10 things we didn’t know last week

1. It’s possible to fry chips on Jupiter.

Find out more (The Times)

2. In China, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are known as Curly Fu and Peanut.

Find out more

3. Dates are distributed in the same way across 1986 and 2014, meaning that anyone finding a 27-year-old calendar knocking around can re-use it.

Find out more (Daily Mail)

4. Dogs align themselves along a north-south axis when they defecate.

Find out more (The Times)

5. Lesbians are four times as likely as straight women to drive a Subaru.

Find out more (Slate)

6. Consumption of cigars in the UK has fallen by 80% over the past 20 years.

Find out more (Financial Times)

7. Architects practising in Texas have to be fingerprinted.

Find out more (The Guardian)

8. Finding a heap of broken china on your doorstep on New Year’s day in Denmark is a sign of popularity.

Find out more (The Independent)

9. Some nurses in the UK wear fat suits as part of their training for dealing with morbidly obese patients.

Find out more

10. It is possible to balance 53 spoons on a standing human body.

Find out more (Daily Telegraph)

Bad Animals…

Or Bad Owners?

 

Python escapes from pet shop and strangles two brothers

Boys aged five and seven sleeping in friend’s apartment above shop in Canada when snake escaped through ventilation system

A python escaped from its enclosure at a pet store in Canada, worked its way through a ventilation system into an upstairs apartment and killed two young boys as they slept, police have said.

The brothers, aged five and seven, were visiting the apartment of a friend above Reptile Ocean, an exotic pet store in Campbellton, New Brunswick, said Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Julie Rogers-Marsh.

Police arrived at the apartment around 6.30am and found the two boys dead. A friend of the boys was sleeping in another room and was unharmed, Rogers-Marsh said. She said the owner of the pet store lived in the apartment.

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Owners of killer dogs could face life in prison

Government launches online consultation to determine whether there is public support for increase in maximum penalty

Owners of dogs that kill people could face life imprisonment if an online consultation run by the government demonstrates public support for more severe penalties.

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Ethiopian Wolf

Dogs are going extinct: 8 most endangered canid species

credit: Rebecca Jackrel

Today, May 17th, is Endangered Species Day. We are celebrating it by bringing attention to the diverse and beautiful canid species around the world that are in danger of becoming extinct. We hope that by learning about these amazing relatives of our well-loved domestic dogs, readers will be encouraged to act to protect these species.

First up is the Ethiopian Wolf.

Source: TreeHugger Read more

Cool Pic

Dogs taught to drive cars in New Zealand

These three dogs rescued from a New Zealand animal shelter are being taught to drive in an effort to show how intelligent they are – and encourage more people to adopt abandoned pets. The three animals chosen are Monty, an 18-month-old giant schnauzer, Ginny, a one-year-old whippet cross, and Porter, a 10-month-old beardie cross.

A Lecherous Old Dog

The English language has many wonderful expressions. If you are a native speaker most don’t need interpreting.

But how do you explain something like “A lecherous old dog”?

Why, a picture is worth a thousand words…

There, doesn’t that do it?

Perfect.