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0xymoronic: shitarianasays: theeyesinthenight: the-sonic-screw: platinumpixels: volpesvolpes: unseilie: sarahvonkrolock: gaysexagainstawall: them-days-was-olden-as-fuck: The spread of the black death. Poland Poland, tell us your secret. Poland is the old new Madagascar.  If I remember correctly, Poland’s secret is that the jews where being blamed all over europe (as usual) as scapegoats for the black plague. Poland was the only place that accepted Jewish refugees, so pretty much all of them moved there.  Now, one of the major causes of getting the plague was poor hygiene. This proved very effective for the plague because everyone threw their poop into the streets because there were no sewers, and literally no one bathed because it was against their religion. Unless they were jewish, who actually bathed relatively often. When all the jews moved to Poland, they brought bathing with them, and so the plague had little effect there. Milan survived by quarantining its city and burning down the house of anyone showing early symptoms, with the entire family inside it.  I reblogged this tons of times, but the Milan info is new. Damn Italy, you scary. Poland: “Hey, feeling a bit down? Have a quick wash! There, you see? All better” Milan: “Aw, feeling a bit sick are we? BURN MOTHERFUCKER, BURN!!!!!” Also, this might have something to do with it: from what I understand, O blood type is uncommonly… common in Poland. Something to do with large families in small villages and a LOT of intermarriage. The black plague was caused by a bacterium that produced, in its waste in the human body, wastes that very closely mimic the “B” marker sugars on red blood cells that keep the body from attacking its own immune system. Anyone who has a B blood type had an immune system that was naturally desensitized to the presence of the bacterium, and therefore was more prone to developing the disease. Anyone who had an O type was doubly lucky because the O blood type means the total absence of ANY markers, A or B, meaning that their bodys’ immune system would react quickly and violently against the invaders, while someone with an A may show symptoms and recover more slowly, while someone with B would have just died. Because O is a recessive blood type, it shows in higher numbers when more people who carry the recessive genes marry other people who also carry the recessive gene. Poland, which has a nearly 700 year history of being conquered by or partnering with every other nation in the surrounding area, was primarily an agricultural country, focused around smaller, farming communities where people were legally tied to, and required to work, “their” land, and so historically never “spread” their genes across a large area. The economy was, and had been, unstable for a very long period of time leading up to the plague, the government had been ineffective and had very little reach in comparison to the armies of the other countries around for a very very long time, and so its people largely remained in small communities where multiple generations of cross-familial inbreeding could have allowed for this more recessive gene to show up more frequently. Thus, there could be a higher percentage of O blood types in any region of the country, guaranteeing less spread of the illness and moving slower when it did manage to travel. Combine this with the fact that there were very few large, urban centers where the disease would thrive, and with the above facts, and you’ve got a lovely recipe for avoiding the plague. Interestingly enough, as a result from the plague, the entirety of Europe now has a higher percentage of people with O blood type than any other region of the world.  WHY IS THIS ALL SO COOL When Tumblr teaches you more about the plague than 12 years of school ever did.
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nathanielgregory: ithilienne: honorized: there is an unlisted size: short (8 oz). This is most cafes’ “small,” but Starbucks shifted the sizes up a number of years ago (which is why “tall” and “grande” weren’t weird names then), making the venti the largest. You can get any hot drink short. we have a number of flavor syrups that aren’t listed on the menu, just ask what we have. Also, despite what many customers think, we have peppermint year round, so we can make peppermint mochas and peppermint white mochas any time of the year. Gingerbread and pumpkin spice are seasonal, but we may not run out of stock for quite a while, so if it’s February there’s still a chance. bring your own cup, save 10 cents. Might have to remind the cashier, we forget sometimes. you can get a drink “for here” and get it in ceramic/glass, feel fancy, waste less. edited to add: 50 cent refills on coffee, iced tea, or iced coffee (not espresso beverages) iced large drinks have extra everything, on account of being 24 and not 20 ounces - extra espresso shot, extra pump of syrup. it’s honestly not that annoying that you have a very specific drink order. It breaks up the monotony, and it’s nice not to be a vanilla latte robot. Sometimes people would ask for weird things that I’d make for myself later and end up liking! (protip: green tea latte with peppermint) You can get the matcha green tea as plain, non-milk tea. It’s pretty cheap for matcha tea, too. adding a syrup to a drink always costs extra (unless the cashier likes you/doesn’t care, which is frequent), unless it’s already in that drink. i.e., a caramel frappuccino with extra caramel doesn’t cost extra. that delicious caramel sauce is in fact real caramel. That plastic-tasting caramel syrup is not. Many people don’t realize we have both - the caramel sauce is what decorates the cup of the caramel frappuccino and on the whipped cream, the caramel syrup is what flavors the actual frappuccino or a caramel latte. a caramel macchiato is a vanilla latte with caramel sauce, and least (Starbucks: “most”) importantly, the espresso shot put on top of the steamed milk. infrequently ordered, but delicious drink: a marble macchiato. It’s like a caramel macchiato but with half mocha syrup, half white mocha. if you want a legit cappuccino and you see jugs of milk on the counter, ask for them to use milk from the fridge. Milk needs to be cold to foam that well. Likewise, if you want a soy cappuccino, you can be a pain in the ass and ask for soymilk from the fridge (they might not even have any in there), since soy will barely foam at room temperature, since the cartons are shelf-stable. if you have no idea what to order, ask us. Since we get free drinks you can count on us trying every single drink in every disgusting combination. Our favorite drink will probably be something excessively complicated we’ll be happy to make for you. on that note, if you’re like, green tea latte? disgusting or delicious? you can ask us to sample it. we’ll make a whole drink and split it into sample cups. No big deal, our manager will probably like us better for promoting drinks anyways, and you don’t have to spend money to find out raspberry mochas are gross and green tea is delicious. same thing for pastries. We’ll sample it if you ask and we have enough (generally yes). if you really like a certain coffee we have but we don’t have it brewing, you can ask for a french press version. French press generally tastes better anyway, and iirc it doesn’t actually cost any more and you can order whatever size you normally would. We’ll probably sample the rest of the pot anyway. However, this will take significantly longer since, for once, we actually have to brew the coffee ourselves. we often forget or get too busy, but we actually have giftwrap, especially around the holidays. Ask and we’ll make that overpriced mug purty. I had a few customers with impossible or silly requests. (1) impossibly hot beverages - in excess of 210F. guys. srsly. (2) people who ask for extra hot cappuccinos and are disappointed by them still not being hot enough. This is how a cappuccino is - there’s too much air/surface area for the foam layer to ever be hot. If you want hot, get a latte. (3) asking for less-hot milk from the pitchers we’ve already made. We can’t serve milk that has gone below 135, you have to have us make a fresh batch. Sucks for waste, better for you not puking. in terms of dairy allergy/vegan stuff, the caramel sauce, white chocolate syrup, and pumpkin spice syrup all contain dairy. The chai contains honey. The whipped cream is 100% legit heavy cream. The caramel syrup, mocha syrup, and other syrups are non-dairy. This stuff might not matter to the lactose intolerant, but to some it does. For the caffeine-sensitive, the mocha syrup does not actually have any coffee - it’s chocolate sauce, and is just named that because it’s what we use for mochas. The “creme-based” list of fraps is usually pretty short, but there are usually more caffeine-free options, just ask. whoa I…I love you so much.
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