What new thing have you learned recently?

Which space is that?

Under pain of death?

myspace.com. i don't know anything about it, except that some would be school shooters have been nabbed because of something they posted there.

She won't say but I did find one of my rat tale files in her bed next to some tooth shavings!

that site looks like a teen dating service.

<yuk>

Huh? You okay?

Some World Records

Arranging A Deck Of Cards - Fastest Time
Kunihiko Terada (Japan) arranged a shuffled deck of cards in order (Ace through Ten, Jack, Queen, King for Diamonds, Clubs, Hearts and Spades), in his hands only, in 40.36 sec at the Hard Rock Cafe, Tokyo, Japan on January 25, 2004.


Fastest 100m On A Unicycle
Peter Rosendahl set a unicycle sprint record for 100 m from a standing start of 12.11 sec (29.72 km/h, or 18.47 mph) at Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, on March 25, 1994. His unicycle talents have achieved him eight Guinness World Records, taken him to 36 countries and won him appearances on 75 TV shows.


Loudest Scream
Classroom assistant Jill Drake (UK) screamed at an incredible 129 decibels when measured at the Halloween festivities held in the Millennium Dome in London, UK, in October 2000. To spook out visitors in the run up to Halloween, organizers at the Dome were challenging people to beat the loudest scream record.

When Jill took to the stage, her screaming broke the record, not just once, but twice in a row! However, she only needed one attempt to reach an ear-splitting 129 decibels. The British classroom assistant couldn't believe her ears when she was told her decibels were the most deafening. And how did she react to that? "Absolute amazement, I knew I was loud, but not that loud," she says.

It wasn't her big shout that gave her a sore throat, though, it was all the talking she had to do afterwards! Her achievement took her on a celebratory whirlwind tour of the chat show circuit. "I did 11 live radio shows and made a TV appearance. I was very, very hoarse for a while," she croaks.

Jill admits she's had plenty of yelling practice in the past, thanks to her two sons playing loud music in a three-story house. "I used to shout up at them as I was the only one they could hear above the music," she laughs. However, she protests she doesn't use her lung power in the classroom. "Believe it or not, I don't shout and scream at the children. I am very placid and quiet at school!"


Strangest Diet
Michel Lotito (aka Monsieur Mangetout) from Grenoble, France, has been eating metal and glass since 1959. Gastroenterologists have described his ability to consume 900 g (2 lb) of metal per day as "unique". Mangetout - Michel's nickname - literally translates as "eats everything". Michel says bananas and hard-boiled eggs make him sick.


Most Cards Memorized
British mindbender Dominic O'Brien memorized on a single sighting a random sequence of 54 separate packs of cards all shuffled together (2,808 playing cards) at the basement bar of Simpson's-In-The-Strand, London, UK, on May 1, 2002.

It took Dominic 11 hours 42 minutes to memorize the 54 packs, and reciting them in the exact sequence took 3 hours 30 minutes. Guinness World Record rules allow only 0.5% margin of error (so no more than 14 errors), and memory-man Dominic completed the record with just eight errors - four mistakes and four prompted corrections.

A Leg Up On Other Creatures

If you've ever wondered why the octopus has eight legs, it might be because the mothers need them when they go into a dark cave, and lay up to 100,000 eggs. Each egg has a string attached, and she links them together and hangs the entire bunch from the ceiling, standing guard over them until they hatch in approximately 50 days. At that time, the "kids" may very well become motherless, as many females die of starvation before the hatchlings emerge.

Depending on the species, an adult octopus can be as small as one inch, like the male Walnut Octopus, whose mate grows up to 6.5 feet long. Or, they can be as large as the Giant Pacific Octopus, which has been known to weigh 270 kg. with a spread of 23 feet from arm tip to arm tip.

One of their more interesting defense mechanisms, is the ability to shoot an ink out of its body when threatened. Depending on the predator and their eyesight, this can serve to disguise the octopus' scent, provide a screen behind which they escape, or form tendrils in the water, which mimic the octopus's limbs and cause the attacker to mistake the ink for the real thing.

