| Weird Science Facts |
EasyNews, UseNet made Ea .. |
| ::darkshadows:: (blood@thirsty.net) |
2008/03/03 21:27 |
Path: news.nzbot.com!not-for-mail
From: "::darkshadows::" <blood@thirsty.net>
Newsgroups: alt.fan.rolex
Subject: Weird Science Facts
Message-ID: <7sjps3l14it6uv4rd271ldl83iqf6ni1ot@4ax.com>
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 4.2/32.1118
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Antivirus: avast! (VPS 080303-0, 03/03/2008), Outbound message
X-Antivirus-Status: Clean
Lines: 221
X-Complaints-To: abuse@easynews.com
Organization: EasyNews, UseNet made Easy!
X-Complaints-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly.
Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2008 04:27:53 GMT
Xref: news.nzbot.com alt.fan.rolex:5670
10 Weird Science facts you didn't know
Published on 11/8/2006
Animals can rain from the sky
Raining animals is a relatively common meteorological phenomenon, with
occurrences reported from many countries throughout history. The
animals most likely to drop from the sky in a rainfall are fish and
frogs, with birds coming third. Sometimes the animals survive the
fall, especially fish, suggesting a small time gap between the
extraction and the actual drop. Several witnesses of raining frogs
describe the animals as startled, though healthy, and exhibiting
relatively normal behavior shortly after the event. In some incidents,
however, the animals are frozen to death or even completely enclosed
in blocks of ice. These occurrences may be evidence for the transport
of the victims to high altitudes, where the temperature is below zero,
and they show how powerful meteorological forces can be. Most recent
occurrences include the rain of frogs and toads in Serbia (2005) and
London (1998), and rains of fish in India (2006) and Wales (2004).
In Honduras, the Lluvia de Peces (Rain of Fishes) is a unique
phenomenon that has been occurring for more than a century on a yearly
basis in the country of Honduras. It occurs in the Departamento de
Yoro, between the months of May and July. Witnesses of this phenomenon
state that it begins with is a dark cloud in the sky followed by
lightning, thunder, strong winds and heavy rain for 2 to 3 hours. Once
the rain has stopped, hundreds of living fish are found on the ground.
People take the fish home to cook and eat them. Although some experts
have tried to explain the Rain of Fishes as a natural meteorological
phenomenon, the fish are not sea water fish, but fresh water fish;
they are not dead, but alive; they are not blind, they have eyes; they
are not big fish, but small; and the type of fish is not found
elsewhere in the area. There is no valid scientific explanation for
this phenomenon. Many people believe this phenomenon occurs because of
considered by many to be a Saint. He visited Honduras from 1856-1864,
and upon encountering so many poor people, prayed for 3 days and 3
nights asking God for a miracle to help the poor people by providing
food. The Rain of Fishes has occurred ever since.
The universe is beige
Cosmic Latte is the color of the universe, according to a team of
astronomers from Johns Hopkins University. In 2001, Karl Glazebrook
and Ivan Baldry determined that the color of the universe was a
greenish white, but they soon corrected their analysis in "The 2dF
Galaxy Redshift Survey: constraints on cosmic star-formation history
from the cosmic spectrum", published in 2002. In this paper, they
reported that their survey of the color of all light in the universe
added up to a slightly beige white. The survey included more than
200,000 galaxies, and measured the spectral range of the light from a
large volume of the universe. The hexadecimal RGB value for Cosmic
Latte is #FFF8E7.
In a Washington Post article, the color was displayed. Glazebrook
jokingly said that he was looking for suggestions for a name for the
new color. Several people who read the article sent in suggestions.
"Cosmic Latte" was selected.
Poisoning can make masses to dance hysterically
Dancing mania is the name given to a phenomenon that occurred mainly
in mainland Europe from the 14th century through to the 17th century,
in which groups of people would dance through the streets of towns or
cities, sometimes foaming at the mouth or speaking in tongues, until
they collapsed from exhaustion. The first major outbreak of the mania
was in Aachen, Germany, in July 1374. The dancers went through the
streets screaming of wild visions, and even continued to writhe and
twist after they collapsed from exhaustion. The dancing quickly caught
on, and spread rapidly throughout France and the Low Countries. The
mania reached its peak in 1418 in Strasbourg. At at least one point,
so many people had either been afflicted with the dancing mania, or
caught up in the dancing, or were trying to give assistance, or simply
watching the events unfold, that the town was brought to a complete
halt.
Although no real consensus exists as to what caused the mania, some
cases, especially the one in Aix-la-Chapelle, may have had an
explainable physical cause. The symptoms of the sufferers can be
attributed to ergot poisoning, or ergotism, known in the Middle Ages
as "St. Anthony's Fire". It is caused by eating rye infected with
Claviceps purpurea, a small fungus that contains toxic and
psychoactive chemicals (alkaloids), including lysergic acid (used in
modern times to synthesize LSD). Symptoms of ergot poisoning include
nervous spasms, psychotic delusions, spontaneous abortion, convulsions
and gangrene; some dancers claimed to have experienced visions of a
religious nature.
The Moon is moving away from the Earth
The Moon's orbit (its circular path around the Earth) is indeed
getting larger, at a rate of about 3.8 centimeters per year. (The
Moon's orbit has a radius of 384,000 km.) The reason for the increase
is that the Moon raises tides on the Earth. Because the side of the
Earth that faces the Moon is closer, it feels a stronger pull of
gravity than the center of the Earth. Similarly, the part of the Earth
facing away from the Moon feels less gravity than the center of the
Earth. This effect stretches the Earth a bit, making it a little bit
oblong.
