The Dreadnought Hoax

 Since tomorrow is April Fools Day, I figured I'd start a bit early so you don't think this is a prank. It's not. Tomorrow, I might find something fun to prank you with though. 

To start with, this happened in 1910, in February, and it was put forth by a group of six, including the famed prankster William Horace de Vere Cole. 

The prank itself wouldn't work nowadays and was one of those things that would have half those hearing about it freaking out and trying to make sure it would never happen again, and the other half laughing and probably having a lower opinion of those pranked. Please remember that things were a lot different then, a lot of the things you take for granted weren't there for them to use, and it's better to be careful than risk things getting really bad. 

With a few of his fellow Cambridge students, William Horace de Vere Cole, hereby known as Cole, did a lot of pranks. He was kinda known for them, but that reputation hadn't spread far. When he was trying to come up with a new prank idea, one of his friends had a suggestion that grew into this. 

Knowing that the Sultan of Zanzibar was in the country, they decided to impersonate him. Since his picture had been in the paper, they knew they couldn't impersonate him personally, so they instead pretended to be his uncle, with costumes and dark-face makeup, and they left Cambridge town on a train, then got off and sent a telegram to the Mayor to let him know, and got on a train back. The Mayor greeted them and accompanied them around town, treating them like he would any actual diplomat. 

They nearly got expelled from the University for this, but they managed to talk their way out of it and the prank became public knowledge. 

That's why Cole had to wait 5 years for the prank that this whole post is about. The group was larger for this time, so they didn't just pretend to be the uncle and his attendant. This time, Cole pretended to be from the Foreign Office, his friend was a translator, and the rest of the group were to be the Emperor of Abyssinia, now Ethiopia, and his retinue/princes. One of those in the group actually went on to become Virginia Woolf, so don't think they were all silly boys being ridiculous. They had a silly girl along too. 

The actual prank was done by sending a telegram ahead, then getting into costume and meeting an Admiral, then going for a tour of his ship as African Royalty. As they would for any royal, the Admiral and all the Navy personnel did their best to show respect and made a point of how honored they are for being visited, bringing out the red carpet every step of the way. 

At the end of the day, their beards becoming unglued by sweat and their makeup starting to run, the group escaped back onto to the train. 

When they were planning it, it wasn't intended to be something they publicized, as the previous one had been, but none were actually that surprised when the picture above did end up in the newspaper, or when the Navy found the pranksters and got grumpy at them, but there wasn't really much punishment given, for all the embarrassment they felt. 

I'm really not doing it justice. I'll probably have to rewrite this a few times to get it right, since I don't want to go into all the details that are available, but this really was a big deal then, both for what the Navy showed to the Royalty, and how ridiculously slender the scam was from Cole's side-- none of them could speak 'Abyssinian', so they just said nonsense and their translator had to figure out both what they were saying and how to respond in a way that sounded acceptable to the Navy, the trio of retinue/princes weren't clearly one or the other, and Cole apparently actually knew one of the Navy men, though barely. They were relying on no one asking questions and no one knowing better, neither of which are good things to rely on.

I don't want to spend pages waxing lyrical about their prank though, so I'll direct you to the links below, which have more details and quotes of how this prank was pulled off, and how guilty the pranksters felt afterwards, considering how earnest the Navymen were. I think this was a great prank, but I also feel a bit bad continuing the story, so I can understand it. I'm going to sign off here before I decide to delete the entire post to preserve the reputation of the British Navy, and the men of the time. 

Go read the links, they've got the story better. 

Sources/Better versions of the story:

National Archive-- Dreadnought Hoax

The Guardian-- The Dreadnought Hoax

National Portrait Gallery- The Dreadnought Hoax

Historical UK-- The Dreadnought Hoax

Lithub-- Dreadnought Hoax

US Naval Institute-- The Dreadnought Hoax

The Marginalian-- Dreadnought Hoax

A book of the First Hand account of the prank, on Amazon

Saiga

 Before I start telling you about the Saiga, I do want to take a moment to cheer that I've managed to get to 100 posts here! I'm extremely proud of myself for that because I have bad issues with planning things out, then losing interest. I love learning and researching things, and I can usually manage to stick to something long enough to get things started, but I have issues not sticking with things. I've been planning this blog for a while, but it took me over a decade to not just start the blog, but stick with it. So, I'm proud of myself for staying at this, and I'm really hopeful I'll be able to keep at it and start sticking with things in other parts of my life too. Here's to hoping. 

Now for the Saiga. It's an antelope, but it's sometimes called the world's weirdest/quirkiest antelope, and even sometimes even considered muppet-like. One of the most obvious reasons for that is...well, I'll show you. Here's a picture from the San Diego Zoo link below. 

As you can see, they've got some lovely antlers. (Just curious, did you have to look up again to see them, in case they were more interesting than the nose that you probably spotted first? No shame. The nose is a bit distracting.)

The thing there is the same as several other animals with large noses. The larger nose keeps heat in from the air they breathe out, so the air they breathe in isn't as cold to them. Or, at least, that's the theory as I understand it. They also filter out the dust that gets kicked up by them running around in herds. 

And, obviously, the noses help them find mates because the guys make nasal roars to advertise themselves, so having giant noses helps there. 

This picture is from the Gateway to Russia link below. 

Among the interesting things about these guys though is that they are among the short list of species that existed alongside Mammoths and wooly rhinos. Comparatively speaking, Mammoths aren't that long ago, but these antelopes are only about the size of goat and they shared space with Mammoths. 

Not this one, pic from the US Fish and Wildlife link below, but it's ancestors certainly. 

Saigas actually have had a bit of a rough ride over the last 150 years. There were a lot of them, then they became rarer around 1920 and got put under protection, bounced back a lot by 1950, have been hunted a bit more since then, have been protected more, and are now probably back to being populous enough to be ok. 

