I know something you don't know...
I'm guessing. I may be wrong. You may know these things. The whole world may know these things and I'm the one living under a rock.
Anyway, in another instalment of random things I learned today in the course of being a librarian:
♥ There is a tree in that owns itself in Athens, Georgia. Actually, to be more specific, the tree is The Son of the Tree That Owns Itself. The current tree grew from an acorn of the original, which had its rights deeded to itself by the owner, who was apparently very fond of said tree. How delightful!
♥ Australia is home to all of the world's top ten most venomous snakes - in fact, it's actually home to the top eleven, but who's counting? One has to wonder why Nature (or whichever deity you believe in) felt the need to concentrate them in one location. What exactly was Australia intended for, that it required such a plethora of dangerous creations? And of course this is not including all the other dangerous, poisonous and otherwise ridiculously deadly creatures Australia is home to - sharks, crocodiles, the box jellyfish, spiders, Russell Crowe...
♥ The shortest war on record is the Anglo-Zanzibar War, which lasted a grand total of 38 minutes - I'm guessing because the typical British overkill of 3 cruisers, 2 gunboats and over 1000 troops ridiculously overwhelmed the Zanzibaris, who sustained 500 casulaties versus the British...one. Another proud moment in Imperial history.
♥ In 1929 researchers at Princeton turned a live cat into a functioning telephone. I have no idea how they managed to get the cat to sit still for long enough to place a call - presumably a box was involved. I always do not wish to guess which end was the mouthpiece and which the receiver. The poor kitty did not survive the experiment, however - so I fully hope it came back from the grave and haunted them to their end of their days, hopefully by placing innumerable phantom telephone calls or perhaps meowing down the line at them in a feline form of heavy breathing.
Anyway, in another instalment of random things I learned today in the course of being a librarian:
♥ There is a tree in that owns itself in Athens, Georgia. Actually, to be more specific, the tree is The Son of the Tree That Owns Itself. The current tree grew from an acorn of the original, which had its rights deeded to itself by the owner, who was apparently very fond of said tree. How delightful!
♥ Australia is home to all of the world's top ten most venomous snakes - in fact, it's actually home to the top eleven, but who's counting? One has to wonder why Nature (or whichever deity you believe in) felt the need to concentrate them in one location. What exactly was Australia intended for, that it required such a plethora of dangerous creations? And of course this is not including all the other dangerous, poisonous and otherwise ridiculously deadly creatures Australia is home to - sharks, crocodiles, the box jellyfish, spiders, Russell Crowe...
♥ The shortest war on record is the Anglo-Zanzibar War, which lasted a grand total of 38 minutes - I'm guessing because the typical British overkill of 3 cruisers, 2 gunboats and over 1000 troops ridiculously overwhelmed the Zanzibaris, who sustained 500 casulaties versus the British...one. Another proud moment in Imperial history.
♥ In 1929 researchers at Princeton turned a live cat into a functioning telephone. I have no idea how they managed to get the cat to sit still for long enough to place a call - presumably a box was involved. I always do not wish to guess which end was the mouthpiece and which the receiver. The poor kitty did not survive the experiment, however - so I fully hope it came back from the grave and haunted them to their end of their days, hopefully by placing innumerable phantom telephone calls or perhaps meowing down the line at them in a feline form of heavy breathing.