Cabbage is 91% water.
Cows, rice fields and garbage dumps are the largest producers of methane gas.
The statuettes on Rolls Royces are called The Spirit of Ecstasy!
In ancient times, parsley wreaths were used to ward off drunkenness.
A Boeing 747 plane holds about 216,846 litres of fuel. (I'd hate to pay that fuel bill!)
The garfish has green bones.
Hair grows slowest at night.
The skeleton of a 70kg body weighs about 13kg. (There goes my excuse!!)
If you have ozostomia, you are suffering from halitosis, or bad breath.
Quote from: "Kaysea"The statuettes on Rolls Royces are called The Spirit of Ecstasy!
:: preens :: I knew that one!
Quote from: "Kaysea"Cabbage is 91% water.
Cows, rice fields and garbage dumps are the largest producers of methane gas.
Hair grows slowest at night.
I knew all those! Go random knowledge that can never be practically used unless I go on Jepordy!
If all the gold suspended in the worlds seawater were mined, each person on earth would receive about 4kg. (I'm off to the beach - anyone wanna join me?)
When born, the white whale is black!
The bird that lays the largest egg in relation to its own size is the Kiwi.
When first born, a shrimp is male. Over time it gradually evolves into a female.
Argentinians eat more meat than any other nation in the world.
Americans consume about 100 acres of pizza a day.
It is estimated that a plastic container will not decompose for as long as 50,000 years.
The only part of the human anatomy that has no blood supply is the cornea.
On average people fear spiders more than they do death. You are more likely to be killed by a champagne cork than by a poisonous spider.
You are more likely to be killed by a bee sting, or an attact by a wildboar than by a shark.
A group of doves is called a salvation.
A ducks quack doesn't echo and no one knows why.
When a giraffe's baby is born it falls from a height of six feet, normally without being hurt.
An Ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
The muzzle of a lion is like a fingerprint - no two lions have the same pattern of whiskers.
Quote from: "Anwen"A ducks quack doesn't echo and no one knows why.
Call me a party pooper, but I know why
Quote from: "Mikel"Quote from: "Anwen"A ducks quack doesn't echo and no one knows why.
Call me a party pooper, but I know why
Ok! Tell us then!!! :bounce:
Quote from: "Anwen"Quote from: "Mikel"Quote from: "Anwen"A ducks quack doesn't echo and no one knows why.
Call me a party pooper, but I know why
Ok! Tell us then!!! :bounce:
You only hear ducks out in filed or on water, where there is nothing for sound to bounce off of to cause an echo.
Quote from: "Mikel"Quote from: "Anwen"Quote from: "Mikel"Quote from: "Anwen"A ducks quack doesn't echo and no one knows why.
Call me a party pooper, but I know why
Ok! Tell us then!!! :bounce:
You only hear ducks out in filed or on water, where there is nothing for sound to bounce off of to cause an echo.
Haha Very funny. I don't think thats what she meant.
Quote from: "Patrick"Quote from: "Mikel"Quote from: "Anwen"Quote from: "Mikel"Quote from: "Anwen"A ducks quack doesn't echo and no one knows why.
Call me a party pooper, but I know why
Ok! Tell us then!!! :bounce:
You only hear ducks out in filed or on water, where there is nothing for sound to bounce off of to cause an echo.
Haha Very funny. I don't think thats what she meant.
Maybe not, but it is true. If you put a duck in an echo-likely environment, it will echo just like any other sound.
Are you sure?
Yeah, I read it in Scientific America a few decades ago
Quote from: "Anwen"On average people fear spiders more than they do death. You are more likely to be killed by a champagne cork than by a poisonous spider.
I would just like to say, from somebody who agrees with the first part of this, that phobias about spiders have naff all to do with them being poisonous. We don't have deadly spiders here, and all the ones we do have are small (compared to some found overseas) and that makes NOT ONE BIT OF DIFFERENCE TO ME. If it was rational, it wouldn't be a phobia.
I hate spiders, but I'm not afraid of being bitten by one. It's their eight legs and eight eyes that get me, and their speed and unpredicatblility. Thankfully, living in Japan has helped me somewhat. I figure its rather hard to be afraid of a spider as big as my thumbnail when I've run into ones as big as my face...
Oh yeah spiders scare the crap out of me. And its not like I'm scared of getting bitten or anything. No I'm very respectful of spiders in their natural habitat, but if I see one anywhere near me in MY house. Its dead. Its just the way they move. *shivers*
Remind me one of these days to tell you about my little mate - the pet spider you have when you don't have a pet spider.
*nod nod*
QuoteNo I'm very respectful of spiders in their natural habitat, but if I see one anywhere near me in MY house. Its dead.
