking away privileges, and lighting him afire, the mob cornered the beast to unleash their chagrin.

"You may be an abomination in the eyes of God, but that doesn't give you the right to terrorize us," villager Sorin Mironescu yelled. "And don't you try to change the subject by saying you never asked to be created. We all have problems. You are a miracle of science, darn it, and it's time you started acting like one."

Should the mob fail to get through to the monster, sources said its members plan to go home, bolt their doors and windows shut, throw up their arms, and have a long talk about what to do next.

"I just think he's capable of doing so much better," said Stefan Mikrvicz, who has personally had "more than a few" run-ins with the monster. "We're not here to assign blame, but on the other hand, we do feel this situation really needs to be improved."

The monster is reportedly a hideous patchwork of human and animal parts stitched together into a rough approximation of a person, and is possessed of the strength of 10 men. It was created with limbs and organs stolen from graves and was imbued with the spark of life through a powerful magnet by crazed scientist and prominent community figure Doctor Cojocaru, who described himself as "totally exasperated" by the whole ordeal.

"Look at him," said Cojocaru, gesturing to the snarling man-thing pacing the castle's ramparts. "I made him to triumph over death itself and play God, not to sit here and watch him make bad choice after bad choice. Was it me? He's really let us all down, and I just don't know where we went wrong."

Efforts to coax the monster outside for a good talking-to, including pitchfork-waving, rock-throwing, and guilt-tripping, have thus far yielded no positive results.

"He's obviously a smart guy—he mastered the power of human speech without being taught, and that says a lot," villager Theodr Brezeanu said. "But we can't help him unless he helps himself. Right now all he seems to want to do is hang out and drown small children for no good reason."

This is not the first time Ceamurlia has had its expectations dashed by a horrific creature. In 2004, a werewolf tore apart three villagers in a dismaying bloodbath, and in 2007, a local vampire created an army of undead and filled everyone with shame.

Despite the loss of livestock, family members, and trust, many villagers continue to believe the sullen beast will someday straighten up and be more like Count Radulescu's monster, who always makes such nice finger sandwiches for their parties.

We Must Preserve The Earth's Dwindling Resources For My Five Children

By Brenda Melford
June 28, 2006 | Issue 42•26

As we move into the 21st century, it is our responsibility to think of the future of the earth—not for ourselves, but for those who will inherit what my husband and I leave behind when we're gone. If we do not join together and do what's best for this, our only planet, there may not be an environment left in which my five children, and their 25 children's 125 children, can grow up and raise large upper-middle-class families of their own.

Nothing less than the preservation of my descendents' lifestyle itself is at stake.

Imagine a world devoid of pristine wilderness for my progeny to explore on the weekends in the sport-utility-vehicles of the future, leaving my youngest son, Dylan, with nowhere to blow off steam on off-road adventures. Imagine a world in which my beautiful middle son, Connor, is denied his twice-daily half-hour hot showers because of water shortages. Picture what it would be like for my oldest boy Asher, preparing to start his first semester at Stanford, to have to go without basic amenities such as cable television, satellite radio, central air, or massage chairs, all because of the shortsighted squandering by his parents' generation of our non-renewable energy sources today.

Though it seems like a far-off nightmare, this terrible vision is all too possible. Would you want to live in a world where my five children had to endure such horrible deprivations? I know I wouldn't.

If we don't take action now, my daughters Kimmy and Jenna may not be able to blow-dry their hair for 45 minutes to an hour each morning, nor may my future sons-in-law cut their grass atop enormous, diesel-powered riding mowers. In fact, they may not even have lawns—at least not the lush, verdant kind that requires constant watering and pesticide treatment. It's conceivable that one day my five children's spacious yards may be entirely composed of synthetic Astroturf, or—God forbid—those tacky wood chips my sister in Arizona uses.

In a cruel irony, those wood chippings will get more expensive as the world's timber supply continues to shrink.

Encroaching urban sprawl has already begun to spoil the view from the porch of our beautiful new summer home on Lake Wakenaka. Sadly, the view from the bay windows of our first summer home, the one we built at our Woodland Acres property six years earlier, has already been ruined by such unchecked development. Must my children grow up in a world where only one of their parents' summer homes is surrounded by the beauty of nature? It's unthinkable, I know, but we must face facts.

This is to say nothing of the deleterious impact the destruction of our global ecosystems will have on the wildlife my family enjoys hunting. Biodiversity is crucial to another 100 years of deer-, quail-, duck-, bear-, moose-, bobcat-, and bison-shooting summer recreation for my descendents.

We must take steps immediately to devise safe, alternative energy sources that my future offspring can safely consume. If we don't develop new fuels now, there will be none left for those who issue from my loins to burn and continue to burn for all time. I don't want my 625-odd great-grandchildren to have to wait 20 or 30 precious seconds for their toilets to flush. I don't want their 3,125 children to live in a hellish society where they cannot own their own snowmobiles. And I shudder to think that my 15,625 great-great-great-grandchildren may not be able to have TVs in every room that they can leave on all day and all night. Is it our right to deny my progeny of their gargantuan RVs and motorboats, as well? Of course not.

We cannot, in good conscience, lay such a burden on tomorrow's generations of Melfords. My children are the future. And at the end of the day, isn't it family—my family—that truly matters?