Texas Fat Squirrel Week

 Happy Halloween!

Inspired by Alaska's Fat Bear Week, which I thought was also in a few other places, Texas decided to do a Fat Squirrel Week. 

Normally, I'd skip something like this for a bit longer, but this time...I can't just ignore the puns. 

The winner of the Fat Squirrel Week Contest is Chunkosaurus Rex. 

Runner Ups include Chunk Norris, Stanley 'Texas Tank', and Nutella.

 Again, I'd normally pull out pictures for you, but I haven't found any worth pulling up. They're just fluffy squirrels. 

And lastly, I'd normally add sources, but if you Google 'Fat Squirrel Week', you'll get lots of information on your own. There are a lot of News sites covering it, and a lot of people talking about it and the votes. 

So...I'm being lazy today, but just pointing out the existence of a contest I really want to make sure I vote on next time. Seeya soon though. 

One Good Fact

 It's been a while since I told you about a cool source of things. So...here's a new one. 

Encyclopedia Britannica has a page here that they call 'One Good Fact', where they ask a daily question and give you the answers. I came across it recently because I've been working on starting a project I call 'Smile Cards', where I do a bit of artwork on one side of a 3x5 card and on the other side I write 'I hope this made you smile, but in case it didn't, maybe this will;' and a random fact. Some of the cards I've made have facts related to things I wrote about here. Others might lead to their own posts later. 

This particular page is pretty cool because some of the questions asked are...interesting. For examples...

What animal is often given beer as medicine?

Horses, apparently. It's unproven, but Vets apparently swear by it. 

What common food item was once legally required to be 16 ounces?

Bread, in Britain. 

When is it OK to throw cow dung at your neighbor?

I really wanted to know the answer to this one. Apparently, it's allowed in April in one village in Southern India, in celebration of a mythological marriage dispute ending. That's definitely going to come up again next April. 

Why do some postal workers in Vanuatu require scuba gear?

They apparently have an underwater post office that sells waterproof post cards. This might also come up again later. 

What rodent sometimes has red, orange, and purple fur?

Actually, I did write about this one. The Rainbow Squirrel, also known as the Malabar Giant Squirrel. 

Why did a California court rule that a bee is a fish?

This is for a legal loophole. Basically, insects aren't considered part of the whole 'animal' thing by law in California, but they needed to get some protections in there, so they made a case that a bee is just as much a 'fish' as a shrimp is, so they're all animals and therefore bees get protected. Yay? 

This might also get a post, just because it's hilarious. 

Why did the Texas state legislature once honor a serial killer?

This is going to be the last one, and I'm going to copy straight from their page because you need all of it. 

It also might get it's own post at some point. 

As an April Fools’ Day prank in 1971, Texas Representative Tom Moore submitted a bill that would honor Albert DeSalvo for his efforts in population control. Inattentive legislators unanimously passed the measure, evidently not realizing DeSalvo had been convicted four years earlier as the infamous “Boston Strangler.” 

Gotta love humans and the weird things we get up to. Please fight the urge to investigate serial killers to prank other though, because that's one of those pranks that makes everyone feel gross later, like when someone has to admit that the Nazis were right about something. (They hated people honking their horns, which I'll accept is valid. Everything else, no.)

I would suggest keeping this page around for some really fun little facts. I definitely will. I hope that you like it, and that you'll share if you find a really good one. Thanks for reading, I'll see you again soon. 

Cinderella

 Sorry, my brain has just not been cooperating today or yesterday. Yesterday, it was racing at 100 miles an hour trying to figure out how to set up a goat range to keep them safe and contained and what I needed for that, because my Mom wants goats and someone nearby apparently had some goats that they needed rehomed. Then they found a way to keep their goats, so I don't need that research, but my brain still wanted to run off and plan how much it would cost, immediate set up, monthly food, future costs, etc. 

