We are surrounded by ducks at Old Ranch so James posed the question “How long do ducks live”…. We all guess about five years but that was not even close.
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Caffine Effects Depend On The Person
Paul is blessed... He can fall asleep deinking coffee
The human body absorbs caffeine quickly, but it also flushes it quickly. Processed mainly through the liver, caffeine has a relatively short half-life. On average it takes four to five hours to rid half of the consumed caffeine from your body–after another five hours 75 percent of it is eliminated. Unless you are very sensitive, a morning cup or two shouldn’t effect your sleep.
But if you have a quick latte at the 3:00PM slump, or an espresso after dinner–you may be counting sheep for a lot longer than you’re comfortable with. Your sleep shouldn’t be affected if you steer clear of caffeine for at least six hours before bedtime. Your sensitivity may vary, though, depending on your metabolism and the amount of caffeine you regularly consume
Posted in General Information
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The Fly’s Ears Are Where? Front Leg??
Many animals use acoustic signals to attract mates but their signals simultaneously expose them to predators or parasites. Male Texas field crickets, for example, signal acoustically to attract potential mates but their calls also attract a parasitoid (Ormia ochracea; Tachinidae). These parasitoid females acoustically orient to signalling males and lay their larvae on and around the cricket. The larvae burrow inside to feed and grow. The parasitoid larvae emerges 7-10 days later, killing the host.
Ormia ochracea (the fly) has become a model organism in sound localization experiments because of its unique “ears”, which are complex structures inside the fly’s prothorax near the bases of their front legs. The animal is too small for the time difference of sound arriving at the two ears to be calculated in the usual way, yet it can determine the direction of sound sources with exquisite precision. The tympanic membranes of opposite ears are directly connected mechanically, allowing resolution of nanosecond time differences and requiring a new neural coding strategy. Efforts to build directional microphones based on the structure of the fly’s ear are underway.
The fly (on top) has amazing ears and can locate the cricket easily!
Posted in Science
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But September Is The Ninth Month And It Means “Seventh”?
In Latin, septem means “seven” and septimus means “seventh”; September was in fact the seventh month of the Roman calendar until 153 BC, when the first month changed from Kalendas Martius (1 March) to Kalendas Januarius (1 January). It is also the seventh month of the Astrological calendar, which begins with March/Mars/Aries.
September begins on the same day of the week as December every year, because there are 91 days separating September and December, which is a multiple of seven (the number of days in the week). No other month ends on the same day of the week as September in any year. Students in school however, who have a september-june school year will have the calendar for june at the end of the school year match the calendar for this month, provided that june is not part of a leap year.
| The original Roman calendar was based upon the moon |
|---|
| Martius (31 days) |
| Aprilis (30 days) |
| Maius (31 days) |
| Iunius (30 days) |
| Quintilis [2] (31 days) |
| Sextilis (30 days) |
| September (30 days) |
| October (31 days) |
| November (30 days) |
| December (30 days) |
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Commander James Askes.. Why Remember?
James often asks questions while on the links… Today’s was why is the word “remember“ and not “member“. If it is “remember” did they “member” again? So we researched it and….
The word came about circa 1300, from Old French remembrer (11c.), from L. rememorari “recall to mind, remember,” from re- “again” + memorari “be mindful of,” from memor “mindful”.
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Naked As A Jay Bird? Where Did That Come From?
First of all, let’s decide what the saying “naked as a jaybird means.” It simply means completely naked and usually implies being naked in a public setting and without embarrassment. It’s a way to give a little emphasis to the nakedness, and usually carries a mildly humorous connotation.
In 19th century America, jay was slang for a hick, a simpleton, a gullible person. In that case, naked as a jay would refer to a completely vulnerable person, not to a bird. And we have another vestige of that meaning: to jaywalk. This referred to country bumpkins wandering around gawking at tall buildings and paying no attention to traffic signals.
All perching birds, including jays, are born with hardly any down at all, making them quite helpless.