These guys are also a bit unique because they travel a lot. They wander all over, and can travel--across land--over 70 miles a day. Humans can't do that, or at least not often. The Saiga can do that, with a nap in the middle of the day, in part because they can run at 50 miles an hour at top speed. So, an hour at top speed and a few hours at lower speeds, and that 70 miles goes by fast. 

Like a lot of animals, there is a large market out there for the meat, skin, and horns of Saiga, but they're worth a lot more than that. Thankfully though, they bounce back easily and hopefully future generations of humans will be able to meet them and laugh at their noses. Don't even try to tell me you didn't at least chuckle. Thanks for reading, I'll see you for post 101 soon. 

Sources:

Encyclopedia Britannica-- Saiga

Saiga Conservation Site

San Diego Zoo-- Saiga

Gateway To Russia-- Saiga

Earth's Endangered Creatures-- Saiga

US Fish And Wildlife-- Saiga

Science Direct- Saiga Study

Animal Diversity Web-- Saiga

Mongolia Web-- Saiga

National Geographic-- The Saiga's Story of Conservation

Flora and Fauna-- Saiga

Fact Animal-- Saiga

A-Z Animals- Saiga

Discover Wildlife-- The Antelope that looks like it comes from Star Wars

213 Things Skippy is No Longer Allowed to Do In The U.S. Army

 I feel like sharing something ridiculous tonight, so here's something almost guaranteed to make you smile. 

The original website has been taken down, but there are a few good copies, and I'm going to get one myself to keep for future rainy days when I need it. 

Skippy is actually SPC Schwarz, and he was either very bored or very mischievous about things, managing to accumulate a list of 213 things that he is not allowed to do. Presumably, these are things no one is allowed to do, so please do not blame me if you're in the military and try one or more of these things. (It might just be me, but he reminds me of Hawkeye from M*A*S*H*, an old TV show that is rather awesome in my opinion.)

Just so you can understand why I love this list so much and why I can almost guarantee that it'll make you laugh. 

 2. My proper military title is ‘Specialist Schwarz’ not ‘Princess Anastasia’.

7. Not allowed to add ‘In accordance with the prophesy’ to the end of answers I give to a question an officer asks me.

10. Not allowed to purchase anyone’s soul on Government time.

 12. Not allowed to join any militia.

 13. Not allowed to form any militia.

16. Must get a haircut even if it tampers with my ‘Sampson like powers’.

 17. God may not contradict any of my orders.

 18. May no longer perform my now (in)famous ‘Barbie Girl Dance’ while on duty.

 19. May not call any officers immoral, untrustworthy, lying, slime, even if I’m right.

16. Must get a haircut even if it tampers with my ‘Sampson like powers’.

 17. God may not contradict any of my orders.

 18. May no longer perform my now (in)famous ‘Barbie Girl Dance’ while on duty.

 19. May not call any officers immoral, untrustworthy, lying, slime, even if I’m right.

58. The following words and phrases may not be used in a cadence- Budding sexuality, necrophilia, I hate everyone in this formation and wish they were dead, sexual lubrication, black earth mother, all Marines are latent homosexuals, Tantric yoga, Gotterdammerung, Korean hooker, Eskimo Nell, we’ve all got jackboots now, slut puppy, or any references to squid.

 66. There is no ‘Anti-Mime’ campaign in Bosnia.

 79. I am neither the king nor queen of cheese.

 80. Not allowed to wear a dress to any army functions.

 81. May not bring a drag queen to the battalion formal dance.

87. If the thought of something makes me giggle for longer than 15 seconds, I am to assume that I am not allowed to do it.

That actually should be the last one on the list entirely, but I'll take it as the last one here. There are a lot more on the official list, linked below, so I'd really suggest going to look at them. Have fun, and I hope you laughed. 

The Entire Lists:

Wild Boar Blog-- 213 Things Skippy is No longer allowed to do

Avalanche Company-- 213 Things Skippy Is No Longer Allowed To Do

TV Trope-- Skippy's List

Professional Soldiers-- 213 things Skippy is No Longer Allowed to Do

Disclaimer: I am not suggesting anyone use any of these ideas and am not responsible for any trouble you or those around you may get into because of the knowledge of this list and the ideas within. If you want to write to me to blame me though, I might consider apologizing in return for a full story. Only if it's good though. 

Jerboa

 Now for something adorable. Seriously. 

Meet the Jerboa, taken from A-Z Animals:

This one is a Five-Toed Jerboa from Iran. Jerboas are small rodents that live in the deserts of Africa and Asia, with 33 different types. They've got a lot of variation among them, especially in things like their ear size, but they've all got short fore-limbs and long back legs, and they've got long tails that are used to help them balance. They need it, because Jerboas are between 2-6 inches big (this doesn't include their tails, which can be up to twice as long as the rest of them) and have been found sometimes able to jump more than 5 feet forward when they get moving. The Long Eared Jerboa, picture below from A-Z Animals, is considered the best jumper of the group. 

Another interesting thing about them is that they don't drink water. They get all the water they need from their food. They tend to eat whatever they can find, so it might be bugs or it might be whatever plants are around. 

These guys go out at night because it's too hot during the day, and they've got several burrows they trade between. They'll actually create a pair of semi-permanent burrows for summer/winter, and sometimes have other burrows that they make for when they need to go further afield for food. They hibernate during the winter, so their winter burrow is built to hold in the heat and keep them safe, while the summer burrow is where babies are born and is easier to go in and out of. 

