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Warning: Thunder and lightning forecast

By Animals

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. 1,000 times a second
  2. 1,000 times a minute
  3. once a minute
  4. 30 times an hour

The answer is one.

June 22, 2012
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Russian blood transfusion

By Pot Luck

The first documented attempt at blood transfusion was made by Stefano Infessura of an event that occurred back in 1492. Pope Innocent VIII fell into a coma and his wise physician prescribed a blood transfusion (via the mouth as circulation wasn’t fully understood). Three 10 year old volunteer boys donated some of their blood in return for a ducat. Unfortunately for all 4, they all died.

Blood transfusion made real leaps in success rate when in 1907 Ludvig Hektoen connected the matching of blood types (first discovered in 1901) for the transfusion process.

 

June 21, 2012
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Dinosaur bones with a difference

By Dave the dot to dot dinosaur

Dinosaur fossils (Latin  fossus, meaning ‘having been dug up’) aren’t made of bone, they are made from rock (silica).

According to Wiki there are 6 ways of achieving this, but I’ll only describe the permineralization process. First, the dinosaur had to die and be covered up pretty much immediately (such as sinking in mud) before the scavengers found it. As time passes, more sediment covers the remains and the flesh starts to rot away, leaving only the bones which decay slower.  As they decay, groundwater carrying rich minerals seep into where the bone once was. Effectively it is a mineral replacement process with the replacing of ‘bone’ mineral with ‘rock’ mineral. Once the bone has all been replaced you have a perfect replica of the original bone, but now made from rock.

Thanks to Murphy, our beautiful lady golden retriever, for modelling for this cartoon.

June 18, 2012
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A surprise Saturday cartoon

By Competitions

Well, a cartoon of sorts. I recently discovered The New Yorker Cartoon page online. It had a competition designed to test your cartoon creativity and asked people to make an animal, invention, toy, whatever, by using any 3 of the 15 shapes provided.

Although my entries were technically invalid (they only choose those from the USA), that minor rule was not going to stop me. After all, I’ve heard Australia is the 51st forgotten state of the USA.  My two submissions are below and the winners are one click away here.

June 16, 2012
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What is your version of hell?

By Pot Luck

Under normal circumstances this would be my version of hell, but a couple of years ago when we holidayed in Rio I was on a mission to hear the song during my travels. Surprisingly I didn’t have to go far or do anything special. I heard that song 3 times in one day!

I can tell that you’re now humming away silently. Well click here and chillax to Astrud Gilberto.  I also found this interesting write up on the story behind the song. Such a great hit at the time, it became the second most popular recorded song – just behind The Beetles ‘Yesterday’.

June 14, 2012
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ATM hazards

By Pot Luck

I wonder what a few rocks could buy you back then? Rocks as currency is not such a silly idea, I mean our currency here in Australia is now plastic. It just flies out of the machine – if there’s enough money in it to begin with!

June 12, 2012
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