Read Introducing The Endonym Project (chrisfinke.com)
An endonym is a name that people give to the area where they live. For example, you might live in a city that is officially named "Brooklyn Heights," but you and all of your neighbors call it "The Heights." This is an endonym. I've always wondered about how well-defined the geographic boundaries are for endonyms that aren't tied to specific locations.  For example, how far east do you have to go from Minnesota before the

A cool bit on geography and names. Can’t wait to play with it.

🔖 Shephelah | Wikipedia

Bookmarked Shephelah (Wikipedia)

The Shfela, or Shephelah, lit. "lowlands"[1] (Hebrewהַשְּפֵלָה‬, also שְׁפֵלַת יְהוּדָה‬, Shfelat Yehuda, the "Judaean foothills"), is a transitional region of soft-sloping hills in south-central Israel stretching over 10–15 km between the Judaean Mountains and the Coastal Plain. The different use of the term "Judean Plain", as either defining just the Coastal Plain segment stretching along the Judaean Mountains, or also including, or only referring to, the Shfela, often creates grave confusion.

Today the Shfela is largely rural with many farms.

The Bible assigned land in the Shfela to the tribes of Judah and Dan.

🧩 World Map Jigsaw Puzzle and Matching Poster – 200-pieces | Crocodile Creek

Played World Map Jigsaw Puzzle and Matching Poster – 200-pieces (Crocodile Creek)
Crocodile Creek's World Map 200-piece jigsaw puzzle and matching poster will delight ages 6 and up. The finished puzzle measures to be 19” wide by 13” high. The puzzle has beautiful, colorful artwork that depicts the world and animals that are indigenous to specific continents and oceans. The same image is on the poster which makes putting the puzzle together easier. When puzzle is not in use, stores easily in sturdy cardboard cylinder with rope handle. All Crocodile Creek's puzzles are printed with soy-based in and made of strong high-quality blue board ensuring that the pieces will tear or break.
Had some fun putting a puzzle together until we realized one piece was missing.

It’s a cute puzzle and the materials are really solid, particularly for a jigsaw puzzle. It would have been prettier at twice the size though.

A cute little monkey also thought that the hammerhead shark should be above the dolphin which caused some of the pieces not to fit together for a while.

I love Eat This Podcast

Many who follow my blog recently will know that I’ve been binge listening to Jeremy Cherfas‘ wonderful podcast series: Eat This Podcast.

I’m now so many wonderful episodes in, that it was far past time to give something back to Jeremy for the hours of work he’s put in to give me so much entertainment, enjoyment, and even knowledge. So I just made a pledge to support him on Patreon.

If you haven’t been paying attention, Eat This Podcast is a fantastic series on food, but it it uses the “foods we eat to examine and shed light on the lives we lead, from authenticity to zoology”. Food becomes his “vehicle to explore the byways of taste, economics and trade, culture, science, history, archaeology, geography and just about anything else.”

It’s unlike much of anything I’ve seen or followed in the food space for some time. As someone who is a fan of the science of food and fantastic writers like Harold McGee, Herve This, Alton Brown, Tom Standage, Michael Pollan, Nathan Myhrvold, Maxime Bilet, Matt Gross, and Michael Ruhlman (to name only a few), Eat This Podcast is now a must listen for me.

Not only are the episodes always interesting and unique, they’re phenomenally well researched and produced. You’d think he had a massive staff and production support at the level of a news organization like NPR. By way of mentioning NPR, I wanted to highlight the thought, care, and skill he puts into not only the stunning audio quality, but into the selection of underlying photos, musical bumpers, and the links to additional resources he finds along the way.

And if my recommendation isn’t enough, then perhaps knowing that this one person effort has been nominated for the James Beard Award in both 2015 and 2016 may tip the scales?

If you haven’t listened to any of them yet, I highly recommend you take a peek at what he has to offer. You can subscribe, download, and listen to them all for free. If you’re so inclined, I hope you’ll follow my lead and make a pledge to support his work on Patreon as well.

Subscription information:

Bill Davenhall at TEDMED 2009 on Geomedicine: How Your Environment May Affect Your Health

Watched TEDMED 2009 on Geomedicine: How Your Environment May Affect Your Health by Bill Davenhall from TEDMED
Does where you live have an impact on your overhall health? Bill Davenhall believes that the location of our homes is critical to our medical history.
This is a great thing to think about the next time your doctor asks for your medical history. Perhaps with more data and a better visualization of it, it may bring home the messages of pollution and global warming.