Who put the pop in the soda-pop?

Carbonated beverages? Who comes up with these things? Who woke up one day and said "CO2...lets put lots and lots of it in some flavored water!"

Myself, I have two theories, which I think are clever, and therefore are probably wrong.

1) Expanding gas cools. So when you crack open a can of pop, the temp of the drink goes down a few degrees, leaving you with a relatively cold beverage regardless of refridgeration. Unfortunately, I think carbonation predates pop cans (or bottles)...and who knows just how much effect that small expanding hiss of gas has on temperature anyway?

2) The bubbles keep you from gulping (well, keep most people), hence lengthening the beverage experience.

In any case, I find myself, more and more often, de-fizzing my drinks whenever possible. I want them flat.

::shrug::

Just one more quirk for the stable, I guess.

More thoughts on WWII

I really like WWII. My passions lie in the sciences, but a little history is nice, and the more I read about this global conflict, the more I find there is to know. Time, and the events themselves, have shaped this era into an epic, a narrative as full of twists, reverses and crescendos as any great novel. What's more, it's fractal. No matter on what scale you look at it, you can still find drama and plot.

And let me tell you, when you look the War with an eye to literary analysis, you find some screwy things.

Like perfect character foils!

The four great leaders of the War:

Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, Hitler (Mussolini hardly counts, and it's difficult to pin a true "head" on Japan. The emperor was symbolic and various military figures came and went).

Roosevelt and Churchill were "good" (I'm striving for a better term, but let's go with this one for the moment).

Stalin and Hitler were "evil" (despite the fact that Stalin was on our side.)

Churchill and Stalin were pragmatic.

Roosevelt and Hitler were idealists.

Two dichotic traits, all four permutations expressed in the four great leaders of the era. And it's not even as if I had to fudge things at all!

I wish to God I could draw a little diagram like they do in psychology. People who've read "Red Mars" will know exactly what I'm talking about.