Passionately Curious

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Today is Albert Einstein’s birthday and I found a great article on Mental Floss detailing some interesting facts about the man.

From Mental Floss:

In 1999, Albert Einstein was named TIME’s Person of the Century. The father of special and general relativity, Einstein’s theories introduced concepts that would help make dozens of modern technologies possible. “I have no special talents,” Einstein once said, “I am only passionately curious.” Here are some facts about the physicist who gave us wild hair and E=MC^2.

When Albert Einstein was born, his misshapen head terrified the room.

On March 14, 1879, baby Einstein emerged with a “swollen, misshapen head and a grossly overweight body,” according to Denis Brian’s book, Einstein: A Life. When she got a look at him later, his grandmother was terrified of the chunky child. She screamed, “Much too fat! Much too fat!” Thankfully, Albert would eventually grow into his body. (However, he did have trouble developing in other arenas: He supposedly didn’t start speaking until the age of 2.)

As a child, he was the king of throwing temper tantrums.

The young genius had a habit of throwing objects whenever he was displeased; once, a frustrated Einstein even threw a chair at his teacher. The 5-year-old enjoyed bombarding his tutors and family members: His sister Maja, who was often conked in the head by Einstein’s fusillades, later quipped, “It takes a sound skull to be the sister of an intellectual.”

According to a biography by Alice Calaprice and Trevor Lipscombe, “When he became angry, his whole face turned yellow except for the tip of his nose, which turned white.”

Einstein did not struggle in school.

The idea that Einstein had trouble in school is a myth. During summers, a pre-teen Einstein would study mathematics and physics for fun, eventually mastering differential and integral calculus by age 15. But that’s not to say he was a perfect student. Einstein hated rote learning and refused to study subjects that didn’t interest him. So, naturally, when the obstinate number-lover took the entrance exam to the polytechnic school in Zurich, he flunked the language, zoology, and botany sections.

Nobody knows Einstein’s IQ.

Einstein’s IQ was never tested, though that hasn’t stopped people from guessing. Lots of websites claim the physicist’s IQ was 160, but there’s simply no way of verifying that claim. “One fundamental problem with the estimates I’ve seen is that they tend to conflate intellectual ability with domain-specific achievement,” Dean Keith Simonton, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California, Davis told Biography. For all we know, Einstein’s aptitude in arenas outside of physics might have rivaled that of an average Joe.

He refreshed his brain by playing the violin.

Whenever Einstein needed to relax, he turned to music. He started violin lessons at age 5 and, at around 17, impressed his teachers at cantonal school with his playing during a music exam. Around 1914, when Einstein lived in Berlin, he played sonatas with his friend and fellow theoretical physicist, Max Planck. And after he became famous, Einstein would play a handful of benefit concerts alongside greats like Fritz Kreisler. “Music helps him when he is thinking about his theories,” his second wife, Elsa, said. “He goes to his study, comes back, strikes a few chords on the piano, jots something down, returns to his study.”

Fashion was not Einstein’s strong suit.

Einstein hated wearing socks and was immensely proud of the fact that he didn’t have to wear them while giving lectures at Oxford in the 1930s. His antipathy apparently stemmed from a childhood realization: “When I was young, I found out that the big toe always ends up making a hole in a sock,” Einstein reportedly said. “So, I stopped wearing socks.” As an adult, he typically wore an undershirt, baggy trousers held by rope, and a pair of (occasionally women’s) sandals.

He loved sailing (and was absolutely terrible at it).

While an undergraduate in Zurich, Einstein fell in love with sailing—a passion that would persist throughout his life. There was just one problem: He was a horrible sailor. He regularly tipped his boat over and required rescue dozens of times. (His sailboat was named Tinef, Yiddish for “worthless.”) In 1935, The New York Times reported on Einstein’s sailing misadventures with the punny headline: “Relative Tide and Sand Bars Trap Einstein.”

Fatherhood gave Einstein his iconic hair.

As a young man, Einstein sported a well-maintained head of dark hair—that is, until his son Hans was born in 1904. Like many new parents, Einstein discovered that having a new mouth to feed changed everything: The patent clerk was so busy trying to support his family that he stopped combing his hair and visiting the barber. Slowly, an iconic look was born.

