Not sure how well known outside of Australia is the ‘budgie smuggler’. It was coined a long time back with the manufacturing of the Speedo bathers – tight fitting racing style men’s bathers. Some say it is an adaption of the English term ‘grape smugglers’. Either way, I think you’ll agree with me that budgie smugglers conjures a more humorous image.
Ever heard of cows dying mysteriously during a thunderstorm?
The reason is that there is a potential energy difference between the front and back legs. If the lightning enters the front legs, it will travel through the body in search of ground, which it achieves by exiting the back legs. The cow has become part of the electrical circuit and because of this potential energy difference, it’s zapped – and bang you’re gone. If you’re not adverse to a bit of blood, check out this local story on a cow that survived a lighting strike.
On a lighter note, how many times does lightning strike the earth?
- 1,000 times a second
- 1,000 times a minute
- once a minute
- 30 times an hour
The answer is one.
And now for some camel facts:
- The hump is not a lump full of water, rather it’s fatty tissue. Having said that, due to the unique genes of the camel, they can convert the fat with air to produce about 1,111 gm water for every 1,000 gm of fat. Wish I could do the same with my excess fat! I’d be rich.
- Camels live for about 50-60 years
- Arabian camels have one hump and Bactrian camels have two humps.
Incitatus was Emperor Caligula’s (AD37-41) favourite stallion. He loved his horse so much that he bestowed the horse with a marble stable, had 18 servants look after its daily needs, reportedly fed it oats with gold flakes and had a collar encrusted with precious stones. Incitatus’ fame does not end there. Caligula made him the first citizen of Rome and soon after made him senator.
When I think of evolution, I think of small changes over millions of years, but not so for the hardy tomcods of the once heavily polluted Hudson river. Deadly PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) were discharged to the river by General Electric Co between 1947 and 1976. This naturally had a deadly impact on the inhabitants, with the tomcod being hit quite hard, as they are filter feeders (PCB contaminants settle on the bottom river bed ). Their life span was reduced from an average 7 years to 2 years and many suffered from tumours.
However, they are fighting back and have evolved to be resistant to the toxin (unlike their counterparts in other ecosystems). Studies continue into their mutated, toxin resistant genes. Refer to this LiveScience.com link for the related article
While drawing this cartoon I was reminded of my favourite cartoonist as a child – Jeff Hook. His cartoons appeared daily in the local newspaper and were topical and political – not that I was interested in that part. It was having to find that teeny-weeny little hook he always hid in his cartoons. Our school teacher used to cut it out from the paper and stick it in a scrap-book for us all to look at daily. He still works too (born 1928), but officially retired. You can see his old and new cartoons by checking out his website