Omnibus edition
This is one of those days I allocate as a ‘catch-up’ for the many people who are slightly behind with their Reading of this blog. My phone always insists on putting a capital R on Reading as if the commuter town is more important than the tradition of looking at books, and I can’t be bothered to argue with it.
There is a reason for this beyond the usual reason that I have no spare time today to blog. As you will know, we’ve just come out of a period in which up to half of the regular readers were missing days of entries because of a technical issue. For those not technically well versed, issue means problem. Comments keep coming in for blogs seven to ten days old. It seems only right to have a breather. Works
for you, works for me. Make the most of this. I’ll be checking you are all up to date.
If you already WERE up to speed, continue yesterdays population debate or tell
me an interesting piece of trivia about an animal.
Posted by Shell on January 25, 2011
Only a couple of few blogs to catch up on and I don’t even have the excuse of the mysterious technical issue – baffling that there doesn’t seem to be a clear pattern to that…
Animal trivia: I’ll go with Earwigs (Order Dermaptera) have two penises. Both are larger than it’s body and it needs the second one just in case one of them snaps off! (I read that not all earwig taxa have two but there was a paywall for the rest of the article in Nature so couldn’t delve deeper).
Misha – rabbits cannot vomit either so any gastrointestinal problems are similarly very serious for them.
Posted by Sam on January 23, 2011
re: “Otters are born without a tongue.”
I didn’t have any real animal facts to hand, so I made this up. Now I feel small, because everybody else has had a proper go. I’m so sorry.
Posted by Ingrid on January 23, 2011
A thorny devil is a type of lizard that can drink through its feet. Also my friend says that the state fish of Hawaii is called the humuhumunukunukuapaa (no idea if thats how you spell it though).
Posted by Lindsay on January 23, 2011
My friend Jen gave me a great crocodile fact: for short bursts, crocodiles can run really fast on their two back legs, but they can only run in straight lines, so if you want to avoid them, run in zig-zags.
Posted by Sephy on January 23, 2011
Most cats are either right handed or left handed. Or right pawed/ left pawed I suppose it should be. I’ve been studying my cat (just tonight, not on a regular basis) and I think he must be ambidextrous.
Posted by Sarah on January 23, 2011
Unfortunately, I’m having the exact same problem as Amy B (and possibly others) when I try to view this blog on my iPhone.
Some of these facts are fascinating! I can’t think of any to add, though.
Posted by Melanie on January 23, 2011
A group of ravens is called an Unkindness.
Posted by Amy B on January 23, 2011
To add to what Heather said: I think the blog problem is actually still there, but now it shows blogs up to “The gossip”, as opposed to “That nasty business on Friday”. At least, that’s what I’m getting with my iphone/RSS feed. Sorry to put a dampener on things.
Also: Montana Mountain Goats butt heads so hard that their hooves fall off. (Not really my fact, I asked my housemate, and she got it from Ricky Gervais, so everyone probably already knows it. But STILL. Interesting)
Posted by Someone on January 23, 2011
Mm true point about comedy ‘TV’ awards. Ah well that’s good; no outright hate for it like my Twitter feed. I’m happy with that :]
Posted by Heather Jones on January 23, 2011
Animal trivia: formanifera are the biggest biomass on the planet – each one is tiny, smaller than a grain of sand, but there are just so many of the little critters in the oceans!
Just a quick note to say that I can only see the most recent blogs on my phone. When I used Explorer on my laptop earlier today (home broadband only just having been fixed yesterday) and went via your website, I couldn’t see this one or the day before
Posted by Aislinn on January 23, 2011
A fact about an animal is that my pet cat is called Wilma.
I like that there are awards on the telly celebrating comedy, but I have two issues. One is that I think they should be called British Comedy TV Awards or something, to represent the fact that it is only comedians on the telly who seem to be eligible to win (I think Ross calling Michael McIntyre’s award ‘Best Male Comedian’ sums that up).
Second thing is, they seem to ignore a LOT of comedy shows. Asides from Horrible Histories, whom I am genuinely pleased for, it seems to be the ‘obvious’ choices. (By which I mean, ‘Until We Need Answers or Cowards is either recommissioned or nominated for an extremely important award, I shall continue to complain about comedy/the BBC.)
Posted by Rachael on January 23, 2011
Pigs actually tend to keep pretty tidy living areas. Hummingbirds can fly upside down. Butterflies taste with their feet.