Einstein would spurn barbers for the rest of his life. His wife Elsa would cut his mop whenever it became disheveled.

He had a habit of mindlessly gorging on food.

When Einstein was a patent clerk, he formed a book club with two friends and called it the “Olympia Academy.” The trio usually dined on sausages, Gruyère cheese, fruit, and tea. But on Einstein’s birthday, his friends brought expensive caviar as a surprise. Einstein, who had a knack for mindlessly eating when talking about something he was passionate about, began stuffing his face while discussing Galileo’s principle of inertia—totally unaware of what he was eating. He later offered this excuse: “Well, if you offer gourmet foods to peasants like me, you know they won’t appreciate it.”

He had a bawdy sense of humor.

Einstein enjoyed the occasional dirty joke. When he accepted his first job as a professor, he said, “[N]ow I too am an official member of the guild of whores.” And when a member of his book club gave him a nameplate that said “Albert, Knight of the Backside,” Einstein proudly kept it tacked on his apartment door. Later in life, he’d tell jokes to his pet parrot, Bibo. (Einstein believed the bird was depressed and needed a laugh.)

He loved the famous tongue photo.

On his 72nd birthday, Einstein was leaving an event held in his honor. As he was getting into his car, photographers asked him to smile for the camera. Einstein, however, was sick and tired of grinning for a photograph—he’d been doing it all evening—so he popped his tongue out instead. Einstein liked the photo so much, he put it on his greeting cards.

He was an inventor.

Having spent seven years working in the Swiss patent office, Einstein was naturally curious about inventing and secured approximately 50 patents during his lifetime. He enjoyed tinkering with electronics and eventually patented a self-adjusting camera, a refrigerator that could last 100 years, and even a blouse.

When it came to love, Einstein was no genius.

Einstein, who married twice, had multiple extramarital affairs—including one dalliance with a possible Russian spy. His first marriage with Mileva Marić, a physicist he met at the Swiss Polytechnic School, soured after the birth of their third child. As their marriage crumbled, Einstein imposed a list of brusque—if not cruel—demands which included: “You will obey the following points in your relations with me: 1. You will not expect intimacy from me … 2. You will stop talking to me if I request it.” Unsurprisingly, they divorced. Later, Einstein married his cousin, Elsa Löwenthal.

A letter Einstein signed helped spark the Manhattan Project.

Einstein was not part of the Manhattan Project, but he was instrumental in getting it started. In the late 1930s, German scientists discovered nuclear fission of uranium, a major step toward the development of the atomic bomb. Much of the world’s uranium was held in the Congo—then a colony of Belgium—so two Hungarian-American physicists named Leo Szilard and Eugene Wigner decided to get Einstein to write a letter to his friend, the queen of Belgium. Einstein suggested a letter to a Belgian minister instead, but an encounter with an economist who knew President Franklin D. Roosevelt resulted in a change in direction and a letter that prompted America to start its own experiments.

He loved answering fan mail from children.

Einstein received countless letters from the public, but he always tried to answer mail sent by children. (In one letter, a young girl complained about her troubles with math. The professor supposedly wrote back, “Do not worry about your difficulty in mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.”) Einstein’s many correspondences with children—filled with charm and encouragement—are compiled in a book by Alice Calaprice called Dear Professor Einstein.

He turned down the presidency of Israel.

After the first president of the state of Israel, Chaim Weizmann, died in 1952, the prime minister asked Einstein to step into the (mostly ceremonial) role. The physicist declined, writing: “I am deeply moved by the offer from our state of Israel, and at once saddened and ashamed that I cannot accept it. All my life I have dealt with objective matters, hence I lack both the natural aptitude and the experience to deal properly with people and to exercise official functions.”

Einstein was an outspoken advocate for racial justice.

