Weird Britannia!

Time to point our telescopes of weirdness at "the old country", methinks.

Speaking of old, recent research carried out by the University of Michigan has revealed that US seniors are smarter than their UK counterparts. The study, lead in the US by Kenneth Langa, measured the recall abilities of over 8000 elderly Americans and over 5000 elderly Brits, and found that the yanks scored 1.4 more on the memory tests, out of a possible 24. Langa suggests that part of the difference was due to higher average levels of education and income in the US group, and higher levels of depression in the UK sample, but points out that nothing is certain at the moment. "It's like a view from 30,000 feet" said Langa (New Scientist).

And it's not just British brains that are shrinking, the UK's sheep are getting smaller as well. Because of a trend towards milder weather believed to be due to climate change, Sheep on the Outer Hebridean island of Soay are getting smaller at the rate of 100g/year, say researchers from Imperial College, London. Though it might seem that warmer winters and a greater abundance of food might make for bigger sheep, Tim Coulson, the professor leading the study, points out that fewer weaker and smaller lambs will die over winter, bringing down the average size (Telegraph).

Now, in some good news, UK campaigners have won a second victory in a three-year battle... to bring back a chocolate bar. The "Wispa Bar", made by European confectioners Cadbury, was introduced in 1995 along with a caramel laced version called the "Wispa Gold", only for both to be discontinued in 2003. This prompted some die-hard fans of the bubbly chocolate bar to start a petition to have it go into production again, resulting in a "limited edition" run of the original Wispa last year. When the 40 million bars produced sold out in just 18 weeks, Cadbury decided to relaunch the brand. Not satisfied with just one bar, campaigners have kept up the pressure, causing Cadbury to start producing Wispa Golds "for a limited period," as before. However to some commentators, this latest move looks more like slick PR than grassroots victory (Sky News).



More in extended >>

Posted By: Dumbfounded - Fri Jul 03, 2009 - Comments (5)
Category: Animals, Food, Candy, Law, Judges, Nature, Weather, Political Correctness, Religion, Products

Beware the Worm Lizard!

Every day the news brings me reports of some horrible locale outside my safe and beloved New England, where people are subject to floods, volcanoes, earthquakes--and "worm lizards"...?!?

Yes, it's not bad enough that the poor citizens of a certain region in Brazil have to battle flooding, they also have to contend with the evil Worm Lizard!

You can read about their troubles here. The key sentence:

Like 218,000 others across a swath of northern Brazil three times the size of Alaska, the neighbors have fled the worst rainfall and flooding in decades, braving newly formed rivers teeming with anacondas, alligators and legless reptiles known as "worm lizards" whose bite is excruciating.

Posted By: Paul - Sun May 10, 2009 - Comments (5)
Category: Animals, Death, Destruction, Disasters, Horror, South America, Natural Wonders, Weather

Snow Rollers

Who knew that a combination of snow and wind could create "snow rollers"? Not me. NOAA explains that snow rollers are "extremely rare because of the unique combination of snow, wind, temperature and moisture needed to create them. They form with light but sticky snow and strong (but not too strong) winds."
(Thanks to Prof. Music)

Posted By: Alex - Sat Apr 18, 2009 - Comments (5)
Category: Nature, Natural Wonders, Weather

An Aqueous Solution

Posted By: Paul - Tue Apr 07, 2009 - Comments (8)
Category: Death, Surrealism, Cartoons, North America, Weather

The Adventures of Junior Raindrop

What were they huffing at the Forest Service the day they came up with this?

Posted By: Paul - Wed Nov 12, 2008 - Comments (3)
Category: Cartoons, Documentaries, Weather

Upside-Down Rainbows

Until yesterday, I didn't know this phenomenon was possible: upside-down rainbows. The Telegraph has a photo of one caught on camera by Dr. Jacqueline Mitton near Cambridge last week.

SF Gate has a picture of another one, from a year ago, and offers this explanation:

Posted By: Alex - Sat Sep 20, 2008 - Comments (3)
Category: Nature, Weather

Smoke on the Water

I was supposed to attend a family BBQ today, but it was canceled because of rain.

I should have known it would be. I had already read this news about how weekends attract bad weather.

WEEKEND WEATHER REALLY IS WORSE

The most comprehensive weather study ever has confirmed what we all suspected - the weather really is worse at weekends.

Meteorologists at the University of Karlsruhe evaluated 6.3 million pieces of climate data from across Europe between 1991 and 2005.

Their conclusion: On weekends the weather is worse than on weekdays.

But even if the weather had been good, we would have suffered from this campfire phenomenon. As we are told in The Complete Book of Fire by Buck Tilton:

Q: Why does the smoke from a campfire seem to blow into your face no matter where you sit or how many times you change position around the fire?

A: Your body blocks the flow of fresh air drawn to the flames. You are then creating a low air pressure area with your body and the warm smoke moves toward the lowest air pressure. With no wind, no matter where you sit in relation to the fire, the smoke will be drawn toward you.

Sometimes you just can't win....

Posted By: Paul - Sun Sep 14, 2008 - Comments (3)
Category: Entertainment, Family, Food, Science, Weather

Follies of the Mad Men #23

[From Newsweek for January 10 1944.]

Surely nothing better evokes the confusing and guilty sensations associated with a "what's my name, and where did I leave my panties?" lost weekend better than a forgotten drink high atop a pole you shimmied up while looking for the bluebird of happiness.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Sep 04, 2008 - Comments (3)
Category: Animals, Business, Advertising, Inebriation and Intoxicants, Corrections, 1940s, Weather

Hurricane Fun

I joked earlier on the blog about waterspouts lifting a swimmer off to Oz.

Well, yesterday down in Chuck Shepherd country it practically happened.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Aug 20, 2008 - Comments (7)
Category: Flight, Hospitals, Nature, Weather, Sports, Stupidity

Waterspouts

It's generally very pleasant living with easy access to the ocean, especially in summer.

But yesterday, Rhode Island experienced some waterspouts.

A waterspout is basically when a tornado comes and sucks up swimmers and boats and brings them to Oz.

Such as in this video. But they escaped. (No flying monkeys were harmed in the filming.)

Posted By: Paul - Fri Aug 15, 2008 - Comments (1)
Category: Boats, Nature, Weather, Regionalism