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Kitchen Table Kibitzing: Cut the Mustard [1]
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Date: 2022-07-14
PARIS — Mustard runs deep in French culture. “My blood is boiling” is rendered in French by the expression “la moutarde me monte au nez,” or “the mustard is rising into my nose” — and as Bastille Day testifies, when that happens in France, the effect can be devastating. As France marked its most important national holiday on Thursday, commemorating the storming of the Bastille fortress prison in 1789 that ignited the French Revolution, the mysterious disappearance of mustard from supermarket shelves has caused, if not revolt, at least deep disquiet. Deprived of the condiment that gives edge to a steak frites, life to a grilled sausage, depth to a vinaigrette and richness to mayonnaise, France has been casting around with quiet desperation for alternatives. Horseradish, wasabi, Worcestershire sauce and even creams of Roquefort or shallots have all emerged as contenders.
The birds hammer away, yet they don’t get concussed. Scientists found that assumptions about the animals’ impact-absorbing skulls were wrong. Watching a woodpecker repeatedly smash its face into a tree, it’s hard not to wonder how its brain stays intact. For years, the prevailing theory has been that structures in and around a woodpecker’s skull absorb the shocks created during pecking. “Blogs and information panels at zoos all present this as fact — that shock absorption is occurring in woodpeckers,” said Sam Van Wassenbergh, a biologist at the University of Antwerp. Woodpeckers have even inspired the engineering of shock-absorbing materials and gear, like football helmets. But now, after analyzing high-speed footage of woodpeckers in action, Dr. Van Wassenbergh and colleagues are challenging this long-held belief. They discovered that woodpeckers are not absorbing shocks during pecking and they likely aren’t being concussed by using their heads like hammers. Their work was published in Current Biology on Thursday.
Five under-the-radar Democrats who could run for president in 2024
Biden says he plans to run for reelection in 2024, but there are some doubts given his age and his low approval numbers.
Most of the speculation on alternative Democratic candidates to Biden has been centered on Vice President Harris, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and two senators who also were in the 2020 Democratic primary, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
But those five bold-faced names are far from the only possible contenders.
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