Having abandoned Germany in 1933 to avoid Nazi persecution, Einstein was sensitive to the racial discrimination he saw in the United States. He championed the rights of Black Americans and was a member of the NAACP. When the famed Black singer Marian Anderson came to perform at Princeton in 1937 and was denied a hotel room, Einstein invited her to stay in his home. He was also pen pals with W.E.B. Du Bois and, when Du Bois became the target of the Red Scare, Einstein effectively saved him by offering to be his character witness. In a 1946 speech he delivered at Pennsylvania’s Lincoln University, he called segregation “a disease of white people,” vowing, “I do not intend be quiet about it.”

He was the inspiration for Yoda.

Yoda’s face was partly modeled after Einstein’s. According to Star Wars special-effects artist Nick Maley, “a picture of Einstein ended up on the wall behind the Yoda sculptures and the wrinkles around Einstein’s eyes somehow got worked into the Yoda design. Over the course of this evolutionary process Yoda slowly changed from a comparatively spritely, tall, skinny, grasshopper kind of character into the old wise spirited gnome that we all know today.”

Einstein’s theories are more relevant than you might think.

It’s easy to assume that Einstein’s theories of relativity are purely theoretical, but they really do affect your everyday life. For instance, the theory of general relativity states that gravity affects time: Time moves by faster for objects in space than objects here on Earth. And that has profound implications for many space-based technologies, especially the accuracy of your GPS. His theories also explain how electromagnets work and are foundational to nuclear technology.

SOURCE: MENTAL FLOSS   LUCAS REILLY

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Published by pat frederick

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131 thoughts on “Passionately Curious”

  1. Morning All…dark dark dark here…lol

    but it was light out when we got home from shopping last evening!

    42* out there already tho!

    we ate at arby’s yesterday and went thru the drive thru then ate in the parking lot. we had the windows in the truck open…and as soon as hubby unwrapped his fish sandwich, a little bird flew up and sat on his side mirror. he shooed it away but it kept coming back so he closed his window. then the bird sat on his windshield near his dash and looked in…it was hysterical. 

    someone must feed him like that for him to be so comfortable around people…and vehicles. hubby said when the bird flew off it went into the bush right in front of the truck.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Morning, Pat! Awwww…surely hubby could have given the bird a bite or two? Hell, I’d have lured it into the truck with me!!! Still dark here, too – no sign of Wheezer this morning but I’ve put his food out and turned the light on. 47 here now and we did get some rain last evening, tho not a lot. We’ve got a few cool days coming, below freezing a couple of nights still.

      Really interesting open – thanks! What I can’t get past is that all of this is still called “theory,” which basically means “unproven.” IOW, it’s what people think will happen under the same or similar circumstances. It requires assumptions to be made. I don’t like assumptions in science or life in general, especially when they are claimed to be “truth.”

      Huh….I kind of wish I had taken an IQ test at some point thru the years but the closest I can get is my score on the military entrance test. In general, that score is roughly equal to your IQ – my score was 130. I find that really had to believe, tbh. Yes, there are some things that I’m really good at but close to “genius” level? Nah, I don’t think so! But it sure makes me chuckle! And I continue to question the so-called “science!” And it’s not like we haven’t seen for ourselves recently how “science” is manipulated and abused for nefarious purposes!

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Morning Filly!
        we were afraid the bird would fly into the truck and panic and crap everywhere! hubby is very particular about the vehicles! we can’t keep them clean on the outside all the time with the dirt road–but the inside? they look brand new!

        Liked by 1 person

  3. Catturd ™

    @catturd2

    China is buying up all our land – Congress does nothing. China is also buying land surrounded our military bases – Congress does nothing. China released a virus onto the world – Congress does nothing. China controls over 90% of Pharmaceutical drugs – Congress does nothing. Everything you buy in the the United States says “made in China” – Congress does nothing. Ask yourself, why does Congress, who has let China walk all over us for years, suddenly want to do something but only about a social media app. If you have common sense, you’ll be able to answer this easily.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. What version of measles is it? There are different kinds of measles, some of which vaccines have no effect on….I know! I had the measles vaccine when I was a child and again when I went into basic training. Yet I still got measles as an adult at AIT at Ft. Jackson – the 3-day measles – and had to go into the hospital, since I was living in the barracks. Had I lived off-base, I simply would have stayed home for 3 days. The MAIN issue is that they shouldn’t be here in the first damned place, whether they have measles or not!!! They aren’t required to get ANY vaccines, from what I understand, unlike American citizens!