These tiny rodents are a bit paranoid because there are predators that hunt them, and they're not easy to spot because of their natural camouflage, so it can be hard to spot them in the wild, but they're also a source of great interest because their limb formations are unique and Scientists (they deserve the capitalization right now) think they can shed light on how kangaroos started jumping, and how evolution makes the choices it does, overall. It's also an interesting case for biomechanics, which is something of a recent field that tries to figure out how creatures move and how they work, which can then be applied to fossils to figure out what they acted like when alive more. 

Wrapping up this so you can go look up more pictures of their adorableness, I'd like to make sure you know that they don't make good pets, you aren't allowed to have one as a pet, and if you decide to get one anyway, you might get hit with monkey-pox, because they are known carriers. If you decide to get one as a pet even though they really aren't ok with being pets, you kinda deserve the monkeypox anyway. 

That said, I hope you liked the adorableness and I'll see you again soon. 

Sources:

Britannica-- Jerboa

A-Z Animals-- Jerboa

Animalia--Baluchistan Pygmy Jerboa

Fact Animal-- Joyful Jerboa Facts

Animal Diversity Web-- Jerboa Family

Animalia-- Long Eared Jerboa

UC San Diego-- Jerboas shed light on limb development

AAAS--How the Jerboa Got It's Giant Feet

World Wildlife Fund- The Long Eared Jerboa Hops in a Class of It's Own

World's Oldest known story-puzzle

 Ok, this is a bit ridiculous, and I apologize for breaking pattern if anyone objects. 

There's a really old logic puzzle about a guy that is going to market and he has three things with him that he needs to cross the river with, but the boat is tiny and he can only bring one thing at a time, but he can't leave these sets of two things together. 

It doesn't make sense there, but give me a minute. 

The version I know of was grain, goose, and fox. The one they had was cabbage, goat, wolf. I've heard others with chickens and corn, or other things. 

The main thing with the story is that the first thing, grain/corn/cabbage, can't be left with the chicken/goose/goat, and that one can't be left with the third thing, the wolf/fox, but you can only take one on the boat and you have to get all three of them from one bank to the next. 

It's a bit annoying because the easiest way is to take the second thing, then go back and grab the first, bring the second back to the first bank, take the third to the second bank, then grab the second thing again. Sorry that it's a bit confusing. 

The reason I wanted to share this though, and that made me giggle for a while, was that this came up on an episode of 'The Infinite Monkey Cage', called 'How To Beat The House and Win At Games', released in January 2017, and the guy who brought it up seriously regretted it. He'd brought up the version with the cabbage, goat, and wolf, and the physicists that were on the panel also jumped in to point out all the problems that the story had. 

The first problem pointed out was why is the guy travelling, presumably alone, with such an assortment of stuff? Why bring the wolf/fox with him? Why would he have a wolf/fox anyway? 

Then, why is the boat so small? Why not stick to one side of the river or wait for a bigger boat? Plus, going back and forth that many times has to be exhausting.

Once you get passed those, there was a bit of a discussion about how you'd obviously have to tie up the goat and wolf, so couldn't you just tie them up far enough apart? 

And, the thing that really sidetracked it all was that the wolf/fox would probably be ok with eating the grain/corn/cabbage if it was hungry enough. 

So, considering all those questions...I wonder how many poor teachers/parents brought this out to teach their kids and regretted it? 

And, one they didn't think of--if the river is calm enough for the guy to cross easily multiple times, why doesn't he make the fox/wolf swim across? Or the goose/chicken/goat, since those can all swim to some degree too. Silly farmer.

You might have a lot of fun listening to that episode of 'The Infinite Monkey Cage', so I've linked it below along with a transcript. I hope you got a laugh out of this, and I'll see you again soon later. 

Source:

PodScripts-- Transcript for the episode of Infinite Monkey Cage

BBC-- Infinite Monkey Cage-- How to Beat the House

Superb Lyrebird

 Warning, we're going back to Australia for a bit. If you don't already know, I've got opinions about Australia. You can go back and look and laugh ay me if you haven't read that already. 

For this post, I'm going to introduce you to the Superb Lyrebird. This picture is from the Australian Museum link below. 

So, they aren't the most interesting to look at, aside from that lovely tail, but that's not what they're known for. They're known for being mimics. You think a parrot is cool because it can copy human words? The lyrebird is known for being able to mimic the calls of birds around it, chainsaws, car alarms, dog barking, and a lot of other things. It's good enough that other birds will respond like it's actually one of their own that's making the call, instead of knowing it's a lyrebird. Human ears don't stand a chance compared to that. 

There's even some evidence that they can copy sounds that they hear from other lyrebirds, leading to generational learning in a way. They think this because there are some birds that have been known to make calls that can be recognized from pilot-bird research, despite pilot-birds being gone for 10 years. Then again, the birds can supposedly survive for up to 20 years, so maybe they just remember calls from their childhood. 

The picture above is from the PBS link below. 

There are only two types of Lyrebird, the more common Superb Lyrebird, and the less common Albert's Lyrebird. They're the only ones in their family, so they're pretty unique among birds. 

This picture is from Audubon, below. It's a Lyrebird with it's feathers out for a courtship display. They use their feathers and their copied sounds from their surroundings to try to get a female to mate with them. It's actually their feathers that got them their name, not their musical ability despite the lyre being a musical instrument. They became a bit rare for a bit because their lovely 2 foot long tailfeathers became greatly sought as decorations. 

Because of their notoriety, they're actually on an Australian Coin, and is one of the emblems for their Parks and Wildlife Service. They're a bit well known because they aren't rare in their habitats, and they are ground-bound mostly so they're easier to spot. They can fly, they just don't do it much. 

One of the more recent discoveries about them that makes them really awesome and important to life is that they dig for worms and stuff, so they turn over a lot of soil and that helps with fire prevention. So, we really need them, and we should take a lesson from them to try to prevent fires elsewhere. 

