The things you find

Oh, the things that you find when you click on links.  For instance:

• LD50 - The dose of a toxin required to kill 50 percent of a tested population.  How did I find this out?  Well, the new Fiesta Chicken Wraps from McDonalds have an ingredient I had never seen before:  Natamycin.  This ingredient is the fermented result of bacteria normally found in soil and is used as an anti-fungal agent in foods.  This anti-fungal agent has an LD50 of 450 mg/kg in animal studies.
• Bacon Number - The number of degrees of separation between Kevin Bacon and the person in question.  The idea is that Kevin Bacon has worked with so many actors that if no actor in the business is more than six acquaintances away from Kevin Bacon.  Google can help you out if you add "bacon number" in front of the actors name, but it doesn't always have a number for you.  For example, one of the leads in the television show "Beauty and the Beast" (2012) is Jay Ryan whose Bacon Number is 3:
  1. Jay Ryan worked with Kristen Kreuk in Beauty and the Beast
  2. Kristen Kreuk worked with Neve Campbell in Partition
  3. Neve Campbell worked with Kevin Bacon in Wild Things
• A zarf is a holder for a coffee cup with a handle.  While everyone is familiar with these, it originally meant these.  (Yes, you have to click the links to figure out what I am saying.)
• The other day my wife was talking about virga when I came across petrichor.  Yes, apparently the English language has a word that describes the scent of rain on dry earth.
• Lacrimal canaliculi are those little pink nodules in the corner of your eye.
• Wikipedia has a "Random Article" feature that takes you to a random page within their site.  Accessing the link a few times I got:
• List of Butterflies of Malawi
• The Old Wailuku Inn at Ulupono
• Sher-e-Bangla Cricket Stadium
• 2775 Odishaw
• Nobel Ice

Sometimes it can be quite relaxing just to click on links and see where you end up.