May 07, 2016 at 04:26AM

Today I Learned: 1) ...about the cheese fly (Piophila casei, which I assumes means something like "pie-loving cheese-protein"). I'm basically just going to quote the entire wiki article on cheese flies, because it is short and oh so sweet. Cheese flies are also known as "skip flies" or "skipper flies" because their larva can leap several inches to safety when alarmed. Those larva are also an occasional cause of disease (they can survive the stomach and worm their way into the intestinal wall, apparently mistakenly thinking it's a food substrate... ew) and culination (their fermentation products makes an especially pungent, apparently-delectable, and illegal cheese called "casu marzu"). As far as I can tell, there is nothing particularly remarkable about the actual fly. Thanks for the nightmares, Tara Sullivan. 2) ...what port tastes like. It's pretty good, for a wine. It's interesting having the contrast between super-sugariness and strong ethanol. Not something I'd drink on a regular basis, but interesting. Thanks for the port, Anders Knight. 3) Old thermal cyclers are *really heavy*!!!