Since they're from Australia, I know they want to kill us somehow, but I haven't figured out how yet. Possibly by using their mimicry to scare us to death? I'll have to think on things. Either way though, they're interesting enough to share. 

Sources:

eBird- Superb Lyrebird

Australian Museum- Lyrebird

iNaturalist- Lyrebird

PBS- Superb Lyrebird

Earth Archive-- World's Best Mimic

Animal Talk-10 cool things about Lyrebirds

National Parks-- Lyrebird

Animalia-- Superb Lyrebird

Australian Wildlife.gov sheet on Lyrebirds

WWF- 7 Fun Facts about Lyrebirds

Ebsco- Superb Lyrebird

Audubon- Reasons to Love Lyrebirds

Weird Seattle Law

Ok, I need to preface this. I can't find the original law because I keep getting buried in conceal carry laws for firearms. It could be that this is false and everyone is just passing it along because they heard about it from another loony-law site. I just wanted to share it anyway. 

In Seattle, Washington, it is illegal to carry a concealed weapon more than 6 feet in length. 

When I first read that, I laughed because I couldn't imagine a way to conceal a weapon that long. Then I started trying to imagine what weapon is more than 6 feet long. That would limit things to something like a polearm, like a spear or lance, or a chain/whip. Most of those aren't even 6 foot, so they would need to be the longer version of even those longer weapons. Theoretically there are swords that big, but even most of the really long swords top out at 5 foot. 

Basically, it boils down to this-- having a 6 foot long weapon isn't likely, and being able to conceal it is even less likely, so I'm more than a little interested in seeing this actually happen instead of trying to stop it. 

Either way, it's fun to think about. I love laws like this. 

Sources:

The first source I ever heard of this one is Uncle John's Bathroom Reader, though I don't remember which one right now. 

Laura Kismet Lawless- Weird Laws

Loony Laws, Washington

Kido Talk Radio- Washington Laws

Idiot Laws- Washington

Key Radio Station-- Strange Laws

Sniglet

Definition: Any word that doesn't appear in the dictionary, but should. 

This is a word that appeared in the 1980's, because of actor/comedian Rich Hall. I heard about this word from one of his appearances on QI, which I love. He generally acts like a bit of an idiot, but he's more than that. When he created this word, it was part of an ongoing series that he was working at, called 'Not Necessarily The News', and he would take a moment to read out some suggested sniglets that got mailed to him. From those letters, he created 3 books about sniglets, sharing the ones he thought were good. Below is a picture of one of the books, taken from the Meeple PhD link below. 

In an interview about the sniglet books he wrote, he said this, which is copied from the Wikipedia link below. I'm not fond of using them as a source, but I liked this quote too much to ignore. Rich Hall got asked if Sniglets were just for comedy, and this is what he said back. 

Yeah. Well, no. I wouldn't say they're completely for comic value. I mean, I get letters from schools all the time saying how they've incorporated a sniglet book into their reading program. You can look at a lot of the words and sort of break them down into their etymological origins. And you can learn a lot about how and where words derive from. When you assign this frailty of human nature a word, then the word has to work. It has to either be a hybrid of several other words, or have a Latin origin, or something.[12]

From the same Wikipedia Article, here are some examples of Sniglets:

• Aquadextrous: possessing the ability to turn the bathtub faucet with the toes.
• Castcaspers: dead actors who appear on television.
• Chwads: discarded gum found beneath tables and countertops.
• Essoasso: One who swerves through a service station to avoid a red light.
• Icelanche: When ice at the bottom of an upturned glass suddenly moves toward the mouth as one attempts to finish drinking the liquid.
• Jokesult: When someone insults you, you call them on it, and they say, "It was just a joke."
• Premblememblemation: The act of checking that a letter is in a mailbox after it has been dropped.
• Snackmosphere: the pocket of air found inside snack and/or potato chip bags.
• Terma helper: The extra verbiage used to stretch a 600-word essay to the required 1000.
• Toboggan hagen: a large ice cream sundae.
• Eyes-Hockey: The substance found in the corner of your eye in the morning.
• Pursabyss: where unrecovered belongings reside within a woman's handbag.

It got suggested that the creation of sniglets might be a good lesson in schools to show kids how to create and use language, and so they might understand better the already laid out language, but I don't know how often it actually comes up. 

I might be weird for this and I know I don't have many readers right now, but since it'll be around for a while, I might get takers later. Anyone have a sniglet they want to share? An idea for a word we need but don't have? Think about it, you might have a fun word to share that you can't think of now. 

Either way though, don't you love how flexible language is? It changes to fit what we need so easily. 

If you want to know more about Sniglet or don't think it's a real word or something, there are links below discussing it. I'm not thrilled to use Wikipedia for it, but it had some good stuff this time. 

Sources:

Wikipedia- Sniglet

Dictionary.com-- Sniglet

Collins Dictionary-- Sniglet

MikeBone-- Sniglet

Meeple, PhD-- Making up words

Potoo

 Frankly, my main reason for bringing this up and everything is basically the pictures, like these three from ABC Birds. 

Above is the common Potoo. Below is the Rufous Potoo. I really liked how the one below looks like it's got a strange ruff on, but also it looks like it's from a weird angle because of the turning of the head. 

Below is the White Winged Potoo. Doesn't it look almost hilariously large-eyed?

Anyway, Potoos are often brought up as looking 'muppet-like' when discussing 'birbs'. There are 7 types of potoo, and they're all nocturnal, but they're not closely related to owls, despite what you might think. They're also a pretty old bird type, with fossils of recognizable potoos dating back to the Eocene Epoch, over 30 million years ago. 