      Liked by 1 person

  13. Like

    1. PACs are something else that needs to go away. But first, a way must be found to take the $$$ out of running for office. Exactly how to do that is beyond my comprehension.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. too many loopholes to circumvent the rules.
        one of the squad–coery bush? paid her boyfriend, then husband (same guy) for security purposes–even he never did that in his life before…
        they’re all grifters

        Liked by 1 person

  14. I literally despise Brian Kilmeade – Rand Paul was explaining the “ownership” of TikTok/ByteDance and twice laid out the numbers – 60% international investors, 20% inventors of the app, who happen to be Chinese, and the balance is owned by the employees, 7K of whom are Americans. Kilmeade says “…but the algorithm – China owns it!” Paul: “No, the company owns it” and once again laid out the percentages. Kilmeade kept talking over him and repeating the same statement over and over….”China owns TikTok!”

    Liked by 1 person

      2. Personally, I don’t think ANY foreign country should be allowed to own companies in America, no matter what country it is!!!

        Liked by 1 person

  15. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-13187351/america-measles-outbreak-california-infections-2023.html

    Our Take: “My reaction to this story is that it is meant to make a majority of Americans cry out in support of vaccines.

    America had effectively eradicated measles, and we are told that we have the MMR vaccine to thank for that. The MMR being added to the childhood vaccine schedule correlates to the explosion of autism and childhood cancers. But correlation does not equal causation, and if you mention the connection, you’re a science-denying anti-vaxxer.

    Popular response to the Covid vaccines has led to millions of Americans learning the dangers of the pharmaceutical poison for the first time. The regime needs a narrative shift. It’s not an accident that the focus on migrants in the new measles drop will keep Americans divided and provide racially-based narrative cover. Convenient.

    Just remember that vaccines might cause autism, and we’re all subjects in pharma’s human experiments. Do not comply.” — Ashe in America

    Liked by 1 person

    1. i think there’s a component he’s ignoring. when we got the measles–mom made us play together so we all got them together but we didn’t go to school and we didn’t let anyone else near us. they are not quarantining–so they can spread to other unvaccinated people.
      if you get them as kids you don’t get them as adults, but if you get them as an adult, you don’t get kids. Max Klinger, MASH

      Like

  16. Howdy, Miss Pat! Einstein is a fascinating character. I once read he had no sense of direction and would get lost trying to find his way around. 

    Elon Musk also had a peculiar early childhood personality. He was zoned out – thinking so hard – that he didn’t talk much – and they thought something was wrong with him.

    Liked by 2 people

  17. husbands…sigh.

    hubby’s been having issues with the 02 machine and i’ve been telling hm to call the company and they can come out and service it. he put it off for over a week and when does he call? this morning–while i’m doing laundry and tearing the house apart to clean…i got an hour’s notice…whoopie.

    Liked by 1 person

      1. i clean once a week…lol
        unless company is coming…
        but i normally clean on a Thursday or Friday and i had taken things apart already when he told me they were coming.
        my mom? 85 yrs young still cleans once a week–and cleans out her cabinets and closets once a year…the whole nine yards…only now i get to help her when we go…lol

        Liked by 1 person

        1. When I was a child, it was Saturdays for cleaning and laundry. I spent sooooo many hours polishing wood furniture and silver! Yuck! And then there was the laundry, pant-stretchers and all!

          Liked by 1 person

            1. They are metal adjustable forms to put inside the legs of wet men’s pants to help prevent wrinkles. We used them for my Dad’s postal uniform pants. Saved Mom ironing time!

              Liked by 1 person

          2. this guy thinks it’s the next 24-48 hrs?

            Xavier

            March 14, 2024 10:25 am

            Within the next 24/48 hrs a Haitian invasion will descend upon South Florida, let’s see what De Santis will do, let’s see what he is made of.