Then today, I was trying to figure out something to tell you about that goes with Halloween coming up, since I haven't talked about any of that but it is Halloween soon. My brain didn't want to do that though, because instead it wanted to run around thinking of Cinderella, which is easily explained because I was gifted a painted pumpkin that looks like a Cinderella Carriage, so I've been making the frame, wheels, horse, and coachman to go along with it. It's all a lot less pretty than the pumpkin, but I'm having fun with it. 

So...I guess you get to hear about Cinderella today. 

The history of the story goes back...a lot further than you think. 

A lot of people know that Cinderella is older than Disney and goes back to the Brothers Grimm at least. Where, exactly, it starts is up for debate though. Some would say sixth century Greece, 6-8th century China, or 1st century Egypt. The point of all those stories is that a woman marries up because of a guy searching for the owner of a shoe. 

Considering shoe sizes and people, it would probably only take about 20 or 30 young women to find one that fits the shoe well enough, unless actual magic is involved, or the lovely damsel has extremely weird shaped feet, like tiny or giant or very narrow or wide. Considering the usual standards of beauty, I'd say tiny or narrow are more likely than wide or giant, but still. 

The wicked stepmother thing doesn't appear until the 17th century in Italy, but it does involve a rather horrible twist of the girl not wanting to marry the king but being forced to. Eek. 

Around the same time comes the 'glass' part of the slipper, possibly because it was misheard and someone wrote it down as verre instead of vair. Not a big difference in that language, but a big difference when you consider what would happen if you actually tried to walk in an actual glass slipper. If, for some reason, you're not convinced by the danger, there have been actual studies on it and how bad it would be, and how dangerous even breathing in those shoes could be. That's all assuming you can put them on and stand in them, which is very unlikely. 

All told, there are over 100 stories that could probably be recognized as a variant of Cinderella. A lot of them, especially the older ones, are a bit, ah, grimmer than you'd think. The sources below have some of those, but I'll leave that to you to investigate if you're actually worried. They also have a lot of the names of historic 'Cinderella's, if you're curious. 

I'm going to stop here though, because there's alot of information I could share and I'm starting to get a little lost in it, so I'll be back later with something else. I hope you learned something interesting from this though, and I'll see you again soon. 

Sources:

Radio Times-- The Science of Cinderella's Slippers

Metro Opera-- A Brief History of Cinderella

Vox-- A history of Cinderella

Pook Press- Cinderella's History

PNB--- Cinderella

NPR-- A Girl, A Shoe, A Prince; The Endlessly Evolving Story of Cinderella (This one talks about a 150 year old book with 345 variations on the Cinderella story.)

Book Riot-- History of Cinderella

Lit Reactor-- The Strange History of Cinderella

Eden Valley Enterprises-- Cinderella Around the World

University of Rochester-- Cinderella Bibliography (This is a compilation of everything Cinderella that the authors could find, including some things that are just paintings or something.)

Magnificent Frigatebird

 Got reminded of these recently because I was watching a late night talk show, the kind that does a bit of news and a bit of celebrity interview. I like them because they give me a bit of news without making me feel like the world is ending, so I can watch them without getting depressed or something. This particular time, the celebrity being interviewed was playing an ornithologist and they tested her knowledge about some birds. The first was a puffin, which was kinda 'duh' and I was disappointed she didn't get. This guy was second, then third was a cardinal, which was very 'duh', an Andean Cock-Of-The-Rock, which I know because it's part of my ongoing theory about ornithologists being massive trolls, then a white-breasted nuthatch, which I'm more than ok with the lady not getting because it's (sorry ornithologist) a very generic looking small white bird. 

Here's why you'll always remember what the Magnificent Frigate Bird looks like. 

Ocean Conservancy is the source for this picture, since it's a seabird. You can see why I told you it's memorable, can't you? 