Since Potoos are nocturnal, they hide in plain sight during the day. Unlike the Vegitarian Goatsucker that lives in caves, these guys mostly just find somewhere to hang out and stay very still. They can also resemble stumps rather easily by assuming a 'cryptic' posture that involves stretching their head out and compressing their feathers, to look like a stump. The picture below, from IFL Science, is what they're talking about, I think. I'm pretty sure the first branch is a potoo, but I actually wouldn't be surprised if I'm wrong about that. 

The Great Potoo is also known as a Ghost Bird because they are nocturnal, appear out of nowhere, and they scream. Well, I call it a scream, but one BBC reporter said they sound like a “moaning growl sound like an angry fox gargling a Jägerbomb”. The picture above is a Great Potoo. 

Another interesting thing about these poor, weird, birds is  that they don't make nests. The females lay a single egg in a knot hole or crevice, then both parents come back to feed it insects after it hatches. Apparently, it only takes 2 weeks for baby potoos to start stretching out to look like branches. 

These guys are on the list of weird birds for several reasons, but I mostly love them for their 'muppet-like' looks. There are a lot of interesting things for them though, so I hope I managed to find something that you thought was cool too. If you want to know more, there are links below. If you don't want to know more, that's ok too. I'll see you again soon. 

Sources:

eBird-- Common Potoo

eBird- Great Potoo

AAAS- Weird and Wonderful Creatures- The Potoo

ABC Birds-- Potoos

IFL Science-- The Great Potoo

Vegetarian Goat Suckers

 I was meaning to do this yesterday, but I got distracted and had a bad headache, so I apologize. 

Vegetarian Goat Suckers are a rather specific species of Goat Sucker bird, with their own branch of the family group that they are alone in. And, in case there's anyone that's thinking about it, these birds actually probably have even less to do with goats than most goat sucker birds, but I'm going to keep calling them that because their other name, the Oil Bird, has me thinking bad things about humans a bit. 

As a quick introduction to them, I'm actually going to steal the opening paragraph of the Audobon article about them that has a link below. I really like it, so if you're only going to read one article below, try that one. 

X

You know the type: They go out after sundown and return again in the morning, and regurgitate whatever they may have ingested during the night. Then they sleep all day and whine at the tiniest sliver of light. They’re almost never caught alone, preferring to gather in large, single-minded groups. Their attempts to grow facial hair are pitiful, but they keep on trying. And they’re always thinking about food. That’s right: I’m talking about Oilbirds (Steatornis caripensis), the only nocturnal, fruit-eating birds in the world! (Other acceptable answers include “my college roommate” or any combination of Greek letters.)

X

As it says, the Vegetarian Goat Sucker is fruit eating, instead of the insects the others eat. It's still a Goat Sucker because it's got several similar traits, but it's also very different. 

You might also have gotten caught on the bit about facial hair. Yes, they have whiskers. Science Friday is giving us this picture of them for you. 

The whiskers you can see there are because they're a nocturnal bird, so they've got echolocation abilities, one of the few species of birds to be able to do that, great eyesight and a great sense of smell, and they have those whiskers to let them know what's going on in spaces that are too small to echolocate in and too dark to see-- such as the middle of a tree. 

They also have a loud and jarring screech, like several of their relatives, which gained them the nickname 'Little Devils'. 

That actually brings me to their other nickname, 'Oilbird', which I need to address. Feel free to skip this paragraph if you want to avoid humans being horrible. Oilbirds were named that because they eat an oily fruit and their babies get really fat, so the natives would grab the babies and render them down for their fat, like the drippings off a duck. They would then store up the oil and use it for cooking, torches, and whatever else they needed it for. 

From ABC Birds. Don't they look kinda cute? Hopefully you skipped the above paragraph and still like the picture of innocent birdies. 

So, some people have claimed that this birdie is one of the 'most unique' bird evolutionarily, and it is pretty unique-- not the least because of it's lovely whiskers. It's pretty interesting to me at least, and I hope you liked getting introduced to them. There are links below if you want them, and I suggest the Audubon link below because they tend to compare these guys to frat boys. I hope you like them, and you'll go look at more pictures of these adorable looking birds. 

Sources:

Science Friday- Nocturnal Oilbird

Audobon-- Oilbird

Ornitology.com-- Nightjars and Goatsuckers

eBird- Oilbird

Animal Diversity Web-- Oilbird

Birds of the World-- Oilbird

ABC Birds-- Oilbird

Animalia-- Oilbird

Encyclopedia Britannica-- Oilbird

iNaturalist-- Oilbird

Goatsuckers

 Despite what this sounds like, it's not an insult. It's a kind of bird. Well, a bunch of kinds. 

This is a Great-Eared Nightjar from India and Southeast Asia, picture from Science Focus below. Nightjars are also known as Goat-Suckers, because Aristotle thought they came in the night to suck the milk out of goats. Part of me is surprised that it wasn't Pliny the Elder that thought that, but that's just because I'm used to Pliny being absolutely ridiculous, and Aristotle being more mathy or philosophical. 

Either way, the name Goat-Sucker stuck with these birds to some extent. They're also called Nightjars because they are nocturnal and their call is a bit jarring. 

In this particular group are about 120 different species, some of which are rather interesting and I want to talk about on their own over the next few days, but the idea of these birds being called Goat Suckers just because Aristotle made an assumption is hilarious to me and I wanted to start with that. 

I'll see you tomorrow with more information about one of the more unique ones of this group, but there is also more information below if you can't wait. 

Sources:

IFL Science-- Nightjars

Ornithology.com-- Nightjars and Goatsuckers

Science Friday-- The Nocturnal Oilbird

Science Focus-- The Great Eared Goatsucker

Mississippi State University-- Goatsuckers

Pleonasm

 I didn't know there was a word for this, but I'm glad to know there is. In the spirit of the word...

Pleonasm; using extra words to explain. Redundancy. 