            Liked by 1 person

  22. this is weird…last Thanksgiving a college girl was found unresponsive and taken to the hospital with “ghastly” injuries. paramedics told her parents she wasn’t breathing for 23 minutes–not sure how they came to that conclusion, it doesn’t say. her legs were swollen and her fake nails ripped off and she had deep gashes. the university claims she fell off her bunk bed. the girl has woken up in the hospital but has no answers…

    https://nypost.com/2024/03/14/us-news/kentucky-college-student-suffers-ghastly-injuries-while-unconscious-for-23-minutes-in-dorm-room-and-no-one-knows-what-happened/

    Liked by 1 person

    3. OK, I finally found this altho Gates’ involvement is not specified…but anyone with a brain in their head knows he is, even if it’s only tangential. From 2018:

      EXCERPT: “The second scandal keeps unfolding in the Philippines, where drug giant Sanofi’s Dengvaxia, given to prevent Dengue Fever, is facing enormous pushback from government officials, who stopped the national vaccination campaign, after thousands of children already received the shot.

      The issue? Safety.

      FiercePharma: “The Philippines stopped vaccinations shortly after the company warned that Dengvaxia can cause more serious infections in those who previously hadn’t had exposure to the virus. The country also kicked off a probe and plans legal action, according to health secretary Francisco Duque.”

      Did you get that? The company (Sanofi) itself warned that vaccine might not be safe.

      FiercePharma: “…the [Philippine] Department of Health didn’t heed warnings from an advisory group of doctors and pharmacologists, who concluded early last year that the vaccine’s safety and efficacy were unproven.

      Did you get that? The company (Sanofi) itself warned that vaccine might not be safe.

      FiercePharma: “…the [Philippine] Department of Health didn’t heed warnings from an advisory group of doctors and pharmacologists, who concluded early last year that the vaccine’s safety and efficacy were unproven.”

      My, my. But let’s dig even deeper. Sanofi is saying the vaccine might be dangerous for those who haven’t been exposed to the Dengue virus before getting the shot. What on Earth does that mean?

      It means a child who had naturally come in contact with the virus would have developed his own antibodies to it. And later, those antibodies would protect him against the Dengue virus IN THE VACCINE. Otherwise, the virus in the vaccine could give him a case of Dengue or cause some other form of damage.

      This is saying, “If a child is ALREADY immune to Dengue Fever, because his immune system has successfully dealt with the virus, then the vaccine won’t damage him.” And THAT is saying, “If the child has naturally developed an immunity to Dengue, then the vaccine, WHICH HE DOESN’T NEED, won’t harm him.” ….

      https://childrenshealthdefense.org/news/two-huge-vaccine-scandals-the-press-is-ignoring/

      Liked by 1 person

  25. “How to incinerate your pet in one easy step”

    “A new meaning to hammer time…”

    OK, I definitely identify with this one….

    Liked by 1 person

  28. Interesting….our population here is only around 1K and many of those have to work in Norfolk, others in surrounding towns/counties. We have had Family Dollar here since I moved here 11 years ago and it’s one of very few places where locals can work. I think it was relatively new then but it was the only “dollar” store and stays fairly busy. The workers do a much better job here than others I’ve seen in other towns.

    But they recently built a Dollar Tree on the west end of town. The town tried to stop it – we did NOT want it nor can our population support 2 such stores. But they filed a lawsuit that went against us so….voila! Now we have 2 – I hope this FD store isn’t one that will close.

    I do think they could tighten their belt and stop trying to stock so many different brands of identical items. One or two is sufficient, IMO. They also need to change the stocking/ordering duties to the local manager – each location is going to have different items that are especially popular and they need to be able to adjust that. But that’s what they give up w/out local ownership.

    Liked by 1 person

  31. Julie Kelly

    @julie_kelly2

    NEW: From FLA courthouse in Trump’s classified documents case with a prediction. Robert Hur report and testimony is the biggest elephant in the room. The term “arbitrary enforcement” used frequently by both the defense and Judge Aileen Cannon. Cannon hammered the fact no former president or vice president has been charged under Espionage Act for taking and keeping classified records including national defense information–which represents 32 counts against Trump in Jack Smith’s indictment. Prediction: Cannon won’t dismiss the case based on the motions debated today–vagueness of Espionage Act and protection under the Presidential Records Act. But it’s very likely she will dismiss the case based on selective prosecution, a motion still pending before her.

