From Wikipedia:
A
pizza farm is an educational visitor attraction consisting of a small
farm on a circular region of land partitioned into plots shaped like
pizza wedges. The farm's segments produce ingredients that can be used in pizza, such as
wheat for the crust,
tomatoes or
herbs,
pork for
pepperoni,
dairy cows for
cheese, and even trees for pizza oven
firewood. Certain farms may even have access to coal or natural gas deposits that can be used as alternative pizza oven heating fuels. Many of the newer pizza farms are experimenting with
alternative energy, such as installing
wind turbines in the fields, to be more green. According to a 2005 article in USA Today, there are several such farms in the United States.
No, not Geronimo the Apache, not Geronimo Stilton, the mouse reporter, not Cesar Geronimo, outfielder for the Big Red Machine in the 70's, and not Sarah Geronimo, the cute young Filipina actress. Geronimo as in, "Geronimo!" Ever wonder why people say that when jumping off things?
According to Wikipedia,
"Geronimo!" is believed to date from 1940, when an Army private was testing out a new invention called the parachute. Private Aubrey Eberhardt was scheduled to take a "mass jump" with the rest of his platoon, and, as you might expect, they were a little nervous about it.
To calm their nerves, the Army boys took in a movie--a western, in fact, which people now figure had to have been the 1939 film
Geronimo with Andy Devine and
Lone Ranger star
Chief Thundercloud in the title role.
On the way back to barracks, Eberhardt said he expected the jump would be no different from usual. The others taunted him, saying that he would be too scared to remember his name. Eberhardt retorted, "All right, dammit! I tell you jokers what I'm gonna do! To prove to you that I'm not scared out of my wits when I jump, I'm gonna yell Geronimo loud as hell when I go out that door tomorrow!" Eberhardt kept his promise and the cry was gradually adopted by the other members of his platoon.
The expression stuck, and by 1941 the 501st Parachute Infantry Battalion had added the word "Geronimo" to its insignia.
By then the coverage of the paratroopers exploits during the war had made the cry "Geronimo" known to the wider public, and its use spread outside the military and air force.
Okay. I do a lot of poking around on
Wikipedia, and like many people, I easily (and often) fall down the rabbit hole of hyperlinks, clicking from one fascinating subject to another. A few weeks back I thought it would be fun to start an entire blog of wildly-interesting facts found on Wikipedia, and today's find finally spurred me to action. But rather than start a
new blog, I realized, why not post my discoveries on the perfectly good blog I already have?
So today begins "Found on Wikipedia," a feature that will probably be more regular than I would like, as the time I spend surfing Wikipedia always--
always--takes away from time I should be writing. Still, stuff this good has to be shared.
The South-Pointing Chariot
The South Pointing Chariot is widely regarded as one of the most complex geared mechanisms of the ancient Chinese civilization, and was continually used throughout the medieval period as well. According to legends it was supposedly invented sometime around 2600 BC in China by the mythical Yellow Emperor, yet the first valid historical version was created by Ma Jun (c. 200–265 AD) of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms. The chariot is a two-wheeled vehicle upon which is a pointing figure connected to the wheels by means of differential gearing. Through careful selection of wheel size, track and gear ratios, the figure atop the chariot will always point in the same direction, hence acting as a non-magnetic compass vehicle. Throughout history, many Chinese historical texts have mentioned the South Pointing Chariot, while some described in full detail the inner components and workings of the device.
Read more about
The South-Pointing Chariot here...and good luck getting anything done today.
