A few little fun facts · 1:21pm Dec 12th, 2012
I admit, this blog post exists for no other reason than to get the now-out-of-date birthday blog off my user page. In all honesty, I should have done that about a week ago. But anyway...
Did you know that methanol, also known as rubbing alcohol or wood alcohol, isn't actually that toxic by itself? Methanol itself doesn't actually cause blindness and untimely death as the WHMIS label claims. It's actually the metabolic products that do that. See, since ethanol (drinking alcohol) is a common metabolic intermediate, your body produces enzymes to get rid of it. Those same enzymes work on methanol, reducing it to formaldehyde, and from there to formic acid (the main component of ant venom). It's the formic acid, not the methanol, that causes stomach bleeding, blindness and all that good stuff.
Did you know that there exists several species of mantis shrimp that can deliver a punch that boils the water around their victim? Mantis shrimps come in two varieties: the "spearer" version, and the "smasher" version. "Spearers" have a pair of vicious barbs on the end of their arms, which they use to impale soft-bodies fish. These nasty little creatures are fearless, and are generally known as "thumb splitters" by local fishermen. "Smashers," however, don't have a spike. They just hammer on their target with pure brute force, striking with the equivalent force of a rifle bullet. The impact is so massive that it creates a vacuum of water around the target, which will implode after a fraction of a second, adding still more force to the punch. One such individual (unironically named Tyson) horrified researchers by shattering the quarter-inch glass wall of his cell. The kicker? These guys top out at perhaps four inches long.
Did you know that the primary test flyer for the famous Avro Arrow was originally Polish? Janusz Żurakowski was born in Poland in 1909, and eventually became a fighter pilot for the Polish air force. When Germany invaded in 1939, he pitted an outmoded PZL P.7 training plane against German Do 17s, and successfully damaged one before his guns jammed. Later, he was smuggled into France using false documents, and was one of the thousands of Polish pilots who fought against the Luftwaffe in the Battle of France. He was then brought to Britain, where he scored four kills. After the war ended, he moved to Canada, and became one of the test pilots for the Avro Arrow program. When piloting the CF-100 Canuck, he broke the sound barrier; something deemed impossible by the Avro engineers who worked on it. After the cancellation of the Avro program under pressure from the American government (who were simply scared of the plane's capabilities), he moved to the quiet town of Barry's Bay, Ontario, where he died in 2004. On an unrelated note, me and my family visited that town for something completely unrelated, and were surprised to discover a very Arrow-themed memorial standing in a park.
Also, blogs have an NSFW setting now? Wat?
the super heroes of the shrimp world
next thing you know theyll develop intelligence and legs, then were screwed.
Rubbing alcohol in BC is 99% isopropanol. Rubbing alcohol is usually about 70% ethanol or isopropanol. Methanol is used in other non body-related usages like copier toner, etc.
If it was methanol all the bums here that drink the shit would be far less populous.
Wow...I want to see one of those shrimps in action!
They do? Wow...
yay random facts
>quarter-inch glass wall
May I please have that in English?
>Also, blogs have an NSFW setting now? Wat?
Sexy ponies are best ponies
Huh......I didn't know any of that.....I wonder how those shrimp taste.......