Then there is their talent for changing color, either as a camouflage or because they are distressed. Like other cephalopods, the octopus has pigment cells called chromatophores, each of which holds three colors. Blended in various way, according to whatever trigger activates their nervous system, they can change from one color to another, in seconds.

Oddly enough, with all its other unique features, the octopus is the first one to falter when it comes to "armed" combat, even if they do have eight of them. That's because the oxygen carrying component of their blood, called hemocyanin, is copper-based, and less efficient at carrying oxygen through their systems, than the iron-based hemoglobin that humans have. Consequently, oxygen used up, the octopus tires easily in a struggle.


A baby octopus is about the size of a flea when it is born.

This Will Bowl You Over

Did King Tut play tenpin? It's quite possible, because bowling is one of the world's oldest known sports. The first recorded evidence of the basic equipment, was found in a pyramid from around 5,000B.C. It consisted of a ball and set of marble bars that appeared to be the accompanying pins, in case the pharaoh had some spare time in the afterlife.

In more modern times, or around 1200A.D., bowling for pins became popular in England, but it was strictly an outdoor sport. It would be at least another two centuries before the game moved indoors. The Brits still have lawn bowling, as well as other bowling related games such as skittles, nine pins and half-bowls.

In Europe, the game was first played with nine pins, and was carried to America with Dutch settlers, in that format. Not only did it become popular, it got to be a betting sport, and that propensity for wagering, is what caused the game to become "tenpin", according to popular legend. In 1840, the Connecticut legislature outlawed nine pins, due to excessive gambling on the outcome of games. Savvy players solved the minor problem by adding a tenth pin.

But they'd still be picking up those pins and setting them by hand, for another hundred years, until the invention of an automatic pinspotter in the 1940s.

Bowling remains such a popular sport today, that you'll find one of the world's largest bowling alleys in the Showboat Hotel, Las Vegas. It boasts 106 lanes. The former king of bowling, the now closed, was the Tokyo World Bowling Lanes Center in Japan, which had an unbelievable 252 lanes in one facility.

The world's biggest bowling alley is located in Las Vegas at the Showboat hotel and has 106 lanes.

Multi-tasking at Midnight

Researchers have always held that primates are the only animal/mammals on Earth, capable of higher order thinking. But in recent years they have had to revise those theories, as studies of dolphin behavior and activity, has brought to light, some fascinating new facts.

Although dolphins have not been studied to the extent that primates have, it is already evident that they are capable of learning and accomplishing many of the things that primates are, despite the fact that their brain structure, and mode of "thinking", is vastly different from man or apes.

For example, the human brain is constructed on a front to back axis, with the regions in the front of the brain being responsible for higher order functions. The outer layer of the brain, or cortex, is the sleep center, which requires replenishing or other functions suffer, such as speech, cognitive abilities, mood, and ability to reason.

The human and primate cortex, is made up of a great variety of cells. But in the dolphin, the brain has only a few patterns of cells that are repeated over and over. Only one half the dolphin brain "sleeps" at any given time, which allows the air-breathing dolphin, to stay at the surface, and swim if necessary, during periods of rest.

In comparison, the dolphin's brain size in ratio to its body, is greater than a primate's. Like humans, they are able to process information, solve problems, and communicate. And while their interaction with Man verges on "understanding", Man has yet to discover how to cross the communications barrier.

Dolphins can swim and sleep at the same time.

Watched a special on Leonardo Da Vinci last week on Modern Marvels (I think.). I had absolutely no idea how extensive his military inventions were, or his designs for scuba suits and robots! He truly was genius.

For those that want to bone up on Da vinci, HERE is a nice bio.

Maybe this is very, very late but I did not know until recently that Mya Rudolph on "Saturday Night Live" is the daughter of the late singer Minnie Riperton.

(thank goodness for Google)

Last night I was reading a romance set in Texas. There was talk about Satanta - a Kiowa. I got to wondering, so looked him up tonight.

Whadda ya know - he was real.

http://www.snowwowl.com/nativeleaders/satanta.html

You found it!



And I keep seeing something about Setanta on the BBC Online News page...
will give a link if I see it again.

HAHA! "White Bear Person"!!!

Well, I found something. I'm still not convinced this is what I was looking for - but it meets the need.

Is Setanta playing footie again?