things i learned

Not new but new to me; interesting never less. From Smithsonian Mag:

Archaeologists dug the beads up in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Now, a new study published in the journal American Antiquity asserts that the glass objects are among the oldest European-made items ever discovered in North America.

Per the paper, Michael Kunz of the University of Alaska Museum of the North and Robin Mills of the Bureau of Land Management studied ten glass beads found at three sites along Alaska’s Brooks Range. The researchers used mass spectrometry carbon-dating to analyze trace amounts of twine discovered alongside three of the beads and date the artifacts’ creation to between roughly 1397 and 1488.

The beads provide evidence for overland trade networks reaching Alaska from the East (Siberia).

I’ve never been into truffle infused flavor and I suddenly feel very justified in this.

There are no white and black winter truffles out of season. They cannot be frozen, cooked, sterilized, packaged, or stored. If you had a dish with an intense truffle flavor out of season - it was most definitely a scam as it is impossible to serve those truffles out of season.

This is from Matt Babich at Taste Atlas. The ingredient used to make most truffle flavoring is a peturoleum derivative. See also cinnamon.

Since 1890, there have been 27 documented humans killed by mountain lions in North America. Cows, by comparison, kill about 20 people each year.

From Craig Childs at The Last Word on Nothing via The Browser.

Or at least make sure there is really good ventilation.

According to a study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, “almost 13% of current childhood asthma in the US is attributable to gas stove use.”

One of the ideas that I think is underrated is the impact of clean air and clean water. It seems like every study I see points in the same direction.