Weekend Open Thread

But I’m never, ever cheap with the trivia, so let’s get the next six years started right now.

Scary thought – when we complete the next six years, I’ll be 71 years old. By that time, I’ll be trivia!

Did you know …

… honeybees can get drunk? They can if they ingest any tree sap that has fermented. And if you think the penalties for humans driving under the influence are harsh, you should see what happens to bees that get snockered. If they’re even able to make it back to their hives, they are pounced upon by other bees who see the drunken bee as a threat to the hive. The punishment is far more harsh than humans get – some bees even lose limbs during the beat-down. (Next time I see one, I won’t say, “Go home, honeybee, you’re drunk,” since I know what will happen.)

… pricing is important with products? Of course it is. Consider – when tater tots were introduced to the market in 1956, they flopped. Sales were bad because the price was so low. People assumed tater tots were not a good product and had no perceived value. But when the price for the product went up, so did sales. (Tater tots are okay, but give me old-fashioned shoestring french fries any day.)

… the United States once toyed with the idea of stopping the Earth’s rotation in the event of a nuclear war? In his 2017 book The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner, Daniel Ellsburg (born 1931) claims that the U.S. Air Force considered an idea to use ground-secured rockets to try and stop the rotation of the Earth in the event of nuclear missiles fired from the Soviet Union. The cockeyed idea was based on the thought that ballistic missiles are fired at essentially moving targets, and if you keep the targets from moving, the missiles … miss. The plan called for a thousand or so rockets laid along the ground firing in the opposite direction of the Earth’s rotation, which would be touched off on evidence of a Soviet nuclear strike.

… a Nobel Prize winner was rewarded with a lifetime supply of beer? Danish scientist Niels Bohr (1885-1962) won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1922. As a reward, the Carslberg brewery in Copenhagen, Denmark, gave Bohr a house – one that was located next door to the brewery and which came with a pipeline that brought beer directly into the residence. (He did, however, draw the line at changing his last name from Bohr to Beer.)

… you can hear rhubarb growing? It grows so fast – almost an inch a day – that it pops, squeaks, and makes other odd noises. (Funny, I made the same noises when I grew.)

… moose are excellent swimmers? Moose are born knowing how to swim, and can swim for two hours at a stretch. They average a speed of about six miles per hour. (It stinks when a moose can do something I can’t.)

… a species of shark glows in the dark? The swell shark, which lives at a depth of about 1,700 feet below the ocean surface, is bioluminescent and emits a glow. The glow, however, is only visible to other swell sharks. (Well, isn’t that just … swell.)

… the world’s smallest reptile was discovered in 2021? Found on the island of Madagascar, the unbelievably tiny member of the chameleon family measures in at just 29 millimeters (1.14 inches) in length. (Which explains why it wasn’t discovered until 2021.)

… a species of tarantula is named after a famous country music star? Discovered in 2015 in the area near Folsom Prison in California, the tarantula Aphonopelma johnnycashi is named for country star Johnny Cash (1932-2003). The singer was selected for the honor because of his song “Folsom Prison Blues.” (It’s an honor, of course … but a tarantula?)

Now … you know!

Naval Aviation (includes Marines) says:

Good on ya, Air Force! Well played!

God forbid that we should ever dare to offend the Russkis…

We will never see his like again.

I remember watching the results of Ronald Reagan’s reelection on the “Boob Tube” with the D-rat reporters almost in tears, that was some delicious Schadenfreude!