That's how I was before. I used to kill pretty much any spider I saw in my place. I don't mind them outside where they have natural preditors, but I figured indoors they had none so it was up to me to control their population ;)
But here, I discovered that there are so many OTHER bugs (especially mosquitoes) that get into the house, spiders inside are actually a necessity. So I now have a spider rule. If its as big or smaller than my thumbnail it can stay. If I'm feeling particular merciful/lazy, I might let one slightly bigger stay as long as it goes into hiding, but I will give it a verbal warning (and yes, I do talk to my spiders outloud). If any spider comes within a foot of my body, though, its toast. Huntsman of any size will be killed on the spot, unless they're full grown, in which case I would rather move out of my apartment and leave all my stuff in it than hunt that sucker down.
(If you don't know what a huntsman is, and are insanely curious, you can look here (http://www.giftlog.com/pictures/photo/hantsman_spider1.jpg), and yes, I have seen one that size in a house before though thankfully not mine - BREE DON'T LOOK!)
*falls off chair laughing*
That was my little mate...
That practically gave me a heart attack. If I saw that within a MILE of me I'd be moving out of the country. *convulse* (it was to big for a shiver)
They are a common occurrence in my house during the year..... my hubby and kids say I am too soft on them, as long as they don't come down to eye level - they can stay. If they come down to cat level - they are playing with fire, because my cat likes the way they taste..
Are yours fast? These ones here are FAST. I watched one run across a 10 foot ceiling in 2 seconds. I was so glad that wasn't MY bedroom, let me tell ya.
Big and fast and the kids reckon the vacuum cleaner trick doesn't work any more, they run down the hose at whoever is holding it.
... I was already freaking out because of the last Lost episode.
Now I may never, ever sleep again.
*cries*
(And I didn't even click the link... just read the stories! *SOB*)
Those things are FREAKY when they're running towards you too *cries*
I'm not at all afraid of spiders... but I admit that I absolutely HATE cockroaches!!!! I'm not exactly certain why... but they just totally gross me out! When I lived in Hawaii I had a rule that if they stayed in the common rooms of our house then they weren't my problem... but if they came in my bedroom or bathroom they were dead!
I'm NEVER looking at this post again. Or going into the pacific region. *convulse*
I like spiders.
And snakes.
Of course, that's assuming that I know where they are and they're not sneaking up on me or lying somewhere waiting for me to step on them.
If a spider startles me, it may be in trouble. Otherwise I have no issues with them and appreciate the good they do.
Given my choice, I will peacefully escort them outside.
Quote from: "Kaysea"They are a common occurrence in my house during the year.....
Crosses Victoria and Japan off the 'places I am prepared to visit' list.
Best (worst) eight-legger story? (And I must say my skin is crawling just writing this.)
This huge (in New Zealand terms) spider turned up in the bottom of the shower. I screamed for my husband but by the time he accepted that it was a life-and-death emergency and dawdled down to the room the spider had crawled up behind the corner of the wallboard.
Incoherent me tried to explain what had happened and finally he agreed to spray half a can of insect killer up the hole. I told him I still couldn't use the shower but that was okay, we had a spare. We went off about our business but the very next time I stuck my head back in that bathroom and found the spider had come back out to die.
More screaming and my husband this time was a little more sympathetic, being able to see that it had indeed been a very big spider. He volunteered to get rid of the body (like there was any other choice in our two person household!) and life got back to normal.
About a week later I went around to visit my dad (he and my husband are great friends) and as I'm leaving dad reaches into the cupboard and pulls out a glass jar. "Do you want this back?" he asked.
It was Alien all over again! My #@$%* husband had saved the body and taken it around to show my dad!
Let this be a lesson to you spider-phobia people - just don't trust those who don't share your phobia to understand appropriate behaviour. They have no bloody idea!
Quote from: "Vix"I like spiders.
And snakes.
Snakes are fun! :bounce: We had pet snakes growing up. One time, when I was about 8 when they mowed a field across the street we found an injured garter snake that they had hit. We took her home and nursed her back to health, then let her go.
Quote from: "Anwen"Snakes are fun!
I *think* I would like snakes but we don't have any in New Zealand.
Quote from: "Jane"About a week later I went around to visit my dad (he and my husband are great friends) and as I'm leaving dad reaches into the cupboard and pulls out a glass jar. "Do you want this back?" he asked.
I think I love your dad
My best spider story ever was actually not MY story specifically, it was my friend's...
I was helping to film two old shipbuilders building a traditional handmade wooden boat with/for my friend Tom, who lives out in a little fishing village 20 minutes outside of town. Since they only worked on it on the weekends we (me and one or two other guys) would stay over Saturday night, and of course there was usually some sort of drinking involved.
One night, the other two boys had crashed and I was still awake checking my e-mail. Tom walked by on his way to bed and said good night. I heard him walk into his bathroom, and then I heard an "Oh s%&*!!!" and the toilet flush. Then I heard it again. He then went about his business. Being in a house full of boys, I figured someone had left him a present.