Posted by Lydia on January 23, 2011
I have no fact, but on the BCA thing, I kind of liked them. I thought Jonathan Ross was annoying but then he always is, so I shouldn’t have been surprised. I was really happy for Miranda Hart though, I think she really deserves her awards.
Posted by Tibbs on January 23, 2011
I am not entirely caught up (still back in December, in fact!) but it’s going to take more than one day for me to close the gap, so…
Tomatoes are semi-carnivorous; the fuzz on their stems is designed to trap bugs, which then die, fall to the ground and release nutrients into the soil that are then absorbed by the plant’s roots. Not an animal, but still a FACT.
Posted by Sam on January 23, 2011
Animal fact: Giraffes don’t have any vocal chords and are therefore mute.
I also have a fact about crocodiles but can’t really remember the exact detail of it and don’t want to cheat by googling. But it’s something like they are immune to infection/diseases etc. So they only ever die of old age, starvation or mortal wounds.
Posted by Courtney on January 23, 2011
Animal/creepy crawly fact; there’s a species of spider that survives mainly on plant matter and even cooperates with others of its own kind and shares nests.
Posted by Helen on January 23, 2011
The heart of a shrimp is located in its head. It finds it hard to make important decisions because of this.
Two more things:
1) I had nothing of any value to add to the population debate but just wanted to say, for what it’s worth, I found Sam’s post very informative and, for want of a better word, good. Also, sorry to hear you had a tough week Mark, do hope next week is better.
2) Yes, some more info on the 28th would be very helpful if possible.
Posted by Misha on January 23, 2011
Animal trivia: The third story of a building is the optimat height for a cat to fall from, far enough to twist round, not so far as to break it’s legs.
Horses cannot be sick. Hence, colic is often fatal.
Human trivia: i’m full of gin and toast.
Posted by Josh on January 22, 2011
To eat, a starfish throws his stomach at its prey and digests it outside its body.
Could we have more details about the 28th? I really need to start formulating plans.
Posted by Someone on January 22, 2011
I have no facts in my mind.
BUT I would like to know what Mark, Mark Watson thinks of Russell Brand? And it could be ‘billed’ as relevant coz of what with his winning Outstanding Comedic Achievement award (or something) at the just gone BCAs. Go on: yay or nay? Just curious. (I’m a fan. Though more so when he’s just having a chat or when he’s bouncing off Matt Morgan than when he’s doing stand-up).
And more generally what d’you (or anyone out there) think of the BCAs? I liked it, but there’s a lot of hate for it on Twitter, and I know it doesn’t recognise the vast proportion of comedians… the Chortle whatnots are better for that, no? It’s still good for something. … Is it? I don’t know. What do you lovely people reckon?
Posted by Alexander on January 22, 2011
A giraffe can kick a lion’s head off.
Posted by Sam on January 22, 2011
Otters are born without a tongue.
Posted by A lot of Rachels on January 22, 2011
Now I live in Reading I pronounce reading as Reading.
both the sharks’ upper and lower jaws move.
A shark will never loose it’s teeth, if one comes out it re-grows it
Posted by Meg on January 22, 2011
Some animal facts:
- Honeybees have hair on their eyes.
- Slugs have 4 noses.
- A hippo can run faster than man.
- Sir Isaac Newton invented the cat flap.
- We share 98.4% of our DNA with a chimp – and 70% with a slug.
- Elephants are the only animals that can’t jump.
- A group of owls is called a parliament.
- Goat’s eyes have rectangular pupils.
- A snail can sleep for three years.
Wasn’t that fun? Most of those were from the internet but 3 of them were from my brain. See if you can guess which ones.
Posted by issey on January 22, 2011
Cows can have regional accents and a cow’s only sweat glands are in its nose.
Oh and also: mosquitoes have 47 teeth.
Posted by Ally on January 22, 2011
An interesting piece of trivia about an animal? Hmm. In Australia, Rainbow Lorrikeets, despite being tiny and very aptly named, are incredible bullies. No bird dares to defy them, even if they’re double the size and with a much more fierce looking beak. This isn’t really fact, more an observation from the multitude of birds we get in our backyard. Those Lorrikeets are evil personified – they even have red eyes and jump about and hiss when they’re annoyed.
They’re rather pretty though.