* Feijoa

Today I was at a team building event at a bowling alley with my coworkers, some of whom are also very good friends. My Russian friend A stopped on the way to get some fruits for his daughters and was kind enough to share a couple of them with us. He introduced me to a South American fruit today. He sliced the feijoa for all of us to taste and was surprised at my first reaction with my wrinkled face from the sour taste. He was right - it certainly is an acquired taste and with a second slice I learned to appreciate this delicacy with its 'sour on the outside but sweet on the inside' disposition.

Thank you, Anatoly!

Belladonna Puppy Eyes

In the Italy during the Middle Ages, what women thought to do to attract husbands was making their pupils as big as possible to have that oh-so-desirable lost and sad puppy look. To achieve that they started dropping the juice of Deadly Nightshade, also known as Belladonna, into their eyes. Belladonna is quite poisonous if ingested, it also resulted in blindness from extended use. Yikes!!

Pseudis Paradoxa

The paradoxical frog (a.k.a. Pseudis Paradoxa), is a species of hylid frog from South America. Its name refers to the very large—up to 25-cm-long—tadpole, which in turn becomes an ordinary-sized frog, only about a quarter of its former length.

World's Largest Ice Drum

Some accidents are happy accidents like the time Natalya Vlasevskaya slipped and fell on the frozen surface of Lake Baikal. The sound she heard was very unique and was reproducible. Of course, she gathered her other percussion capable friends and started beating on Lake Baikal.

Guelta d'Archei

The Guelta d’Archei is probably the most famous guelta in the Sahara and is at least 4 days’ travel from n’Djamena, the Chad capital, with a 4x4 and a few hours of trekking. Gueltas are oasis-like wetlands very typical of deserts that are formed when underground water in lowland depressions spills to the surface and creates permanent pools and reservoirs.

3Doodler

When WobbleWorks LLC launched their 3D printing pen project on Kickstarter for crowdsourcing, their goal was to raise $30,000 to manufacture a highly marketable product. By the time they were done with their crowdsourcing campaign, they had raised over $2.3 Million. 3Doodler dispenses 3mm ABS or PLA plastic as its "ink" functioning much like a 3D printer only it fits into your hands like a pen - a very thick pen. Once you get into your creative mood, the possibilities are endless with this toy (recommended for 12+ yrs).