    Liked by 1 person

  33. Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 Profile picture

    Julie Kelly 🇺🇸

    @julie_kelly2

    28m• 4 tweets • 2 min read •

    Read on X

    NEW: From FLA courthouse in Trump’s classified documents case with a prediction.Robert Hur report and testimony is the biggest elephant in the room. The term “arbitrary enforcement” used frequently by both the defense and Judge Aileen Cannon.Cannon hammered the fact no former president or vice president has been charged under Espionage Act for taking and keeping classified records including national defense information–which represents 32 counts against Trump in Jack Smith’s indictment.Prediction: Cannon won’t dismiss the case based on the motions debated today–vagueness of Espionage Act and protection under the Presidential Records Act.But it’s very likely she will dismiss the case based on selective prosecution, a motion still pending before her.

    Cannon pressed both defense and Special Counsel to explain when the “crime” of willful retention of national defense information begins–she noted the date in Jack Smith’s indictment as to when Trump first violated the Espionage Act.

    January 20, 2021, the day he left office

    Jay Bratt, representing special counsel office, confirmed the “crime” began that day because as a former president, he was entitled to retain the documents.

    Cannon again asked for historical precedent as to when a former president or vice president faced charges for similar conduct. Bratt of course said there is none.

    She added “vice president” on numerous occasions for a reason–Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Mike Pence all skated on criminal charges. Trump is the only one who has not.

    Cannon: “Arbitrary enforcement…is featuring in this case.”

    Cannon also addressed the “foreseeability” as to Trump’s awareness he was committing a crime by keeping classified/national defense information.

    “Given the constellation of what happened before”–meaning no criminal prosecution of former presidents including Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan and vice presidents–Cannon suggested Trump could have reasonably expected he was in the clear.

    Also of interest: Jay Bratt claiming there is no official process for a president to obtain or keep a security clearance. His argument is Trump’s clearance automatically expired at the end of this term–which contradicts how former government officials maintained clearances long after their service ended.

    Trump’s elimination of John Brennan’s clearance was raised.

    But there is a problem. The Dept. of Energy, learning of Smith’s indictment against Trump in the summer of 2023, retroactively revoked Trump’s “Q” security clearance.

    Bratt says the government has emails and a draft memo to revoke Trump’s clearance.

    Cannon’s counterargument is–but if there is no formal process for authorizing or removing a president’s security clearance–why did DOE need to memorialize it post-indictment.

    Bratt didn’t really have an answer.

    https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1768308069765701827

    Liked by 1 person

  41. Liked by 1 person

  42. Without saying so directly, what Judge Cannon suggested is that any former president or vice president who took unauthorized records and failed to return them to the proper authority committed a crime the day he left office. Also important to note that Judge Cannon, who is pretty measured in comparison to most judges, made these points in a rather heated fashion. She is very aware of the double standard at play in the non-prosecution of Joe Biden.

    Liked by 1 person

  45. Anthony Sabatini

    @AnthonySabatini

    UPDATE— Florida is on the cusp of the largest invasion in its history And Governor DeSantis is refusing to do anything about it How so? Because DeSantis has assigned all state assets to FALL UNDER & supplement the US Coast Guard Here’s the problem: the Coast Guard is NOT being instructed to block the illegal invaders In fact, they are instructed to only “interdict” if the vessel at sea is in danger of failing & causing the loss of human life—they stop “Vessels in distress” to “preserve human life at sea”. (per their standing orders) NOT to block invading migrants The population of Haiti is 11+ million—experts expect hundreds of thousands to head our way I AM CALLING ON GOVERNOR DESANTIS to independently use all Florida marine assets to establish an immediate blockade & BLOCK Haiti’s invaders from landing—and to arrest & deter those who do not comply They must do this independent of Biden’s Coast Guard The Governor is REFUSING to do this Instead, he’s gaslighting Floridians into thinking that the state assets that have been assigned to BLOCK illegal invaders—they have no such Order

    Liked by 1 person

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