Thanks for reading, have fun, seeya again soon. 

Sources:

Scribbr- the difference between Pleonasm and Tautology

Merriam Webster- Pleonasm

OED Pleonasm

Cambridge Dictionary-- Pleonasm

Male Idiot Theory

 Sorry. As a female, I couldn't let this pass. Before I tell you about it though, I do want to remind you that history is full of brilliant men...or at least men that were smart enough to understand what the woman behind them was saying. Please don't assume I hate men or something like that. 

I just told my Dad that I was writing this blog post, and he agreed, so I think this isn't anything new for anyone. I just wanted to point out that it's actually a thing, not just a joke. Well, at least not entirely. 

So, the Male Idiot theory is basically what it sounds like. It was originally a joke from Reddit, but scientists took it and ran, like they love to do (and I love them doing). It's basically that men can be real idiots who take risks for no defensible reason, and are idiots. 

An example, taken from the Darwin Awards, which I did a post about a while ago, is a guy who put together a pipe bomb, put it in the mail, had it returned due to insufficient postage, and opened the box. Seriously? I'm not surprised by this, but I really wish I was. 

Men are more likely to take risks and do dangerous things, or be adrenaline junkies. That's not to say that women don't do stupid stuff, but it's more likely to be men. 

There's a study in the British Medical Journal, below, and...well, before you defend men as a whole, please go look at the Darwin Awards website and see how many of those stories you can get through before you give up hope for humanity. 

I don't think all men are idiots, or even that men are always idiots, but men are more likely to have big idiotic moments that are more memorable. I don't remember who said it first, but I've spent the last few years agreeing with an idea I heard. I'm not fond of people, but I like plenty of persons. Either way, I hope you laughed and I hope that the female readers use this to stop their menfolk from killing themselves, and I am a bit concerned that a guy is going to use this to justify insanity. Sources are below if you need to know more, otherwise, I'll see you around again later. 

Sources:

LA Times-- Men are idiots

British Medical Journal-- Darwin Awards: Sex Differences of Idiotic behavior

Science Daily- Men are idiots

Readomania-- Male Idiot Theory

NPR-- Are Men Idiots? Studies Say Yes

QI

I probably should have brought this up earlier because it's one of my favorite sources of random and interesting information. I'm doing it now because I'm listening to most of the series again, so I'm making notes of a lot of things that I want to tell you about at some point. 

QI is a British show that has been running for about 22 years, and stands for Quite Interesting. The plot of the show is that the host asks questions about obscure and, hopefully, interesting things and the four panelists try to answer. The points don't exactly matter, and they are given for being interesting, while they lose points for being boring or wrong. They have a klaxon that goes off if the answer is something wrong that the QI 'Elves' thought was obvious, or expected. Sometimes people are a bit unhappy to have a klaxon called on them, others can be proud of it for being their first or, in a few cases, they seemed to be trying to see how many they can get. There have also been a few times the Elves in charge of the klaxon have used it to respond to the panelists for things like nitpicking that the panelist didn't say exactly that, or that they meant something else. They have a sense of humor too. 

The show has a host, either Stephen Fry at the beginning or Sandi Toksvig in later seasons, a permanent panelist in Alan Davies, and three spots for various guests that trade out each episode. Most of the guests are comedians in various forms, but sometimes they are scientists, actors, or other celebrities. The panelists can be a bit dramatic about things, but it's all in good fun. They've had several new ones come in later seasons and some that have been on an episode or three every season, so there is a lot of variety there. Those that have been around a lot can have running jokes from them that go on from previous episodes or seasons, which can be fun to see.  

I feel I should warn you that, in one of the episodes, Sandi (as a panelist) asked if it was possible to come on this show without talking about genitalia, and Stephen said 'not while he has breath left in his body', so that sort of thing does come up rather often. They cover several different things in that realm, including the shape/size of animal genitalia, the penis cemetery, the penis museum, the porn museum, and a thousand other things that come up somehow. It's a part of life that has a lot of interesting and hilarious things attached to it, and something they joke about a lot. 

Part of the setup is that the first season was based around A subjects, then season 2 was B, 3 was C, and so on. They're currently on season V. Stephen Fry did the first half of the alphabet, and now Sandi Toksvig is in charge of it. Season V includes things like Victory, Variety, Vocal, Viral, and Visual, while other seasons have included things like France, Fingers, Jam, Numbers, and about 200 other interesting things. 

There is a lot I could say about this show, but I'm going to stop here. I love the show, and I would suggest it for anyone that likes random information. I actually like it more than Jeopardy because they talk about the facts and explain things to teach me instead of testing me, but that might just be me. I hope, if you decide to try it, that you like it. If not,  

Sources: 

QI Wikipedia

BBC 2- QI

IMDB-- QI

QI.com

Hyrax

Also known as Rock Rabbit, but I'm not going to call it that because it isn't a rabbit. It looks kinda like one, but it isn't. Especially around the ears. This is a picture from the PBS link below. 

Something interesting, further proving that they aren't related to rabbits, is that these guys have one male to ever 5 ish females, and they only give birth to 1-4 pups at a time. They also have long gestation periods for their size, so they really, really, don't breed like rabbits. The picture below is from the San Diego Zoo link below, and I just wanted to share a picture of their babies. 

Since they also spend mornings sunbathing before they go out to find food, they also probably don't have the energy. (Pic below still from PBS, of what might be a sunbathing Hyrax.)

