I went to a trade fair for honey manufacturers. Came home with loads of freebies.
Personal Blogs
I always hear a traveller behind,
But when I turn my head the past is blind.
Dear thrush! I write to say
Thanks for reminding me it's coming soon.
Spring, I mean.
Today's New Scientist has a item on a newly discovered pterosaur, Hatzegopteryx, a fearsome predator with a jaw half a meter wide.
As one of the researchers is reported as saying, it could have swallowed a small human or a child.
After several failed businesses I started another, selling cooking salt this time. It soon dissolved.
I once owned a tunnel digging company. Sadly it went under.
I had this business selling sheep pens. But it folded.
Can't have found it very alluring.
While you're cracking Enigma
There isn't any stigma.
But once you've helped to win the war.
Bigotry resumes its reign once more.
Why does everyone carry on about separating the wheat from the chaff
And the sheep from the goats?
Why don't they mention separating the wheat from the oats?
Or for that matter, the weasels from the stoats?
I've never been able to stand on my head. I just can't make my legs reach.
Well it's Wodin for the money
Tiw for the show
Freyja to get ready
Now go Thor, go!
Well you can do any thing,
But keep off of my blue suede shoes.
I was like totally out of breath. I'd like literally sprinted down this road, then found it was a dead end!!! I'd panted myself into a corner.
When one jaw closes, other jaw opines.
All the children were polite about the meal. Except Phil.
He said he'd tasted better swill.
All the children enjoyed their apple juice. Except Dee.
She said it reminded her of wee.
All the children liked the cake. Except Sam
He said the filling was like caterpillar jam.
All the children finished up their stew. Except Pat
She said it would be nicer without the cat.
From the far bank stretch out their hands.
Happy New Year.
When we were in America we visited Wheezy Anna.
I would not ride with the hot busy sun
Nor glide either with the cold and dizzy moon.
For it's with the curling cloud edges of a storm I would travel
On and on, the horses of my chariot cracking their rainy sinews
And bellowing their avalanches down the valley sides.
The Pupil asked the Master: "What are your proudest moments as a teacher?"
'Dear Pupil!", replied the Master. "Why, they are when you show me I am wrong."
Had enough of experts? Try our new "Expert-Eeze" for quick relief.
I've always assumed that meteorites are quite rare, and as far as ones of any size are concerned that's true. But I was surprised recently to find that thousands of very small "micrometeorites" land on the Earth's surface constantly. Typically they are less than a millimetre in size and weight only a tiny fraction of a gram. If they enter the atmosphere at the right angle and velocity they may suffer some heating but still survive to ground level.
How common are they? Very. A back-of-an envelope calculation suggests that one falls on each square meter about once a fortnight on average. Think of that! You have probably added one to your stock of meteorites during the course of today.
They have been collected in places such as polar regions and in certain geological strata. But finding them in inhabited parts of the world is challenging because of the swarms of other dust-sized particles, many of them of human origin. However recent painstaking research has found undisputed micrometeorites in urban gutters. These are promising sites, because they collect run-off, probably separate out heavier particles (think of panning for gold) and probably trap less contamination from road dust and the like.
If you wanted to find your own, how would you start? First get a neodymium magnet (like the one I mentioned in a previous post about iron in cornflakes, and easily obtained). Put this in a plastic bag and swirl it around in gutter gloop.
Then enclose this in another plastic bag, and pull the magnet out of the inner bag. Voila! Candidate particles will have been collected between the bags.
Now comes the hard part. Almost all will be metallic grains created by human activity. So you will have to examine your finds under a microscope and carefully pick out the stardust. Not at all easy, but luckily there is a book by a dedicated enthusiast.
Read more here about Project Stardust
https://www.facebook.com/micrometeorites/
Images from here
Santa claimed my Christmas jokes were "old" and "stale". He said they were chestnut good enough.
I knew this would be my last ever whiskey. So I had another.
Can I find it?
Yes Yukon!
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