Despite being a seabird, these guys actually aren't waterproof, which is a bit amusing. They're masters of soaring though, able to fly for weeks with no problems and having the smallest bird-to-wing ration. They have giant wings, about 7 and a half feet at full size, but they themselves only weigh about three pounds. For an example, something I'm dealing with right now, kittens can't receive most flea medications or collars until they're about 3-5 pounds. So, my 7 week old kitten weighs as much as them. Downside of that though is that the wind can throw them around a lot more than other birds with more weight or smaller wings. 

Because they aren't waterproof, these guys tend to steal food from other birds, or hunt in tidepools and shallow things like that. Their main strategy of stealing from others is actually a strategy called 'Kleptoparasitism', where they grab other birds and shake them until they regurgitate their food, and the frigatebird steals that. 

That giant red pouch you see above is something the males have to impress the ladies. Apparently, they inflate them to show off and can hum in a way that makes a drumming sound, which they accompany with shrieks. That's not the coolest thing about them-- the guys actually stick around for the first while, taking turns incubating the egg, then helping mom raise the baby for the first three months. The moms stick around for another 6 months, then the baby is mostly on their own. That makes them better fathers than alot of animals. 

As awesome as these guys are, I have something to say that might make you grumpy at them. One of the things listed as part of their diet, therefore something they eat enough to justify adding it here, is baby green turtles. Meanies.

This picture is from Fact Animal. It's of male and female frigate birds, so you can see the difference. 

These guys are interesting, I like that they're good fathers, the red balloon on the guys is hilarious and memorable...but they're also assholes, so never mind. But, you can have some fun showing off your new knowledge of these weird and ridiculous birds.

I hope you had fun learning about these guys, and that I'll see you again soon. 

Sources:

All About Birds--Magnificent Frigatebird ID pics

All About Birds-- Magnificent Frigatebird Information

Birds Don't Pee-- The Frigatebird Whisperer

Ocean Conservancy-- Meet the Magnificent Frigatebird

Galapagos Conservation-- Magnificent Frigatebird

Audubon-- Magnificent Frigatebird

Fact Animal-- 8 Magnificent Frigatebird Facts

Latin Roots Travel-- 15 Facts about Magnificent Frigatebirds

Halloween Pet Parade

 Ok, I'm being ridiculous here and it's not technically things you need to know, but things that I find absolutely awesome and want a record of anyway. 

New York has a yearly Halloween Dog Parade. 

And people put a lot of effort into these costumes, so they deserve to be kept around. 

So cute! I know Audry II eats human flesh, but that wouldn't stop me from putting my hand in there to pet. 

Minions!

Whatever delivery service these guys are on, sign me up. That's an adorable deliveryman. 

If he gave me something he calls fried chicken, I'd eat it. Well, as long as he lets me cuddle some first. 

Can I have that cup of coffee? I'll pay. 

I'm not entirely certain what this is, but it's awesome. 

Those Curlers....

That's an adorable Winnie The Pooh

At least the owner is getting in on the torture. 

3 lb hot dog?

Your Pawcage has arrived!

I know some of these are pretty simple, but still. I know people have opinions about dogs in clothes, but my stance on it is basically that I object if the dog is just used as an accessory, I object if the dog really objects, but it's ok if the dog doesn't mind and gets lots of scritches and cuddles before/during/after this. Considering the smiles on some of these dogs' faces, I prefer to just be happy at seeing so many awesome puppers. 

I hope you enjoyed at least a few of these, and that your pupper is as agreeable should you decide to try to copy any of these or come up with your own creation. Seeya soon. 

Sources for all my pictures:

Hyperallergic-- The Goodest Boys of NYC

Newsweek-- The Best Canine Costumes

Reuters-- Halloween has Gone to the Dogs

Hummingbird chirps

 So, one of the things that I both adore and try to avoid is accidentally zoning out during science podcasts. I hate that I tend to miss information, but I can always replay them. The thing that makes it ok, to some degree, is that I sometimes start listening again with a very weird sentence, such as a question if wasps would be less angry if they weren't wearing corsets, or camels having beauty contests, or a dozen other things that I've randomly heard over the years. In this case, I was listening to a podcast and accidentally zoned out enough to be rather surprised to hear that hummingbirds chirp with their feathers. 