It is expected that in 15 billion years, the orbit will stabilize at
1.6 times its present size, and the Earth day will be 55 days long
equal to the time it will take the Moon to orbit the Earth.
Belly button lint comes from your underwear
Many people find that, at the beginning and end of the day, a small
lump of fluff has appeared in the navel cavity. The reasons for this
have been the subject of idle speculation for many years but in 2001,
Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki of the University of Sydney, Australia undertook
a systematic survey to determine the ins and outs of navel lint. His
primary findings were as follows:
* Navel lint consists primarily of stray fibres from one's
clothing, mixed with some dead skin cells and strands of body hair.
The rotting cells can create unpleasant odors.
* Contrary to expectations, navel lint appears to migrate upwards
from underwear rather than downwards from shirts or tops. The
migration process is the result of the frictional drag of body hair on
underwear, which drags stray fibres up into the navel.
* Women experience less navel lint because of their finer and
shorter body hairs. Conversely, older men experience it more because
of their coarser and more numerous hairs.
* Navel lint's characteristic blue-gray tint is likely the
averaging of the colors of fibres present in clothing; the same color
as clothes dryer lint.
* The existence of navel lint is entirely harmless, and requires
no corrective action.
Fly larvae helps to heal wounds quicker
Long ago, some doctors noticed soldiers that had maggots on their
wounds healed quicker than those without maggots. Maggots eat the dead
skin cells and bacteria. Maggot Therapy (also known as Maggot
Debridement Therapy (MDT), larval therapy, larva therapy, or larvae
therapy) is the intentional introduction of live, disinfected maggots
or fly larvae into non-healing skin or soft tissue wounds of a human
or other animal. This practice was widely used before the discovery of
antibiotics, as it serves to clean the dead tissue within a wound in
order to promote healing.
Animals can naturally explode
Natural animal explosions can occur for a variety of reasons. On 2004,
a buildup of gas inside a decomposing sperm whale, measuring 17 meters
(56 ft.) long and weighing 50 tons, caused it to burst in Taiwan. The
explosion was reported to have splattered blood and whale entrails
over surrounding shop-fronts, bystanders, and cars.
A significant population of toads in Germany and Denmark were
exploding in April 2005 in an act described as a self-defence
mechanism that failed, as it consisted of puffing up to look bigger
while under attack by crows.
You can still have an erection once dead
A death erection (sometimes referred to as "angel lust") is a
post-mortem erection which occurs when a male individual dies
vertically or face-down with the cadaver remaining in this position.
During life, the pumping of blood by the heart ensures a relatively
even distribution around the blood vessels of the human body. Once
this mechanism has ended, only the force of gravity acts upon the
blood. As with any mass, the blood settles at the lowest point of the
body and causes edema or swelling to occur; the discoloration caused
by this is called lividity.
If an individual dies vertically such as in a hanging, the blood will
settle in the legs and pool at the feet. The pressure will be greatest
as the weight of the blood pushes down. This causes the blood vessels
and tissues in the feet to engorge to their greatest elastic capacity
and hold the greatest volume of blood possible. This effect occurs
right up the legs although to a lesser extent than the feet and is
also notable at the waist. The blood which remains in the torso
attempts to move to a lower position due to gravity, and as the blood
in the waist (which cannot move down due to the legs being full)
causes the penis, consisting of erectile tissue, to fill with blood
and expand. This is the death erection. As long as the body remains in
this position the effect will continue.
Male seahorses can get pregnant
Seahorses reproduce in an unusual way: the male becomes pregnant.
Pipefishes and seahorses are the only species in the animal kingdom to
which the term "male pregnancy" has been applied.
The male seahorse has a brood pouch in which he carries eggs deposited
by the female. The mating pair entwine their tails and the female
aligns a long tube called an ovipositor with the male's pouch. The
eggs move through the tube into the male's pouch where he then
fertilizes them. The embryos develop in ten days to six weeks,
depending on species and water conditions. When the male gives birth
he pumps his tail until the baby seahorses emerge.
The male's pouch regulates salinity for the eggs, slowly increasing in
the pouch to match the water outside as the eggs mature. Hatched
offspring are independent of their parents. Some spend time developing
among the ocean plankton. At times, the male seahorse may try to
consume some of the previously released offspring. Other species (H.
zosterae) immediately begin life as sea-floor inhabitants (benthos).
A fetus can get trapped inside of its twin
Fetus in fetu (or Foetus in foetu) describes an extremely rare
abnormality that involves a fetus getting trapped inside of its twin.
It continues to survive as a parasite even past birth by forming an
umbilical cord-like structure that leeches its twin's blood supply
until it grows so large that it starts to harm the host, at which
point doctors usually intervene. Invariably the parasitic fetus is
anencephalic (without a brain) and lacks internal organs, and as such
is unable to survive on its own, though it may have almost human
(albeit underdeveloped and bizarre) features such as limbs, digits,
hair, nails and teeth. Fetus in fetu is such a rare condition that
only some 91 cases worldwide have ever been reported. Fetus in fetu
happens very early in a twin pregnancy, when one fetus wraps around
and envelops the other. The dominant fetus grows, while the fetus that
would have been its twin lives on throughout the pregnancy, feeding
off its host twin like a kind of parasite. Usually, both twins die
before birth from the strain of sharing a placenta. Sometimes,
however, the host twin survives and is delivered.
|
|
|