Carnivorous plants are also called insectivorous plants. (What’s with insectivorous? – an unimaginative biologist trying to come up with a new word or something?). Bet they never heard of the Nepenthes Rajah. It is known to prey on small reptiles and animals and has a ‘belly’ capacity of 3.5 litres. Here’s an image I found on the web.
I’ve always loved the bowerbird, not only striking in plumage (regent bowerbird) but incredibly artistic. They are the DaVinci’s of the bird world with beautifully composed bower object layout, attention to colour variation (even if limited to a palette of blue or white typically) and shape. Here are just a few images I found on the web.
- He sells sea shells by the sea-shore
- This restaurant is only for two
- Big night out on the milk and straws
- 5 star accommodation
PS. I can feel a Friday freebie coming up. What a great way to kick start the weekend.
Ever heard of the ‘Snake charmer song’? I hadn’t heard it’s name, but when I played the melody, I remembered it from old black and white movies gone by. Wiki gives you a brief history of the song and let’s you play it too. Warning: You might end up like me, and find yourself annoyingly humming the melody over and over again in your head for the next few hours, so click here if you dare.
Well really, you can hardly blame Ed Elephant for researching on the web how best to plan an escape from prison.
A quick Google will inform you that not only is dynamite made from peanuts, but the inventor of this explosive was Alfred Nobel who applied for a patent in 1866 (I love old documents so had to add the link). He made his wealth from this invention, amongst various other inventions totalling an astonishing 355. On his death, he died extremely wealthy and this enabled him to set up the Nobel Peace prize (must be a way of offsetting the bad name one could get from creating something that can be both useful or extremely destructive when in the wrong hands). For a basic chemistry lesson on the derivation from peanut to dynamite, check out this link.
This photo was taken on a less than beautiful Melbourne day. Deceptively you would think it was cold and miserable, but in reality it was low 30’s, mild breeze and easy on the eyes due to the overcast of clouds (which later on that day spilled their guts – in a good kind of way – our garden was grateful). I like this beach in Melbourne because we can take the dogs (24 hour dog beach, 7 days a week). If you’d like to see what’s happening on the beach right now, check out the Zu’s live webcam by clicking here.
Oh yes it can. It would appear that the humble octopus has a few tricks up its sleeve, including the ability to open a jar. Check out this video on YouTube….and this isn’t the only video displaying the marvels of the octopus. Apparently there is an Australian species which likes to hide under a coconut shell for protection.
OK, 3 woodpecker facts to help you impress your work colleagues, whilst making a cup of coffee at work.
1. Woodpeckers don’t eat wood, they just peck at wooden trunks to find yummy bugs and sap hiding deep within the bark of the tree.
2. Woodpeckers have reinforced skulls structured to spread the impact force, and their brains are tightly cushioned and protected, which is handy because they can peck up to 20 times per second.
3. The majority of woodpeckers have zygodactyl feet (sounds like a dinosaur description to me). Two toes face the front and another two the back, which helps them grip trees and poles vertically. Combined with a stiff feathered tail and their zygodactyl feet they embrace the tree to enable them to climb vertically.
I was inspired to make this cartoon after reading the 7th top incredible food fact on this website. It claims that archeological evidence has shown that soup made over 8000 years ago contains the remnants of a hippo. Finding this potentially dubious, I started searching the net for the original archeological report / paper to give it more credibility, but alas my skills were left wanting and I ran out of desire to wade through the remaining 2,469,990 Google results.