Sounds bogus, right? I seriously thought I was insane. But...Google supports it. There's science behind it. 

Hummingbirds chirp with their feathers. 

Well, more specifically, some male hummingbirds can chirp using special feathers in their tails. 

This lovely picture is from A-Z Animals, link below. 

To attract a lovely lady, certain male hummingbirds fan or furl their tail feathers to create their own unique song. There's a guy that's been studying those sounds for years, and you can even hear a few of them at the link below for Audubon. 

Another interesting thing about these lovely hummingbirds and how they make the sounds, is that they have similar but very different ways of doing it. Anna's Hummingbirds have the second from the outside feather that amplifies the sounds from the furthest outside. The Allen's hummingbird has two pairs of feathers that create slightly different notes, to make a two-toned song. The Calliope hummingbird apparently has a few feathers that strike against each other during their mating dive and make a stuttery sound. 

In another show of Scientists having their students do weird things, and the ridiculous sentences Science brings us, they actually captured several hummingbirds that they then plucked or trimmed the tails of, and either checked if those males could still make the sound, or took the feathers to an air tunnel to see if they could get the sound. While this isn't so bad, please remember the bunch of poor hummingbirds that can no longer do a mating dance because of this all. 

This isn't exactly the best studied of things though, so there's still a lot getting figured out. Some sources say that it's tail feathers, but there's also two saying wing feathers, which I don't have a lot of proof on. Like a lot of interesting science, it got it's moment in the sun, then the details of further investigation are hidden away until more research can be done. I'm sorry I can't provide a lot more information on this. 

I hope this is just as cool for you as it is to me, and that you have a lot of fun telling someone this some day. Personally, I'm looking forward to telling my dad, who really likes hummingbirds. And testing my brother, who likes doing trivia. 

Have a great day, I'll see you again soon. 

Summary:

Audubon-- Hummingbird tails make sounds

PerkyPet-- Hummingbird sounds with tails

Nat Geo-- Hummingbirds Dive to Sing

UC Berkley News Archive--Anna's Hummingbird Chirps with Tail

A-Z Animals-- Hummingbird Chirps

All About Birds-- Anna's Hummingbird Sounds 

Best Bagger Competition

 I mentioned this in my previous Sorry post, so here's the story. 

The Best Bagger Competition is put forth by the National Grocer's Association, and has been running for about 30 years. I was told that the winner got a gold-plated cash register, but unfortunately it's only 10,000 dollars. Darn. 

The first competition was in 1983, then it went national in 87, and in 89, the champion actually got on Letterman, which gave it a lot more respectability and celebrity. Since then, the champions have gone on TV every year. In 2010, they switched over to using reusable grocery bags because of them becoming more common use. A few years later, 2013, PepsiCo actually started sponsoring it, which is kinda cool of them. 

Each competition has the baggers trying to bag 30-38 identical items in their bags within 2 minutes. They're judged on their speed, bag building technique, weight distribution of their bags, style, attitude, and appearance. If you're particularly curious for some reason, there's a link to their handbook at the bottom. 

If you're particularly interested, there might be a competition near you, or you might have fun using the guidelines from the handbook below to set up your own competition. It might be fun to do, if you have time and enthusiasm. 

This is the winner of the national competition from 2024, Madison Ireland from Utah. Picture is from the NGA competition page and is here both as proof and because she should be lauded for her skill, no matter how little most people think of it. 

I hope you enjoyed learning about this, and I'll see you again soon. 

Sources:

Washington Food-- Best Bagger Competitions

NGA Best Bagger Handbook

National Grocer's Association Best Bagger Competition Page

Pocket Shark

 Ok, I have to say, I'm getting a little bit annoyed by how many awesome things out there that I hear about and I can't tell you a lot about because there's a pocket shark that is absolutely adorable weird and wonderful and I want to tell you about, but there have only been a few specimens found, so we don't know their range, population, or a lot else.

