It’s time for another whimsical Tuesday Turnip search wherein I type a random phrase and we see what kind of interesting factoids “turn-up.”

Today I typed in “these fish are found” unearthing the following:

Lake trout, also known as Mackinaw, are the largest trout in North America. Mackinaws have white spots on a dark background with a deep fork in their tail. As the name suggests, these fish are found in mountain lakes and are usually in deeper water.

The Pacific Barracuda is a particularly slender fish, even for a ‘cuda. These fish are found along the west coast of the U.S., particularly southern California.

[Arctic cod] These fish are found close to shore among ice floes and also offshore in depths greater than 900 m. Exploratory fishing ventures have revealed that off northern Labrador and Baffin Island, best catches from otter trawls were taken at bottom depths of 100 to 250 m and at bottom temperatures of from -1.4 to 0.6°C.

[Lionfish and Scorpionfish] These fish are found throughout the world in tropical and temperate waters, and are most commonly associated with coral reefs. These fish are closely related to Sea Robbins and Sculpins.

The clown anemonefish lives in the warmer waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. These fish are found in the Indo-Malaysian region from the Ryukyu Islands, Japan throughout southeast Asia to northwest Australia.

Flagfish are similar in body form and shape to the beautiful Florida killifish. These fish are found in very hot, salty water, typically in tidal or mangrove pools. They will handle normal seawater just fine but cannot tolerate freshwater

Hey, get your mind out of the gutter. We’re talking about actual bags here; the fun kind. Wish I could tell you where they come from, but like many things, these photos are making their way virally around the web with no contextual information attached. Anyone seen ‘em in person?

More bag-fun — after the jump!
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Have you ever driven by a billboard and thought it was talking to you? This happens to me every time I see one for Fuddruckers. But Mini Cooper is taking outdoor advertising to a new, Minority Report-ish level with their “talking” billboards. From today’s New York Times:

The boards, which usually carry typical advertising, are programmed to identify approaching Mini drivers through a coded signal from a radio chip embedded in their key fob. The messages are personal, based on questionnaires that owners filled out: “Mary, moving at the speed of justice,” if Mary is a lawyer, or “Mike, the special of the day is speed,” if Mike is a chef.

Really cool? Over the line? An accident waiting to happen?

While there’s certainly been significant progress in the fight against infectious disease around the globe, a study recently published in Neurology points out another category of disease that many developing nations are not prepared to fight - non-communicable chronic diseases, such as Parkinson’s. The study focused on Western Europe’s 5 largest countries and the 10 most populous nations worldwide and found that the number of individuals with Parkinson’s will likely grow from around 4.1 million to around 8.7 million by 2030.

The growth in chronic diseases such as Parkinson’s is one of the unfortunate byproducts of development. Economic growth and the corresponding improvements in health care and education are increasing the life expectancy of individuals in the developing world. In terms of the rise in chronic diseases, the key factor is not overall population growth but rather the number of people over age 65 and thus at risk of developing Parkinson’s and other chronic conditions. Furthermore, as income grows, so too does health care spending which, in turn, increases the duration of illness and the overall number of people with a particular disease.

The researchers explain that developing countries are likely to take a big economic hit because of the costs associated with treating a larger population with chronic illnesses. It’ll be interesting to see if governments and charitable groups begin spending more to combat these diseases.

For many of us — especially those sporting liberal arts degrees of some kind — studying Latin is a fond, if sometimes painful, memory. The same can’t be said for the language itself, unfortunately; despite my semester spent in the Latinate trenches just six years ago, I can only remember the barest bits of phrases (like the cheeky “Semper ubi sub ubi,” which translates to “Always where under where.”) For our grandparents, Latin was often a requirement. For ourselves, it was perhaps a dalliance. For the current and up-and-coming generations, according to Father Reginald Foster, one of the leading Latin scholars and the Vatican’s senior Latinist, the language is in its last throes.

Even in European schools, the language isn’t usually required. The major exception is Italy, of course, which mandates about four hours of Latin instruction per child per week. (That’s enough to be equipped to make silly puns, like the above, but that’s about it.) Important Papal announcements, like a Bishop’s appointment, have for a thousand years been written in Latin on parchment — but now those Bishops are starting to ask for translations. Father Foster believes that without Latin we miss out on important elements of history. “St Augustine thought in Latin, you can’t read his text in English, it’s like listening to Mozart through a jukebox,” he says.

Pope Benedict is concerned, naturally — but not concerned enough to restore the once-traditional Latin Mass. He has a better plan: Benedict plans to forgo his usual afternoon siestas and study Latin during that time, instead. Let’s hope the world pays attention to his Holy schedule!

I just saw a video of this newfangled pogo stick on CNN, and thought it was pretty darn incredible. Apparently, the stick gets users 5-7 feet off the ground (instead of the traditional 1 foot max vertical) because the new edition has abandoned the traditional spring system for air spring. I’m not sure exactly what that means, but the videos are pretty astounding. People seem to be able to leap over cars, and walls in a single hop, and they even seem to be free-style pogo-ing with almost skateboard-like grace. Of course, getting your legs on one might cost you a pretty penny. Prices on the site seem to be upwards of $350. Click here to see the CNN video, and here if you’re looking to purchase.

I want you all to recall 1997. Can you? Do you have an image of that year? A smell? Need some help? Okay: That was the year many were saying their farewells to Diana, Princess of Wales. For my wife, it’ll remain THE news story of the year. But for me, and many others, 1997 was more memorable because of a little something named Deep Blue.

Ah, yes. Now you’re remembering 1997 - Gary Kasparov, world chess champion is defeated by an IBM super-computer, marking the beginning of what has become the norm: in the world of man vs. machine, machines are gaining ground in a wide variety of games.

The Economist has a great article this week on A.I., describing how, when it comes to Othello and backgammon, computers now have the upper hand. Soon, Scrabble, poker and bridge will be theirs, as well. The only tough challenge remaining? Go.

Go was invented more than 2,500 years ago in China (Confucius considered it a waste of time). It is a strategic contest in which two players take turns to place stones on the intersections of a grid with 19 lines on each side. Each player tries to stake out territory and surround his opponent. The rules are simple but the play is extraordinarily complex. During a game, some stones will “die”, and some will appear to be dead but spring back to life at an inopportune moment. It is often difficult to say who is winning right until the end.

Check out the article for the rest of the scoop on how computer scientists are using new algorithms that “teach” the computer to play a large number of random games and make educated moves based in the outcome so that in the very near future, even Go will be gone.

Dr. Robert Bohannon has made a major advancement in the effort to make Americans even more unhealthy. He has figured out a way to add caffeine to donuts. I bet Bohannon never imagined he’d take on such important work when he became a molecular scientist.

It has been mentioned here before that one of our bloggers, Ransom Riggs, recently made a short film — and by short, we mean just 68 special-effects-filled little seconds short — which we happen to like quite a bit.  It’s called “Portable Living Room”, and Ransom describes it this way:

“When a young boy finds himself stuck at Grandma’s house for the weekend, there’s only one way out — his imagination.”

As it turns out, the film has just been nominated for an Independent Film Channel award, to be broadcast on the IFC channel if it wins.  To win, it needs more votes on the IFC website than the other three nominated films. So if you’ve got 68 seconds to spare, check out the film online and vote for it!

Is this the coolest movie poster ever? Yes.