They got their name of being Rock Rabbits because they live in cliffs and rock faces, and live in little rock sanctuaries. They're from Africa, so they do have to be a bit careful about making sure they don't overpopulate and cause problems, but they're mostly considered pests because they eat what farmers are growing. It's hard to consider them too annoying though, with pictures like this running around. (Still PBS)

On interesting things about these guys, there are a few things. First is that they sing--though that's a rather kind description of the sounds that I've found for them, so I wouldn't suggest looking that up too much. Otherwise, they have 29 vertebrea, which beats most mammals, and they pee in the same spot for generations, which leads to mounds of pee that apparently can be used in perfumery. You might consider investigating the ingredients of your perfume, if you wear it, because they also like using whale puke and oils from the anal glands of beavers, so I'm just never going to tempt it. 

The African Wildlife Foundation link below has this picture, which I found fun. 

The thing that I find most interesting about them though, is that despite looking like a capybara or a marmot, the closest living relative to a Hyrax is...an elephant or dugong. There are a few shared traits that they get from a common ancestor, more recently than their shared ancestor with rabbits, capybara, or anything else furry that you might be considering for this. There is proof if you want to investigate the sources below, but some of it's more technical than I want to go into here. I just had to share that these 4-11 pound furry creatures are related to the largest land mammal on earth. 

I hope you enjoyed learning about the Hyrax and I hope you have fun telling someone else about this. I bet you'll have to look it up to prove to someone that you're not insane for saying that these adorable little creatures are real and related to elephants. I would suggest keeping this post on hand so you can use the links below if you need them, but that's just me. Have fun with it. 

Sources:

PBS-- Hyrax Fact Sheet

Mahmiyat-- Rock Hyrax

Animal Fact- Hyrax

Smithsonian National Zoo-- Hyrax

Great Big Story-- The Elephant's closest living relative

San Diego Zoo-- Rock Hyrax

African Wildlife Foundation-- Hyrax

The Dodo-- Rock Hyrax, the Elephant's Closest Relative

The Malagasky Fat Tailed Dwarf Lemur

 I feel like I must apologize to the lemurs because I am not judging them. They should be proud of their look and they're adorable. I mean no offence when I call them chubby. 

Isn't this an adorable picture of a lemur? It's taken from the Live Science  link below. The tail here isn't as, uh, fluffy, as some tails get before they go to sleep for a few months, but it's not nearly as thin as several other picture I've seen. The whole lemur is about the size of a hamster, so it can be a bit hard to find them, which means we'll have to forgive them. 

This particular type of Lemur is the only known hibernating primate. They go into torpor/hibernation for up to 7 months while there isn't as much food around, and have been known to sleep deeply enough that their bodies cool to match their surroundings, their hearts beat only 10 times a minute, and they breathe only once every few minutes. 

This is just a sleeping Lemur from the iNaturalist link below. It's not in torpor, but I still thought it was cute. If you saw one in torpor, you'd probably think they were dead, but they aren't. Instead, they are in torpor, or hibernation. To prepare, they eat more food and store up fat until their lovely tails are 40% of their weight. Please take a moment to imagine carrying around a tail that weighed over a third of your weight. That would be exhausting. 

This tail comes from the Duke Center for Lemurs, and shows how large they can get, though it isn't the best because it doesn't show the rest of the lemur. 

So, before I sign off on this post, I also wanted to point out that these lemurs have the females in charge of things. They establish their range and the guys can go further abroad, but the females are the ones in charge. 

There are a lot more interesting things about these tiny lemurs, but you'll have to go learn more on your own. They're adorable and you should definitely go look for more pictures of them, but that's up to you now. Have fun, and let me know if you find something else I should have mentioned here. 

Sources:

Live Science-- World's only Hibernating Primate

Duke Lemur Center-- Fat Tailed Lemur

Duke Lemur Center-- A Tail of Torpor

Animal Diversity Web-- Fat Tailed Lemur

Animalia- Fat Tailed Lemur

iNaturalist-- the Fat Tailed Lemur

Daily Mammal-- Hibernators Week-- Fat Tailed Dwarf Lemur

Psychopomp

 Another new word I found that I thought was really interesting enough to share. 

Psychopomp-- The god/angel/demon/creature/etc that leads souls to the afterlife. 

I didn't know they had a specific word for that. This isn't the judges of the dead, it's not necessarily the guy that is the official death god, it's what led you from life into death. Despite the bad rap that some might get, they aren't generally bad because they don't kill, they just take the dead, so please don't fear or hate them for that.  In Greek mythos, Hermes would count because sometimes he was said to be the one that led people to the river Styx. Valkyries are another example, with the duty to gather the souls of dead warriors. The one that everyone is probably most familiar with is the Grim Reaper though, which you'll see in the lovely picture below, which I've seen passed around social media a few times and got from Reddit this time. 

Jung also used this term to refer to a mediator between the conscious/unconscious minds, but I didn't find as much proof of that. 

Apparently there is also a video game and a band, or at least an album, with the same name, so finding sources for this beyond the dictionaries is a bit hit and miss, so be careful in your explorations. There are some sources below if you're interested in learning more. I hope you don't have to use this word too often in life, but it's an interesting one anyway, and I do hope you have fun with the trivia of it. 

Sources:

Reddit-- The Picture.

Etymonline-- Psychopomp

Merriam Webster- Psychopomp

Wikipedia Psychopomp

Psychopomps.org

Proof of Winston Churchill Having A Sense Of Humor

 So, I want to start off by saying that I adore a show called QI. It's been running for over 20 years, and it's entire thing is that it awards points to people not because it's a correct answer, but because it's interesting. They then spend the entire episode telling us the random, interesting, pieces that the QI research Elves have come up with for this subject. Because of a few issues, I switched over to rewatching the series, including the last two seasons that I actually haven't watched yet. About once or twice an episode, I come across something interesting to add to my list of things to consider for here. It's made it hard to pick what I want to do today because there's so many interesting ideas for what to tell you this time. 

What I decided on is a letter that was written from Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister, to Winston Churchill, an American author. Below is a literal cut-and-paste of the first link below, Vita Brevis. 