So “naked” turns out to be the easy part, expressing vulnerability. “Jay” is the problem. Human or bird?
Posted in Sayings
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Jumping The What?
We watched a movie entitled “Jumping The Broom” and left with the thought it was an African custom… Geez, did we learn something!
Jumping the broom is a phrase and custom relating to wedding ceremonies in different cultural traditions: “many diverse cultures, those of Africa ? Europe including Scotland, Hungary and Gypsy culture – include brooms at wedding rituals.” It is particularly associated with the Romani gypsy people of the United Kingdom, especially those in Wales. There is “Evidence showing the wedding custom was practiced by gypsies(sic) in England, Scotland” as well as African-American and other groups.
In Wales, Romani couples would get married by eloping, when they would “jump the broom,” or over a branch of flowering broom (shrub) or a besom made of broom.[3] Welsh Kale and English Romanichal Gypsies and Romanichal populations in Scotland practiced the ritual into the 1900s. More….
Posted in Cultural
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Xylophone Versus Marimba
We were out last night and had a “struttng incident” and we called the device around the ladies nexk a xylophone. Alas, we were incorrect!
Her xylophone or marimba actually played music!
The xylophone (from the Greek words ????? — xylon, “wood” + ???? —phon?, “sound, voice”, meaning “wooden sound”) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Each bar is an idiophone tuned to a pitch of a musical scale, whether pentatonic or heptatonic in the case of many African and Asian instruments, diatonic in many western children’s instruments, or chromatic for orchestral use.
Xylophone
The marimba (About this sound pronunciation (help·info)) is a musical instrument in the percussion family. It consists of a set of wooden keys or bars with resonators. The bars are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys (similar to a piano) to aid the performer both visually and physically. This instrument is a type of xylophone, but with broader and lower tonal range and resonators.
MAribma
The term may be used generally, to include all such instruments, such as the marimba and balafon or, more specifically, to refer to an orchestral instrument of somewhat higher pitch range than the chromatic marimba. It is sometimes mistakenly used of similar lithophones and metallophone instruments of the glockenspiel type such as the pixiphone.
Posted in General Information
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Sneezing Often Breaks The Speed Limit
Ever find yourself in the middle an intense conversation, a critical meeting, or just jammed into a tight space with others only to have all the symptoms of an intense sneeze come on? The genteel, polite, or just plain hygenic of us – or those without an accessible tissue – may be strongly inclined to try to hold back that sneeze at all costs. Even worse, some pinch their nostrils closed as an extra measure.
But as medical pros will tell you: NEVER suppress a sneeze.
The germs get a free ride allover the room!
Why? Because you can seriously hurt yourself. Sure, you might get by with no lingering problems 9 out of 10 times you try to suppress that sneeze. But statistically speaking, you’re still operating under a risk.
Believe it or not, the human sneeze has actually been clocked. A simple sneeze can travel at over 100 MPH – that’s right, even faster than many cars will travel. Think of trying to instantly stop a vehicle traveling at that high a rate of speed. While the mucus of a sneeze weighs thousands of pounds less than that car or truck, you still have a rocket propulsion system in your head.
Understand, too, that the car may fare far better than your poor head. Our skulls and their accessory organs and glands are packed in extremely tight quarters. The very kind of percussion involved in a suppressed sneeze can wreak serious injury, mostly to the structures within our heads.
Posted in Science
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I Feel Better Now….
What is the average golfer’s score?
According to the National Golf Foundation, research shows that only 22 percent of all golfers regularly score better than 90 for 18 holes on a regulation length course. Here’s the breakdown: Females – 7 percent score below 90
Men scoring below 90 per round – 25 percent.
Starting to feel better yet? No, then let’s look at another statistic.
The average score for 18-holes on a full-size course is 97 for men and 114 for women. It’s an even 100 for all golfers.
Only 6 percent of the men and 1 percent of the women say they break 80 regularly.
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