Tag Archives: animals

Partridges in Pear Trees – Twelve Facts of Christmas

By Ryan | Published: December 25, 2010

For the first fact of Christmas, I bring you a partridge in a pear tree. That’s how the song goes, but it seems that the pear tree shouldn’t actually be there. Partridges are a bird rarely seen in trees, and a pear tree wouldn’t be a great gift in the middle of winter, being completely [...]

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Galileo Says Size Matters. Elephants and Jell-o Agree.

By Ryan | Published: September 2, 2010

In 1638 Galileo Galilei, who is called the Father of Science, published the Square-Cube Law. Frankly, it’s not particularly clever as scientific discoveries go. It’s an observation that big things are bigger than small things. However, the particular way in which objects scale does create a few interesting implications. I’m going to explain the concept [...]

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The History of Human Height

By Ryan | Published: August 31, 2010

Last week I was writing about Goliath, the giant of biblical renown. The earliest records mark his height at 6 and a half feet, while later stories (including the Old Testament bible) report him being just shy of ten feet tall. I had commented that the average height was shorter then, so being over 6 [...]

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FACT: Bunnies cannot vomit

By Ryan | Published: May 16, 2010

So, it turns out that rabbits are incapable of vomiting. I know, mind-blowing, huh. Their itty-bitty-cutesy stomach muscles don’t have the strength to overcome their itty-bitty-cutesy esophagus. That’s the big ol’ tube that connects your mouth to your stomach, and most of the time keeps the contents of each well separated. Other members of the [...]

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Groundhog Day offers 61% chance of being pointless

By Ryan | Published: February 2, 2010

It’s Groundhog Day. For those of us in cooler climates, this gets a lot of attention. Personally, I’m not a fan, but I won’t let that get between you and the facts. So, he says with a fake cheer that could rival any TV weatherman, what’s up with this crazy Groundhog Day tradition? The gist [...]

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FACT: lazy turkeys have more white meat

By Ryan | Published: December 22, 2009
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One of the biggest decisions you can make this week: white meat or dark meat? I can’t help you with that, but I can explain the difference between the two. The color of the meat depends on how the muscle was used. If a muscle gets used often, and for long periods of time, it [...]

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FACT: arthropods make up 80% of all living species

By Ryan | Published: December 4, 2009

Spiders, ants, crabs, lobsters, and beetles. They may not be the prettiest bunch of animals, but they are the most plentiful. They are all arthropods. In the grand scheme of the classification of life they are in the Phylum Arthropoda. At the phylum level, it means the group generally shares similar body structures. (Humans are [...]

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