Who invented bread?

Was it an accidental discovery?
If so, how did someone accidentally mix all these random ingredients and then unintentionally expose them to 300+ degree temperatures for approximately 25 minutes?
If not, how did someone come up with the idea to mix flour, eggs, yeast, etc. and just see what happens if they put it in the oven for a while?
When and where did this take place?

According to the infallible wisdom of the Internet, "bread is prehistoric - every ancient culture known used some form of bread, and stone-age tools often include implements for grinding grains into flour" (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/When_was_bread_invented_and_who_created_it).  Hmm, okay, so now the scenario in my mind has shifted from a 17th-Century French dude in a tall white hat throwing random ingredients all over the place like a mad scientist... to a caveman accidentally baking a loaf of perfectly baked golden-brown bread in his stone cave-oven...?  Actually, several cavemen and several cave-ovens in several different parts of the world.  I'm guessing the first guy didn't just tweet his new discovery to share it with the rest of the world, so how did various people in prehistoric societies across the world all accidentally discover bread?

Google Answers offers a more comprehensive explanation here, but the basic consensus seems to be that humans have been harvesting wheat since before recorded history, discovered they could grind it and make it into a paste, and then heated this paste over a fire to make a flat bread.  Then somewhere along the way, yeast was accidentally added and they discovered bread that rises!

Prehistoric humans and their ingenuity.

Why is Z the letter of sleep?

Where did the phrase "catch some zzz's" come from?  Who decided the letter Z sounds like people sleeping?  I've heard some weird snores, but I've never heard anyone who sounded like a buzzing bee while sleeping...

When I Googled it, the most interesting theory I came across was this:

"I've been looking into this, and as far as I can tell, it entered common use through a comic in the 50's, though I haven't found which one. Recently, though, I've been reading a book called Mao, in which there is some discussion about a spy who played a critical role in the Battle of Shanghai in 1937. What's interesting about him is that he was a sleeper spy who had been planted by the Russians in the CCP army years before he was stationed in Shanghai--and his initials were ZZZ. Whether he is related to the use of "zzz" to mean sleep, I don't know, but I found it very interesting."

Read more here.

Also, BullyH's answer on Yahoo! Answers just made me chuckle:

"If most were like me at school, by the time I got through reciting the alphabet, I would have been asleep. So I guess when I got to the letter Z, I would have been catching up with my sleep. How much quicker would it be to say, I'm going to catch some Zs. Three words actually."

So the common consensus seems to be that "catch some zzz's" became popular slang over 50 years ago when it started to appear in cartoons, but I'm still curious as to why the letter Z was chosen.  In my opinion, snoring sounds more like ffffrghhgghhhnntthhgghfff...

Why can't I look at the sun?

I distinctly remember my grandmother nagging me from her driver seat while I sit in the backseat staring out the window at dusk, "Don't stare at the sun; you'll go blind!"  I hear this time and time again, but no one ever tells me why it'll make me go blind...

Will the UV rays overwhelm my sensory neurons and cause them to go on the fritz and then stop working?  Will the intensity of the sun penetrate my occipital lobe like a laser?  Will it melt my eyeballs?  Will it just cause so many dots in my vision that they'll never go away and I'll never be able to see normally again?

As I desperately try to look at the solar eclipse tonight, these are the questions that run around inside my brain.

The best answer I found when I googled my question was posted by Elizabeth H. on Yahoo! Answers:

"The solar radiation that reaches the surface of the Earth ranges from ultraviolet (UV) radiation at wavelengths longer than 290 nm, to radio waves in the meter range. The tissues in the eye transmit a substantial part of the radiation between 380–400 nm to the light-sensitive retina at the back of the eye. While environmental exposure to UV radiation is known to contribute to the accelerated aging of the outer layers of the eye and the development of cataracts, the primary concern over improper viewing of the Sun is the development of retinal burns.

Exposure of the retina to intense visible light causes damage to its light-sensitive rod and cone cells. The light triggers a series of complex chemical reactions within the cells which damages their ability to respond to a visual stimulus, and in extreme cases, can destroy them. The result is a loss of visual function, which may be either temporary or permanent depending on the severity of the damage. When a person looks repeatedly, or for a long time, at the Sun without proper eye protection, this photochemical retinal damage may be accompanied by a thermal injury—the high level of visible and near-infrared radiation causes heating that literally cooks the exposed tissue. This thermal injury or photocoagulation destroys the rods and cones, creating a small blind area. The danger to vision is significant because photic retinal injuries occur without any feeling of pain (the retina has no pain receptors), and the visual effects do not become apparent for at least several hours after the damage is done (Pitts 1993). Viewing the Sun through binoculars, a telescope, or other optical devices without proper protective filters can result in immediate thermal retinal injury because of the high irradiance level in the magnified image.

The only time that the Sun can be viewed safely with the naked eye is during a total eclipse, when the Moon completely covers the disk of the Sun.
Source(s):
NASA"

Thank you, Elizabeth H.  Now I understand the seriousness of the situation, and I really won't stare at the sun anymore.