<><><><>Cut/Paste starts here<><><><>

London, June 7, 1899

Mr. Winston Churchill presents his compliments to Mr. Winston Churchill, and begs to draw his attention to a matter which concerns them both. He has learnt from the Press notices that Mr. Winston Churchill proposes to bring out another novel, entitled Richard Carvel, which is certain to have a considerable sale both in England and America. Mr. Winston Churchill is also the author of a novel now being published in serial form in Macmillan's Magazine, and for which he anticipates some sale both in England and America. He also proposes to publish on the 1st of October another military chronicle on the Soudan War. He has no doubt that Mr. Winston Churchill will recognize from this letter — if indeed by no other means — that there is grave danger of his works being mistaken for those of Mr. Winston Churchill. He feels sure that Mr. Winston Churchill desires this as little as he does himself. In future to avoid mistakes as far as possible, Mr. Winston Churchill has decided to sign all published articles, stories, or other works, 'Winston Spencer Churchill,' and not 'Winston Churchill' as formerly. He trusts that this arrangement will commend itself to Mr. Winston Churchill, and he ventures to suggest, with a view to preventing further confusion which may arise out of this extraordinary coincidence, that both Mr. Winston Churchill and Mr. Winston Churchill should insert a short note in their respective publications explaining to the public which are the works of Mr. Winston Churchill and which those of Mr. Winston Churchill. The text of this note might form a subject for future discussion if Mr. Winston Churchill agrees with Mr. Winston Churchill's proposition. He takes this occasion of complimenting Mr. Winston Churchill upon the style and success of his works, which are always brought to his notice whether in magazine or book form, and he trusts that Mr. Winston Churchill has derived equal pleasure from any work of his that may have attracted his attention.

The American Churchill answered in a similar fashion:[iv]

Mr. Winston Churchill is extremely grateful to Mr. Winston Churchill for bringing forward a subject which has given Mr. Winston Churchill much anxiety. Mr. Winston Churchill appreciates the courtesy of Mr. Winston Churchill in adopting the name of ‘Winston Spencer Churchill’ in his books, articles, etc. Mr. Winston Churchill makes haste to add that, had he possessed any other names, he would certainly have adopted one of them. The writings of Mr. Winston Spencer Churchill (henceforth so called) have been brought to Mr. Winston Churchill’s notice since the publication of his first story in the ‘Century’. It did not seem then to Mr. Winston Churchill that the works of Mr. Winston Spencer Churchill would conflict in any way with his own attempts at fiction.

The proposal of Mr. Winston Spencer Churchill to affix a note to the separate writings of Mr. Winston Spencer Churchill and Mr. Winston Churchill, the text of which is to be agreed on between them, — is quite acceptable to Mr. Winston Churchill. If Mr. Winston Spencer Churchill will do him the favour of drawing up this note, there is little doubt that Mr. Winston Churchill will acquiesce in its particulars.

Mr. Winston Churchill moreover, is about to ask the opinion of his friends and of his publishers as to the advisability of inserting the words ‘The American,’ after his name on the title-page of his books. Should this seem wise to them, he will request his publishers to make the change in future editions.

Mr. Winston Churchill will take the liberty of sending Mr. Winston Churchill copies of the two novels he has written. He has a high admiration for the works of Mr. Winston Spencer Churchill and is looking forward with pleasure to reading Savrola.

The British Churchill did indeed begin inserting “Spencer” into his name on any of his writings. Soon he simplified that to the initial S.[v] The American Churchill did not have a middle name with which he could embellish his name in his own writings.

<><><><><>Cut/Paste Ends Here<><><><><><>

I love the idea of writing a letter like that, and I thought that everyone would like the contents. Plus, it's proof that he had a sense of humor, and that's always a good thing. 

I don't have a lot more to say on this, so if you want more, please look at the sources below. 

Sources:

Vita Brevis--American Ancestors--Churchill Letter

The Mirror-- Churchill Letter

Richard Langworth-- Churchill Letter

Kottke.Org-- Churchill Letter

Theodore Roosevelt Center-- The Two Winston Churchills

American National Churchill Museum

International Churchill Society-- Two Winston Churchills

International Churchill Society- American Winston Churchill

The Böögg

So, I'm going to preface this with an apology in case I forget the umlaut for the o's later on. I'm rather enthusiastic about this though, because I find this absolutely awesome. 

I'm going to tell you about the Böögg, which is part of the spring festival in Zurich. There are theories that the idea of bogeyman comes from this, but that's for a different day. Right now, I just want to tell you about why you really should go to Zurich for the spring festival, known as Sechseläuten. The Böögg is a representative of winter and is burned to herald the starting of the spring festival and season. 

This picture, taken from the Zurich website below, is an example of the Böögg. It's a giant, 10 foot tall snowman. It gets lit on fire at 6 pm exactly, and they time how long it takes for the fire to eat it's way up the snowman to it's head. 

That marker is very important for two reasons. One, the speed of the fire tells about the summer weather, so the faster it goes, the warmer the summer. Two, the head is full of fireworks and will explode. The record, from what I have found, is 5 minutes and 42 seconds, predicting an extremely hot summer correctly. 

That picture is from Swiss Info, also below. 

There is a lot more to the festival, and a lot of history that I skipped over, but...I figured that the burning and exploding snowman was enough to convince you that you might want to investigate further, if you're interested. If you're not, I hope this at least interested you. Have fun, and let me know if you go to investigate this, because I'd love to have a review of the exploding snowman of spring. 

Sources:

Zurich Info-- What is the Boogg

Zurich Info-- Spring Festival

Smithsonian- The Swiss Exploding Snowman

StrangeSte blog- The Boogg

Swiss Info-- A Psychic Exploding Snowman