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Post by Hermione on Mar 9, 2006 19:02:16 GMT -5
You can develop a piezoelectric charge if you put pressure on the ends of a crystal of tourmaline.
Bees don't seal off the caps of honey cells until they evaporat so much moisture that the water content of the honey is less than 20%. (Humid days the bees have to work MUCH harder)
A hive needs (in Minnesota) about 80 to 85 pounds of honey to survive the winter. They form a tight ball to help generate and keep warmth (yes, they ARE cold-blooded, but this still works, because of the heat generated from the friction of rubbing their legs and wings together) and take turns, rotating who's nearest the warm center and who's stuck on the cold outer edges. Except the Queen, of course, who stays near the center and continues to lay eggs all winter, although at a slower rate.
A queen bee determines the sex of the (bee, larva, egg?) she lays.
When halos of ice crystals form very close to the ground (needs quite cold weather to do this), it is called diamond dust.
Okay, where's this recruitment thread? Can't find it!
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Post by veela on Mar 9, 2006 19:19:05 GMT -5
That's so cool. I'm glad that humans can't choose their offsprings sex though. I just learned that apparently most people in the U.S. want a male for their first child.
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Post by Hermione on Mar 9, 2006 19:46:44 GMT -5
That seems to be a world-wide phenomenon. Not sure why, they tend to be so much noisier...  |
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Post by justthisgirl on Mar 9, 2006 23:20:43 GMT -5
it's the second to last thread in the leaky cauldron. new recruiter appointed, Raynin. never mind. I made a new thread for it...
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Post by Hermione on Mar 10, 2006 0:46:54 GMT -5
Hm, Useless Knowledge:
You think the Golden Triangle is useless knowledge, or useful?
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Post by justthisgirl on Mar 10, 2006 0:55:38 GMT -5
um... maybe I am dumb? what is the golden triangle??
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Post by Hermione on Mar 10, 2006 2:38:37 GMT -5
Definitely useless then.
Golden triangle:
Sides (any units) 3, 4, and 5. Makes a right angle triangle. Used way back in ancient Egypt (and very likely the older asian communities, too) to help with architecture.
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Post by frizzer on Mar 10, 2006 4:12:10 GMT -5
Potter did you get a facts and figures book for christmas,,kidding :-),,palindromes.... Able was I ere I saw Elba (napoleon apparently) the tounge is the strongets muscle?  that must be in relation to size, cos if you had a thigh muscle and a toung and stretched them until one snapped, I know where my cash would be... errmmm grass stops growing below 6 C,,,anyone seen Rind? |
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Post by Hermione on Mar 10, 2006 4:22:56 GMT -5
I talked to him on the phone earlier today, he was working.
Check his website, maybe?
Anyway, he's definitely still around.
If you talk about something being diametric to something else, you mean that they are opposites. But "diametrically opposed" STILL means opposites; it's one of the few phrases where the double-negative rule doesn't operate.
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Post by alanc303 on Mar 10, 2006 22:59:47 GMT -5
Useless Knowledge:
Hermione is a girl
*runs away*
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Post by Hermione on Mar 11, 2006 0:28:43 GMT -5
 Actually, you're forgiven, because you've found it for me again! It was lost. It really really was, I swear... I'm still missing my mind, aren't I? Lol. So, the tidbit (I don't know why, it struck me as humourous when I first read it) for today is this: Scholars consider Diogenes (the philosopher in the barrel, not the one who WROTE about the one in the barrel) to be the first "cosmopolitan". Apparently he was the first to be recorded as saying something like, "I am not (merely) a citizen of Athens, I am a citizen of the cosmos (which is greek for, oh, let's call it world. Not earth, that's terre. Bah! Enough already!)." Diogenes as a cosmopolitan, though... what a picture! What a picture!
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Post by alanc303 on Mar 11, 2006 16:12:56 GMT -5
lol...i'm laughing about how it struck ya as humourous.
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Post by Hermione on Mar 11, 2006 16:18:11 GMT -5
Well...
this is the guy who lived on onions. Imagine someone with that kind of breath being considered "cosmopolitan".
Oh, okay, so I have a strange sense of humour...
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Post by alanc303 on Mar 11, 2006 17:20:28 GMT -5
i live on onions too! and celery, and broccoli and more! lol
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Post by Potter on Mar 11, 2006 19:15:28 GMT -5
No, actually I got them from the back of oatmeal packages... Go college life!!!
Useless knowledge:
An Arowana is a fish that grows to be 7-9 feet long and eats monkeys out of their trees.
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Post by alanc303 on Mar 11, 2006 19:23:20 GMT -5
Useless Knowledge: Paedocypris progenetica is the smallest known fish, with a length of 7.9 mm when sexually mature
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Post by Hermione on Mar 11, 2006 22:26:23 GMT -5
Seahorses have very strange life cycles: the female lays her eggs in the male's belly pouch, so when they hatch it rather looks like the males give birth.
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Post by alanc303 on Mar 11, 2006 23:08:24 GMT -5
ugh...i wouldn't want to be accused of being an abnormal male!
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Post by Hermione on Mar 12, 2006 3:02:30 GMT -5
Hey, seahorse males make MUCH better parents than the females, so it's not a bad thing in this case. But I agree, I'm having trouble envisioning you as a sea-horse... |
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Post by alanc303 on Mar 12, 2006 9:47:13 GMT -5
*inches away from Hermione*
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