Bell peppers (capsicums) have gender! Four bumps on the bottom are female and are full of seeds, and are sweeter, so better for eating raw. Three bumps on the bottom are male, and are better for cooking.
Unfortunately, not so.
Ah, well. Thanks. You just can’t trust Facebook!
I was surprised to find out how different periodic cicadas look from annual ones.
That the nostrils close and open alternatively over several minutes as a means of improving their function.
I was unaware of this - Wiki has some info under the entry “Nasal Cycle”, although the time duration of the cycle seems more on the scale of hours.
That, however, is nearly always true.
The reason the entire plane isn’t made out of “black box material” is, the plane would be too heavy to fly.
Here’s one I learned; while there is no general “exact” solution to a problem such as, “In a 6/49 Lotto, how many different tickets (where you choose the numbers) are necessary to guarantee that at least one will have at least 4 numbers drawn,” the number is always greater than:
combin(n,k) x (n - p + 1) / (combin(p-1, t-1) * combin(k, t) * (n - t + 1))
where combin(n,k) is the number of combinations of n things taken k at a time
n is the total number of balls (e.g. 49, in a 6/49 game)
p is the number drawn
k is the number on the ticket
t is the number you want to match
The California Sea Otter was believed to have been driven to extinction by fur traders in the 30’s. But then in 1938 a small group was discovered near the mouth of Bixby Creek in Big Sur - apparently having avoided the fur traders. Today the more than 2,000 that are protected and living in Big Sur are all descended from those scant survivors.
The California Condor, which I always pictured as some sort of majestic golden eagle looking thing, look more like turkey vultures. They mate for life, breed one baby at a time, don’t build nests, and the young stick around in their non-nest (like a hollowed-out log) for 18 months until they can go out on their own. It takes six months for them to even learn how to fly.
They used to feed on whales and other dead sea life that washed ashore, but that food source was wiped out by commercial whaling, and they have since forgotten how to hunt, so people will leave dead carcasses out for them to feed on.
They were down to exactly 22 birds for a while, but now there are around 430 in the wild. I’m rooting for them, but boy did they get a rough deal - both from us and from their own evolutionary traits.
Aha–that makes sense! I remember figuring out in eighth grade, doodling squares, that the distance between each square and the next is the series of odd numbers–also represented as 2n+1. So if the first triangle is a square (i.e., 1), then all other triangles will also have to be squares. Thanks!
Nonplussed AND unimpressed, thank you, but “nonplussed” is what I meant: they weren’t sure why I thought this was exciting. I may not know much advanced math, but I know my words :).
Yeah, well, thanks for nothing. Since I’ve learnt this handy fact, instead of knowing which side my gas cap is on I have to look at the damn arrow. Every fucking time!
Our two cars have it on opposite sides. Why I can’t keep straight which is which is one of the major mysteries in my otherwise simple life. Thank goodness for little triangles.
I learned today that carrageenan (the common food additive) has been in use for over 600 years. And the name is derived from Gaelic for “little stone”. And that it comes in three chemical types: kappa, iota, and lambda. And that under US labeling law, it’s considered “organic”. All those facts were surprising to me.
I already knew it was prepared from seaweed and used as a thickening / stabilizing agent.
And here’s another vote that sweetie pie’s cicadas are cool (post #13). I enjoyed living with Broods XIX & XXIII in MO. Here’s lots more info on some really cool bugs: http://www.magicicada.org/magicicada_2015.php
A couple of weeks ago I discovered oxygen concentrators for the first time. I always thought that all those folks with COPD were carting around oxygen bottles! Oxygen concentrators actually work by scrubbing out nitrogen from room air, leaving behind oygen and trace gases. They have been in common(?) use for about 15 years. They also have other applications (welding, crafting, etc).
It wasn’t that long ago that they were carting either pressurized oxygen bottles or small LOX canisters. Dangerous as heck. Concentrators really hit the mainstream only in the last 5-ish years.
The bird, Purple Martins, can only really survive with the help of people, on the east coast, by people making houses for them. Luckily lots of people love the things and are devoted to making the houses and keeping an eye on them.
Eight minute NPR video.
Which is why this is a way to break yourself of a nasal spray addiction. I had one for years, then tried spraying only one nostril. After only a few days or a week the unsprayed nostril got over the “rebound effect” and I could finally stop using any spray at all.
Mine: debride isn’t only de one in the white dress. It also means pulling off dead skin on/around a healing injury.
I just now learned that Febreze Air Effects room spray (Linen & Sky flavor) will kill house flies.
There was one buzzing on the window next to me here at the computer, so I sprayed** it to knock it down while I got up to grab the fly swatter. When I got back it was dead already.
WTH is in this stuff???
**I really soaked it. My guess is that there’s a fine powder in the mist that clogs the fly’s respiratory system. They “breath” (if I remember my college bio right) through holes in their legs and carapace.
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It does help if you’re driving an unfamiliar car, like a rental, company or, family members car.
I learned that the smallest known vertebrate in the world is a frog, found about 3 years ago. And I found that out because scientists have announced finding 7 new species of miniature frogs. They’re kinda cute.
In the Klondike solitaire game on Windows 8, when all of the cards are showing I have always clicked on each individual card to move them up to the stacks. Tonight for the first time I discovered a little button down in the bottom right corner of the screen - “Solve” - which moves all of the cards up for you.