Tom came back out and said "You'll never believe what I just found in the toilet bowl!" And of course I think thinking **Please don't describe it to me, that's just gross...** but as the sister of three brothers I heaved an inward sigh and asked "Oh yeah? What?" "When I flipped on the light, I looked down into the toilet bowl and there was the biggest spider I'd ever seen in my life!" (Which would scare me enough just right there since he gets huntsmen on a daily basis in the summer...) "A huntsman in it that filled the ENTIRE BOWL of the toilet! I tried to flush it and it swirled down the drain, but when the tank had emptied itself, it's legs were still sticking out of the hole wiggling, so I had to flush that sucker TWICE to get the whole thing down!"
Yeah, needless to say, no matter how much I had to drink that night, I didn't use the toilet again for LITERALLY 12 hours...
Oh gods... Spiders... *shudders and twitches*
I can tell you _exactly_ where my arachnophobia began. First, I was already creeped by the little uglies after seeing the movie Something Wicked This Way Comes. There's a scene where the main character (a kid) wakes up in the middle of the night and his ceiling cracks and all these spiders swarm in... So what happens to me a couple years later? I had the singularly despicable experience of having a nest of brown spiders created in my mattress. Woke up incredibly itchy/tickly and looked down to find me and my blankets covered in newborn spiders.
A decade later, I went to Oz. Woke up, went to the bathroom, and nearly passed out at the sight of a massive (aka bigger than my HEAD!) huntsman in the sink! (And yes, Kaysea, this was in Victoria! The northern area, but still) I screamed like a little girl, and my friend Allan's mum came in and was like 'Oh, I guess that would be a little startling the first thing in the morning. Go use my loo, I'll take care of it.'
Strangely, snakes I am okay with, as long as I know they're there. I have a ball python in my apartment right now and he's okay, I can pick him up and watch him eat and all that. Reptile House at the zoo, yep, I know to expect snakes. Now, if I turn around and a keeper has one out in close proximity, it skeeves me out.
Well, after a hard day at work I came home to find the family had finished dinner, but had left mine in the microwave. Not wanting to sit and eat all on my own in the dining room, I took my plate into the lounge, and sat down on the couch to eat my meal.
The light wasn't on coz they were watching a horror movie. I sat down and started eating dinner, I was glancing from my plate to the screen so my eyes weren't fully focused any time I looked down at the food.
One time I glanced down, took a fork full, and was about to look back at the screen when I saw a greyish coloured shape on my knee. Even in a dark room, with dark pants I could tell that really shouldn't have been there.
It took me a minute or so to realise what it actually was. The plate when flying across the room, as did the poor bloody huntsman. I broke off one of his legs.
The kids flicked on the light switch and there he is with only seven of his legs, and one of those was broken. He hobbled off behind the speaker while I cleaned up my dinner.
The next day he had made it to the top of the floor based speaker, and lay there for the next few days recuperating from his experience. Then a few nights later, hubby is sitting on the couch nearby the speaker, and the cat, Jett, walks in. I am once again have a late dinner, and shooed the cat away from me.
Jett went over to hubby, and perched on the arm of the couch for a moment. Then decided the speaker would be a better vantage point and pounced. The spider saw the shape of Jett coming, and leapt off the speaker onto the floor. The cat spotted the spider and pounced down after him, stood on him with a paw before taking the spider in his mouth.
He then walked over to the floor in front of me, sat down and proceeded to eat my little mate - right in front of me.
Meanwhile, my husband is in tears of laughter at the look of horror on my face. Not because I saw the spider getting eaten because it was a gory sight, but because my little mate was eaten by the cat!!!
I didn't talk to the cat for over a week!
~~~
But there is the time I got trapped in the bathtub by a huntsman and the hubby and the brother laughed at me - until the brother flicked the huntsman out of the pelmet over the window -- they soon joined me in the bathtub! Now if I scream spider, they know I mean B I G spider.
Quote from: "Kaysea"But there is the time I got trapped in the bathtub by a huntsman and the hubby and the brother laughed at me - until the brother flicked the huntsman out of the pelmet over the window -- they soon joined me in the bathtub! Now if I scream spider, they know I mean B I G spider.
Pelmet?
Your husband AND brother joined you in the tub?
Quote from: "Mikel"Quote from: "Kaysea"But there is the time I got trapped in the bathtub by a huntsman and the hubby and the brother laughed at me - until the brother flicked the huntsman out of the pelmet over the window -- they soon joined me in the bathtub! Now if I scream spider, they know I mean B I G spider.
Pelmet?
Your husband AND brother joined you in the tub?
Pelmet is like a cover that fits over the curtain rail...
And yes, the huntsman dropped down from under the pelmet, and stood on his hind legs with his forelegs in the air, watching the guys..... they jumped into the bath with me..
And I've just realised.... I wasn't bathing - I was cleaning the bath! We were moving out of the house and I was doing a final clean before we gave the keys back.
*falls off chair laughing in hysterics, at the impression she gave*