I'm not going to let that stop me though, because you really need to hear about this shark. 

This picture comes from IFL Science, below, but it's pretty much the same as in three other links and it's also basically the only one that I can find of these tiny sharks. 

Ok, so, we don't know a lot because only two have ever been found and they were proved to be separate species in their own little family group, but the part that is really, really, really, cool is why they got named 'Pocket' sharks. 

It isn't because they're small enough to put in your pockets. They are, with the specimens found being about 5 inches long. So, smaller than an index card, but definitely thicker. 

These guys got named Pocket Sharks because right behind their pectoral fins, basically in their armpits, are a pair of glands that scientists think might release bioluminescent fluid that they'd squeeze out to distract predators. 

You might be wondering about shark predators, but keep in mind that these guys are bite size to plenty of critters. 

As a predator, in the dark ocean about a thousand feet down, having a brightly lit stream of liquid is probably a lot easier to spot and try to follow than a dark little shark darting the other way. 

To boil it down a bit, these sharks have pockets!! Isn't that awesome? 

Either way, I'll see you again soon, and I hope you got a smile out of this at least. Thanks for you time, have a great day. 

Sources:

Encyclopedia Britannica-- Pocket Sharks

NOAA-- Tiny Shark that Glows in the Dark

Ocean Conservancy-- Pocket Sharks
Tulane University-- New Species of Pocket Shark  

IFL Science-- Pocket Sharks

Mongabay-- Pocket Shark

I'm Back! And National Dictionary Day

 Hi. 

I'm Back. 

Or at least going to try to be. I've been dealing with a few extra health issues and I'm actually really busy lately, which is weird. Hopefully I'll be able to do this again and keep at it, but I'm trying to be nice to me so it's still ok if I don't. 

To that end, today is National Dictionary Day, so I want to share a site that I kinda love for trying to find really old and, by today's standards, ridiculous words. 

Phrontistery is a website with a lot of weird and old words that have been found by a linguistic anthropologist, which makes me like them a bit automatically. They have a lot of interesting things that you might like, if you want a laugh. (These are actually my comments on their words.)

Examples:

Flosculation; an embellishment or ornament in speech. (Do you think this has something in common with floccinaucinihilipilification, which is the action of estimating something as worthless? They start similarly and have common points in their meanings.)

Gelicide; A frost. (This makes sense in a lot of ways because it's the death of plants by ice, so frost, gelu, and '-icide')

Icasm; Figurative Expression. (This might be part of the root for Sarcasm.) 

Mowburnt: Crops killed by heat. Sunburnt crops. 

So...I might like linguistics. I don't know if I ever admitted it, but I do. I like how languages or cultures have crossover or similarities even if we don't think they would, like some of the mythical creatures around the world being similar or how most languages have similar words for Mother starting with M because that's what the babies babble first. I like learning how things change over time or how they change. One of my favorite examples is actually Gay, which went from meaning happy to homosexual males, and now they happily own the word to describe themselves. 

Either way, I hope you have fun and hopefully I'll be back tomorrow to tell you about something else. Thanks for reading. 

More Sorry

 So....Guess what that computer did right after I posted my last apology? It kinda died. Now, I'm using my brother's old computer. I really don't like it though, for reasons I'm not actually entirely sure about. Something about it just feels off, and I don't trust it. 

Either way though, I'm probably going to be on hiatus for a bit longer. I have so many things I want to tell you about, like the fire-breathing shrimp and the grocery packing contest that America apparently does that has a prize of a gold plated cash register. Or robot bees and sea angels. Or the 'ghost' sharks that have teeth on their foreheads that are making the evolution scientists go wild. 

As it stands, I might have to wait a bit to tell you. Sorry. I hope to see you again soon though.