Birds and 1943 MREs
I started my journey through the Internet’s river styx by going to Wikipedia and clicking “random article”. I was sent to an article about the Indigo-Capped hummingbird. It lives only in Colombia and I’ll never see one in my life.
Look at that, least concerned! Good for this bird.
I clicked a random link at the bottom of the Wikipedia page and I was directed to an article about the IUCN Red List. This is the conservation list that categories species based on their conservation status. I scrolled straight to the extinct species.
The most interesting part of this article is of course the mass extinctions section. I click on it. Now this exercise only served to remind me of my own mortality, and just how fragile the Earth is. At any moment an asteroid could appear from deep space and annihilate everything we know and love. Humbling, isn’t it?
I was bored with Wikipedia so I decided to type “Zeus” into Google and click “I’m Feeling Lucky”. Low and behold I was taken to another Wikipedia page. I decided to click on an external link and followed it into a whole page dedicated to Zeus and the various stories. The website was maicar.com and I read some stories I already knew, like Zeus casting Hephaestus out of Olympus, and some I didn’t know like the origin of the horned Cyprian Centaurs. Zeus apparently chased Aphrodite, but could not catch her, and dropped his seed on the ground and thus formed the Cyprian Centaurs.
Zeus is fascinating, but I wanted to experience some websites a little more 2018 and less 326 B.C. so I decided to see what YouTube had to offer me. Now my preferences are set in YouTube because of my browsing history I clicked on a new video by one of the most interesting YouTubers I subscribe to, Steve1986MREInfo. Steve’s whole gimmick is that he tries old ration meals from various armies around the world. This video for example he was eating a 1943 AAF Parachute Ration Survival MRE. These are legit never opened MREs from 1943 and the look of the food confirms that. The craziest thing about Steve’s content is that he is still alive from eating 70-year-old biscuits and chocolate.
Next I went to Amazon to find deals. I clicked on a link to “Fun(ctional) gift ideas” and was very tempted to purchase a $10 waffle maker. This entire excapade in my digital adventure was dangerous. Somehow Amazon found a way to put a $30 notebook into a deals section, and honestly I’m just impressed. The grid layout of the products allows my eyes to skim through the prices and brief descriptions without much hassle.
The internet has allowed us a service that tries to ensure we are never bored. I find that if you look hard enough you can always find something to entertain and pass the time. Thirty minutes on the internet flew by and felt like nothing.
