Interesting Things with JC #488: "Koalas & Eucalyptus" - Koalas survive on eucalyptus which contains toxins that will poison almost all other living things. Thank you to Rachael Nelson for suggesting today’s topic!

Interesting Things with JC #487: "Belonging" is a distinct and personal experience that stems from a want to connect with others, and a need for positive esteem.

Interesting Things with JC #486: "A Few Fast Facts About Sea Otters" - The fur of the sea otter is the densest of any mammal.

Interesting Things with JC #485: "Rocky and Benihana" - Teppanyaki restaurants originated in Japan in the late 1940s and were brought to the rest of the world by one man's vision.

Ref - https://www.benihana.com/

Interesting Things with JC #484: "An Earth-Like Mars" - Paul Smith of the University of Bristol has laid out the foundation for establishing a thriving, contained ecosystem on Mars.

Ref - Smith, P. (2022). Extraterrestrial nature reserves (ETNRs). International Journal of Astrobiology, 1-39. doi:10.1017/S1473550422000398

Interesting Things with JC #483: "A Story Written by ChatGPT" - ChatGPT is a prototype of an AI chatbot made by OpenAI. It focuses on being easy to use and communicating. The chatbot is built on the GPT-3.5 architecture and uses a huge language model that it learned through reinforcement learning. This story about a woman named Alice and her flying machine was written by ChatGPT on 6 Dec 2022. This is a Royalty Free Educational/Informational recording available for fair use.

Please visit https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/ to learn more about this revolutionary breakthrough in AI development.

Interesting Things with JC #482: "Sampson the Shire Horse" was 3,359 pounds (1,524 kg) at the age of four, and is on record as the largest horse in recorded history.

Interesting Things with JC #481: "Louis vs Walcott - December 5th 1947" - American boxer Joe Louis faced Jersey Joe Walcott in New York City to defend his heavyweight crown.

Ref - https://www.thefightcity.com/joe-louis-vs-jersey-joe-walcott-i/

Interesting Things with JC #480: "Stan Munro - Toothpick World" - He combines technical blueprints, satellite imagery, building owners, and drone footage to build authentic toothpick buildings.

Interesting Things with JC #479: "Go See The World" - Explore as much of the planet as possible.

Interesting Things with JC #478: "Dragonfly Fakes Death to Avoid Coitus" - Extreme sexual conflict resolution in a dragonfly to evade male coercion.

Thank you to Rachael Nelson for suggesting today’s topic.

Ref: Khelifa, R. (2017), Faking death to avoid male coercion: extreme sexual conflict resolution in a dragonfly. Ecology, 98: 1724-1726. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.1781

Interesting Things with JC #477: "Zurich and the Museum of Nothing" - The No Show Museum in Zurich features galleries filled with empty picture frames and white rooms.

Please visit noshowmuseum.com for more information.

Interesting Things with JC #476: "When 2 Hearts Beat as 1" - When long-term, devoted partners are in close proximity, their heartbeats synchronize.

Ref: Ogolsky, B.G., et al. (2021) Spatial proximity as a behavioral marker of relationship dynamics in older adult couples. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. doi.org/10.1177/02654075211050073

Interesting Things with JC #475: "2 New Minerals Discovered in Meteorite" - The minerals were discovered within a slice of the ninth-largest meteorite ever discovered, the El Ali meteorite, which crashed in Somalia in 2020.

Ref - https://www.ualberta.ca/folio/2022/11/new-minerals-discovered-in-massive-meteorite-may-reveal-clues-to-asteroid-formation.html

Interesting Things with JC #474: "Nanorobotic Antibodies" - Professor Yanay Ofran has developed the first nanorobotic antibodies, tailored to combat cancer, now in human trials.

Interesting Things with JC #473: "The House at the Bottom of Gardner Lake" - During the winter of 1895, a family attempted to transport their home across a frozen lake, but it fell beneath the water!

Interesting Things with JC #472: "Black Olives" - Green table olives are made edible by putting them in lye, while black olives turn black by being exposed to air!

Interesting Things with JC #471: "Shrimp Hearts" - Due to the protection offered by the head over the tail, shrimp house their hearts and other vital organs in their head.

Interesting Things with JC #470: "Big Turkey!" - The largest turkey ever measured weighed 86 pounds (39kg) in London on December 12, 1989

Interesting Things with JC #469: "I-35 Little Czech Bakery" - They sell fresh Czech pastries, coffee, travel pillows, and tamales, and is a typical Texas rest stop too. A poster in the store says that each week, the Czech Stop bakes with more than 1,200 pounds of cream cheese, 9,000 pounds of flour, 750 gallons of milk, 2,400 pounds of butter, 1,300 pounds of sausage, 2,100 dozen eggs, and 2,500 pounds of American cheese.

They’re the home of Kolache (pronounced "koh-LAH-chee") and klobasnek (pronounced "klo-BAH-snik") which are Czech pastries that is wildly popular in Texas.