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The place where the world comes together in honesty and mirth.
Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.


Friday, May 29, 2015

Diverse Linkage

  1. Even Australians can't understand a strong Australian accent.
    According to the QI elves, "in 1965 a US Senate Committee predicted that by the year 2000 the average working week would be 14 hours." (sourced from The Atlantic)
  2. It is not mandatory for a chrysalis to be kept upright (or suspended) for a butterfly to develop normally - as long as the newly enclosed butterfly can climb somewhere to suspend his/her wings after emergence.
  3. Donkey milk (and salmon hatchery water) are being touted as beauty ingredients:  "...this milk 'soothes sensitive skin and eczema,' thanks to its high protein and vitamin content."
  4. A dashpot is "a mechanical device, a damper which resists motion via viscous friction."  That's the word for the doohickey that lets a door close slowly rather than slamming shut. They are also common components of automobile shock absorbers.
  5. The Soviet Union developed "spy dust" for tracking people.  "...powder containing both luminol and a substance called nitrophenyl pentadien (NPPD) had been applied to doorknobs, the floor mats of cars, and other surfaces that Americans living in Moscow had touched. They would then track or smear the substance over every surface they subsequently touched."
  6. There is a medical entity colloquially referred to as "bicyclist's vulva" (explicit photo at the British Medical Journal).  Interestingly it is not simple edema, but rather lymphedema.
  7. A "vindshield viper."

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