Useless information thread

[Rock Strongo]

Originally Posted by slice bh compliment

hahah, my dog's breath smells like dog food.

It's good to hear at least someone who's passionate about his dog

[Sentinel]

"I thank God every day that relationship did not last" .. lol, I can think of a couple ladies in my list for that

[Ben Hadd]

If you could count the number of times a cricket chirps in one minute, divide by 2, add 9 and divide by 2 again, you would have the correct temperature in celcius degrees.

[Sentinel]

Originally Posted by Ben Hadd

If you could count the number of times a cricket chirps in one minute, divide by 2, add 9 and divide by 2 again, you would have the correct temperature in celcius degrees.

Where do the donkeys come in ?

[Ben Hadd]

Originally Posted by Sentinel

Where do the donkeys come in ?

In the desert environment a donkey is able to hear the call of another donkey 60 miles away. The crickets would be for measuring the heat on the way to the neighboring donkey.

[Mike Bulgakov]

Elephants Call Long-Distance After-Hours

Hillary Mayell
for National Geographic News
March 3, 2004

African elephants have perfected the art of calling long-distance. They make most of their calls at night, when it is cooler and sound travels farthest.

Elephants are highly social animals, and they snort, scream, trumpet, roar, and rumble to communicate with one another. Low-level conversations among family members continue throughout the day—a calf may rumble to its mother to stop so it can suckle, for instance. Close to 70 different sounds or "messages" used by elephants to keep in touch have been identified.

"Messages include both long and shorter-distance calls," said Michael Garstang, a meteorologist at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville.

"Many of the rumbling calls occur at the level of infrasound, a very low-frequency rumble below the audible hearing range of humans," he said. "Humans can hear the upper end as a rumble, although you're not hearing it in your ears, it's more like feeling the vibrations in your diaphragm."

The frequency of sound is measured in hertz (Hz). The infrasonic range is roughly between 1 and 20 Hz. Infrasound can travel long distances; however, atmospheric conditions can severely limit the distance.

Garstang and his team collected and analyzed more than 1,300 calls made by elephants on the Namibian savanna, where daytime temperatures frequently reach 120 degrees Fahrenheit (49 degrees Celsius), and winds blow at up to 20 miles an hour (32 kilometers an hour).

"Calls made when atmospheric conditions are optimum can be heard over at least 110 square miles [285 square kilometers]," Garstang said. "Wind gusts and shimmering heat waves can break up sound waves and reduce that distance to less than one square mile [2.6 square kilometers]."

Garstang found that 96 percent of the infrasound calls designed to travel long-distance occurred during the hours of dusk and dawn. Ideal atmospheric conditions occur near sunset and sunrise, when temperatures drop and the winds are quiet. Calls made during these optimum times could be heard up to 6 miles (10 kilometers) away.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...elephants.html

[Mike Bulgakov]

Elephant beer has an alcohol content of 7.2%.

[Sentinel]

Mike, i know this is really useless but its 2011 now.

Are you in the past of the future ?

[Mike Bulgakov]

My apologies, Sentinel. I just have not been keeping up with research on elephant calls as I should. Let me know if you can find any studies published today.

http://scientistatwork.blogs.nytimes...elephant-land/
July 25, 2011, 11:55 AM
Carrots and Sticks in Elephant Land
By CAITLIN O’CONNELL-RODWELL

Two male black rhinos are huffing and grumbling out their differences just below the tower in a darkness one can know only in wild places. The coming of the new moon makes it hard to ignore the brilliance of the Milky Way in an obsidian sky. Intermittently, the rhinos bellow when one or the other crosses some seemingly arbitrary line drawn in the sand by angry feet.

Almost three weeks into the season, it’s impossible not to notice a similar line in the sand drawn by many male denizens of Mushara, and for the elephant, that line plays out in a myriad of forms, from all-out avoidance to full-on combat — not so much over territories, but over who’s in charge. And since the dynamics of male elephant dominance hierarchies are a particular focus of my studies, when and how Greg the elephant draws a line in the sand is under great scrutiny.

To address this question, interactions between male elephants are painstakingly documented by my research team via video and live-scoring of behaviors using a Noldus Observer datalogger while elephants visit the water hole. And one or more members of the team are on watch, starting around 10 a.m., to scan the horizon and give the team enough warning that elephants are heading in, in order to ready the equipment for a recording session.

When the call comes — “Incoming!” or “Elephants, to the northwest!” — the team gets to their positions, eager to see what bulls are heading in and what kinds of behaviors we’ll see. Inevitably there’s a trunk-to-mouth greeting between a subordinate and dominant individual — an act somewhere between a handshake and salute — and a displacement event of a subordinate from the best drinking position. And then, if it’s a bonded group like Greg’s boys’ club, affiliative exchanges such as body contact, a trunk wrap or gentle sparring commence.

Over the years we’ve compiled a rank for each male based on the number of displacements that are observed between two bulls (a dyad). Based on this score, we assign ranks and compare the number of contesting behaviors exhibited by dominant and subordinate bulls. Greg, the No. 1-ranking bull, is also the most aggressive within the group. Although this might be expected of a dominant individual within a hierarchy, it poses the question of whether simply throwing his weight around is the single most important tactic for Greg to stay on top. Indeed, it’s more complicated than that. It turns out that Greg exhibits almost equal amounts of aggression and affiliative behaviors as compared with his associates.

