Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts

Thursday, July 09, 2009

Where are the green mammals?

I was thinking about this a few months back and never figured it out. There are green reptiles, green fish, green birds, green insects, but I don't know of any species of mammal that naturally has any green pigment to its skin or fur. I'm not counting species that have algae living in their hair or something like that, I'm talking about actual green pigment being produced by mammals. For that matter, there's not much in the way of blue or purple for mammals, is there? A prize to anyone who can explain why that might be to my satisfaction.

I was reminded of this by the fact that Katy posted a very blue spider.

Friday, September 07, 2007

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo

Kerry was feeling mean, so he sent me to the wikipedia page explaining the gramatically correct sentence "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo". I had to read it until I understood it, and sounded like an insane man while explaining it to another coworker, as we both said Buffalo far more times than a reasonable person should in a year. "Indeed, for any n ≥ 1, the sentence 'buffalo' is grammatically correct," so we could still be saying it and our sentence would still be describing the brusque nature of upstate New York bison to each other.

Friday, August 31, 2007

Shelob moves to Texas

Monster Webs Invade Texas! (BBC)

Super-freaky, if you ask me.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

PoK: Plural Nouns, Part I

Plural Nouns Part I


Parts 2-20 may or may not ever happen. For each of the following animals, list the proper name for a group of animals. Example: cow=>herd. Some have more than one right answer. Got it? Bonus: name the name for a young animal of each type.

1)Rhinoceros

2)Goose

3)Ant

4)Lion

5)Whale

6)Crow

7)Rook (the bird, not the chess piece)

8)Raven

9)Badger

10)Hyena

Answers from PoK:Pomegranates

1) What does the word 'pomegranate' mean and in what language?
Kari did best here, with 'Apple of Grains' - pomme is Latin/French for apple, and granate is grains or seeds. Seedy apple. I actually almost asked for the bonus question to name states or people with the pomegranate as their symbol, but I thought nobody would get it - so good on you, Kari! the rest of you were pretty close, too.

2) What gem derives its name from the similarity in color to the fruit?
Nice job, it was garnet.

3) What modern weapon derives its name from the similarity in shape to the fruit? This one was maybe a little obvious, but it's pretty cool, no? First attested usage comes from 1523

4) Under what conditions will pomegranate juice turn blue?
Those of you who guessed acid were on the right track, but headed the wrong direction. Alkaline conditions will turn it blue. Which provides for some amusing imaginary MacGuyver moments where you need to know whether you can drink from a lake but all you have to test it with is a pomegranate.

5) In Greek Mythology, who is famous for eating a pomegranate and what were the consequences of that action?
Yup, Persephone, and it's why we have winter

Bonus: Name two health benefits of pomegranate juice.
Obviously, some of these are more provable than others, so everybody gets credit, even (perhaps especially) Michelle.

For Kari's bonus question, I agree with Maren - do it in a bowl of water & strain them out. Are we right?