The Bonfire: Come hang out!

[Owena al'Saturni]

Feed them to their children and watch what happens?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-NWYh94iRQ

 

[Elyss Koh'inor]

I wonder what happened first - did somebody toss coffee beans into hot water and then notice that the effects could be improved by grinding them, or did somebody crush coffee beans and then subsequently decide that putting the product into hot water would improve it?

And if it's the latter, what did they do with the grounds? Eat them? Snort them? Feed them to their children and watch what happens?

Though I don't know how true it is, one of the tales of how coffee was discovered is that a goat herder noticed his goats were very energetic after eating certain berry-like things on a bush. Turns out they were eating coffee beans, and I guess it was all trial and error after that.

 

[Seryse ni Cousland]

Wikipedia mentions both the goat-herding story and and account of Sheikh Omar. He was exiled Mocha, Yemen, and was starving in a cave. He ate some berries - but they were bitter. He tried roasting them to make them taste better, and they got crunchy. He boiled them to make them soft.... Coffee. He was apparently made a Saint after his discovery.

 

[Alyccea Nymaessene]

:rofl Makes perfect sense!

 

[Inanna Landred]

I always found it amazing how our entire civilisation seems to be based on a series of random discoveries. And how come no other animals have evolved like this? Seems so.. random

 

[Kveldolf Tikvah]

Walking through life with horse blinders.

 

[Relli Kaross]

It feels like I'm in the right place .................................... But I my greatest skill in life is getting lost, so who knows?

 

[Ashlyn Sindal]

I always found it amazing how our entire civilisation seems to be based on a series of random discoveries. And how come no other animals have evolved like this? Seems so.. random

Some animals do seem to have made random discoveries! Chimps get drunk off rotting fruit (apparently intentionally), for example, and crows in urban areas have been observed dropping nuts on well-traveled streets, waiting for cars to run over them and break the shells. and then swooping down to grab the meat before more cars come. It's pretty cool.

The discovery I always wonder about is soap. I can see how someone could have accidentally come across lye from leaving wood ash in water, but what on earth possessed someone to mix this caustic liquid with fat, let it sit, and then try rubbing it on their skin? :scratch

 

[Seryse ni Cousland]

That... Is a very good question. :arch

 

[Roheryn ni Galghandhrei t'al'Djinn]

That's a very good question... although I know that it cannot be correct, Jean M. Auel came up with a pretty logical explanation in her Earth's Children series.

 

[Cahalan Sothron]

It feels like I'm in the right place .................................... But I my greatest skill in life is getting lost, so who knows?

Definitely in the right place. Here you go!

Spoiler

 

[Inanna Landred]

Some animals do seem to have made random discoveries!

Oh I know Ashlyn, but I was more thinking along the lines of progressing beyond the discovery of fire. Some birds are incredibly adept at solving puzzles and show amazing intelligence like throwing nuts on roads for cars to drive over them to crack them and things like that, but I've yet to hear of any other species outside our own to come up with a system to grown their own nut growing trees or build some storage units (although it could be argued the squirrels have got that one pegged).

And I definitely second that motion Cahalan: we can never have too many book lovers around here, they're good people to hang with

 

[Kveldolf Tikvah]

Definitely in the right place. Here you go!

Spoiler

We also need graham crackers and chocolate!

 

[Ace Wolfblood]

I like chocolate!

 

[Satrim Kha'os]

Who cares if it's chocolate, it's all food.

 

[Shaerlyn Storna]

Wikipedia mentions both the goat-herding story and and account of Sheikh Omar. He was exiled Mocha, Yemen, and was starving in a cave. He ate some berries - but they were bitter. He tried roasting them to make them taste better, and they got crunchy. He boiled them to make them soft.... Coffee. He was apparently made a Saint after his discovery.

I have been petitioning this saint for years without knowing it. Nice to know his name- now I can invoke it when waiting for my cuppa.

Some animals do seem to have made random discoveries! Chimps get drunk off rotting fruit (apparently intentionally), for example, and crows in urban areas have been observed dropping nuts on well-traveled streets, waiting for cars to run over them and break the shells. and then swooping down to grab the meat before more cars come. It's pretty cool.

The discovery I always wonder about is soap. I can see how someone could have accidentally come across lye from leaving wood ash in water, but what on earth possessed someone to mix this caustic liquid with fat, let it sit, and then try rubbing it on their skin? :scratch

That's awesome!

The discovery my dad wonders about (and now I do too) is olives. Who was the first one who thought, I'll take something inedible, soak it in poison, and then see how it tastes?


PS- HUGE Smores aficionado. Last time I was near any sort of campfire, I brought along several kinds of cookies (plus graham crackers for traditionalists), several kinds of chocolate, and a couple kinds of marshmallows... #bliss

 

[Roheryn ni Galghandhrei t'al'Djinn]

Shaer, I bring the firewood, you bring the s'more stuff?

 

[Ashara Koh'inor]

Did someone say S'mores!?

 

[Shaerlyn Storna]

Roh, you're on! Not to be unnecessarily modest or anything, but I am something of a Smores genius.

 

[Theolyn Maryash]

I'll... bring a chair? :P