Combat between male elephants rarely results in a mortal wound.
This makes sense since ritualized affiliative behaviors are thought to strengthen bonds, while agonistic behaviors serve to reinforce status relationships. Hence, we witness Greg forcefully keeping Kevin in line on the one hand and on the other, exhibiting remarkably gentle and affiliate behaviors to others such as Abe and young bulls such as Hardy Boy. We’ve even witnessed Greg allowing a young subordinate to suck on the end of his tusk.

The dominant male Greg engages in affiliate ear-over-rearbody contact behavior toward the young bull Hardy Boy.
But Greg’s interaction with Hardy Boy was not always his modus operandi with youngsters. I’ll never forget an incident back in a very wet 2008, just before sunset toward the end of the season, when the half-size, pipsqueak Ozzie arrived to upset the elephantine apple cart by being in full musth — eyes wild, pupils pin*****s with whites showing, possessed by a testosterone demon with a plan of his own. This was remarkable, because bulls don’t normally enter musth until they are well into their three-quarter size, in their mid- to late twenties as opposed to mid- to late teens.

Ozzie’s hormonal condition was not lost on Greg. Greg backed up at the sight of this brazen whip, and to my amazement, the unperturbed Ozzie walked right up next to the behemoth to drink at the best position, with no attempt to “kiss the don’s ring” with a ritual trunk-to-mouth greeting. And not only that, Greg actually yielded to this possessed pubescent youth by allowing Ozzie to displace him, side-stepping to make room for the rabble-rouser.

As Ozzie stepped onto the don’s throne, about to take his first sip, Greg seemed to snap out of it and observed this unspeakable transgression with ears held out and head held high as if to say, “What am I, chopped liver? Swiss cheese? No proper trunk-to-mouth greeting for the don?” Then I could sense the locomotive engine building up steam and Greg finally blew his lid. He came at Ozzie in full combat regalia, ears folded, giant head clobbering down on the Ozzie’s outstretched face, the little devil embracing the engagement with gusto.

Unbelievable. He couldn’t possibly get away with this, yet there he was giving the don his best left hook, as if he hadn’t a care in the world. I just assumed that Greg didn’t take him all that seriously, or he actually would have wounded Ozzie, but chose instead to let him off the hook. And Ozzie finally let the don drink in peace.

The rhinos gave up on their dispute, the night falling quiet again, leaving potential lines in the sand left for some future time. In tallying all of the behavioral data on Greg collected since 2004, although not unchallenged, he appears aware of the line that needs to be drawn in the sand in order to stay on top — equal portions of carrot and stick doled out at just the right times and in just the right places.

[Ben Hadd]

The donkey's favorite pastime is rolling.

[heycal]

Originally Posted by Mike Bulgakov

Elephants Call Long-Distance After-Hours

Hillary Mayell
for National Geographic News
March 3, 2004

African elephants have perfected the art of calling long-distance. They make most of their calls at night, when it is cooler and sound travels farthest.

Plus it's generally cheaper to call during off-peak hours. Not sure why this is surprising or considered 'news' of any kind.

[Ben Hadd]

Donkeys have a reputation for stubbornness but this is due to their highly developed sense of self preservation. It is difficult to force a donkey into doing something it sees as contrary to its own best interest or safety.

[Sentinel]

Combat between male elephants rarely results in a mortal wound.

I just hope so. Mike. I now recall a program on telly many years back in which two elephs had a 2 or 3 day fight-unto-death.

No, Mike, I don't expect you to dig up research on elephants released within the last 24 hours

[Sentinel]

Originally Posted by heycal

Plus it's generally cheaper to call during off-peak hours. Not sure why this is surprising or considered 'news' of any kind.

Humans have evolved to a stage where they've started tweeting. At least the teenage ones. Will they fly next ?

[heycal]

Originally Posted by Sentinel

Humans have evolved to a stage where they've started tweeting. At least the teenage ones. Will they fly next ?

Unlikely. I suspect they are too lazy to flap their arms fast enough.

[Ben Hadd]

Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain was born on a day in 1835 when Haley's Comet came into view. When He died in 1910, Haley's Comet came into view again.

[Mike Bulgakov]

I was once waiting for a train in Amsterdam and decided to take a walk. A bird somewhere above took a giant crap which landed on my head. Washing bird crap from my hair in a hotel WC was not a highlight of my life.

[Ben Hadd]

The Paomnnehal Pweor Of The Hmuan Mnid.
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch as Cmabrigde Uinervtisy,
it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are,
the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae.
The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm.
Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

[heycal]

Originally Posted by Mike Bulgakov

I was once waiting for a train in Amsterdam and decided to take a walk. A bird somewhere above took a giant crap which landed on my head. Washing bird crap from my hair in a hotel WC was not a highlight of my life.

But aren't you happy about it in retrospect? Now you can tell the story from time to time.

[Dedans Penthouse]

Originally Posted by Mike Bulgakov

I was once waiting for a train in Amsterdam and decided to take a walk. A bird somewhere above took a giant crap which landed on my head. Washing bird crap from my hair in a hotel WC was not a highlight of my life.

Originally Posted by heycal

But aren't you happy about it in retrospect? Now you can tell the story from time to time.

What's the word? Thunderbird!
How's it sold? Good and cold!
What's the jive? Bird's alive!
What's the price? Thirty twice!
........
What's the reason? 'Grapes' are in season!!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj0GtRI4Ulo


on-topic:
Sir James Mason once did a TV commercial for Thunderbird wine......his 'Knightcap' if you will. This clip below is actually pretty funny when you consider one who's been 'knighted' doing a spot for low-grade 'bum' wine-lol:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xY7mBQrzXU