Course Announcements

Are you afraid to try new things our of fear that you will make a mistake?  Did you know that many really useful things were originally the result of a mistake or an accident?
In our announcements this week, we’ll take a look at some of these inventions.

Popsicles!!

The Popsicle was invented by an 11-year-old who kept it secret for 18 years. The inventor was Frank Epperson who, in 1905, forgot to clean up his mess and left a mixture of powdered soda and water out on the porch, which contained a stir stick. That night, temperatures in San Francisco reached a record low. When he woke the next morning, he discovered that it had frozen to the stir stick, creating a fruit flavored ice treat that he humbly named the epsicle.  Eighteen years later he patented it and called it the Popsicle.

Play-doh

One smell most people remember from childhood is the odor of Play-doh, the brightly-colored, nontoxic modeling clay. Play-Doh was accidentally invented in 1955 by Joseph and Noah McVicker while trying to make a wallpaper cleaner. The substance they made was not a good wallpaper, but it was fun to play with!!  It was marketed a year later by toy manufacturer Rainbow Crafts. More than 700 million pounds of Play-Doh have sold since then, but the recipe remains a secret.

The longest known insect migration belongs to the globe skimmer dragonfly!  During their annual journeys from India to Africa and back, they cover 11,185 million miles!

Click here to watch a mesmerizing slow motion video showing jello falling and landing!

Porcupines are slow and stocky, and spend much of their time in trees, using their formidable incisors (front teeth) to strip off bark and foliage for their food, and supplement their diets with fruits and grasses. Porcupines have a ravenous appetite for salt. So natural salt licks, animal bones, yellow pond lilies, and other items having a high salt content (like paint, plywood adhesives, and the sweaty clothing of humans) have a strong appeal to porcupines!

The average porcupine has about 30,000 quills. Quills are specialized hairs that are very hard and flexible, and so sharply pointed that they can penetrate any hide. the quills that do the most damage are the short ones that stud the porcupine’s muscular tail. The quills have tiny barbs on the ends that embed the quill in the skin of the victim.  The quills work they way deeper into the skin because of their barbs and the involuntary muscular action of the victim.  Sometimes the quills can work themselves out, but other times they pierce vital organs and the victim dies. Click here to see a cute video of a porcupine getting right up close to a camera!

A common misconception is that camels store water in their humps. Not true!  Humps are fat reservoirs. The ability to go long distances without drinking water (up to 10 months if there is plenty of green vegetation and dew to feed on,) results from a number of physiological adaptations. One major factor is that camels can lose up to 40% of their body weight with no ill effects.  A camel can also withstand a variation in body temperature by as much as 14 degrees F. A camel can drink 30 gallons of water in 10 minutes, and up to 50 gallons over several hours. A one-humped camel is called a dromedary or Arabian camel.  A two humped camel is called a Bactrian camel. Today, the Bactrian is confined to Asia, while most Arabian camels are on African soil.

Before cars were invented, horse-drawn coaches and carriages were often accompanied by dogs that kept the horses company and guarded them from theft.  Dalmatians were particularly well known for the strong bond they formed with horses. Firemen, who often owned the strongest and speediest horses in the area, kept the dogs at the station to deter horse thieves. Although fire engines have replaced horses, Dalmatians have remained a part of firehouse life, both for the appeal of these beautiful dogs and for their nostalgic tie to the past.

NOTE:  Sorry for all the ads in these announcements.  I am getting pretty fed up with the ads, so I am looking for a different blog site to use for my announcements.  Most of the common blog sites are blocked by the PALCS filter, so I have been using this one.  Hopefully I will find something soon and we won’t have to deal with these ads!!

There are just two days left until Mid MP4 grades are given!  Please make good use of the next two days to get caught up to the due dates!!!

In the United States, the term “pig” refers to younger domesticated swine weighing less than 120 pounds, while the term “hog” refers to older swine weighing more than this.

An octopus that uses coconut shells as portable armor is the latest addition to a growing list of tool users in the animal kingdom. The veined octopus apparently can stack coconut shell halves that people discarded just as one might pile bowls, sits atop them, makes its eight arms rigid like stilts, and then ambles the entire heap across the seafloor, using them for shelter later when needed. These new findings are apparently the first reported instance of an invertebrate that acquires tools for later use.  Click here to see a Live Science video of an octopus using a coconut shell as armor!

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