The Brazil nut can only be pollinated by one species of bee, known as Euglossine, as they are strong enough to open the lid on its flowers. As is the case with most bees, this is done mostly by the females, meaning the tree acts as a food source for them and they pollinate the plants. But the bee population is even more dependent on the tree: Male bees need the scent of the tree’s orchids to attract females for mating.
So if the females didn’t pollinate the plant, there would be no way for the males to get the scent, and the bees would die out with the plant.As if that isn’t specific enough already, the Brazil nut’s infamously tough shell can only be broken by a few animals, including the agouti, a rodent that breaks open the shell and buries the seeds in other parts of the rain forest. Any attempts to grow these trees in orchards have always failed. With so much damage being done to the rain forest, this is just one example of how easy it is for this biome to fall like dominoes.
Digger said
Feb 27 11:01 PM, 2020
The Bodele Depression is located in Chad, in the southern half of the Sahara Desert. It’s not a particularly large area of land, measuring in at less than 0.5 percent of either the Amazon or the Sahara.
However, despite being a relative dwarf, the Bodele Depression is the source of about 3.6 million metric tons (40 million tons) of mineral sand that blows over the Atlantic and into the Amazon basin every year, fertilizing the land. Overall, it is estimated that over half of the Amazon’s dust comes from this tiny spot in the Sahara 5,000 kilometers (3,100 mi) away, and that without it, the rain forest as we know it today would not exist
Digger said
Feb 27 11:05 PM, 2020
In June 2013, intelligence contractor Edward Snowden released thousands of top-secret documents to various journalists, which detailed the sophisticated intelligence network the US, in conjunction with several other Western countries, had been using to spy on civilian populations around the world.
Much of this spying was done through social networking companies; for instance, in 2016, US government agencies sent approximately 50,000 requests for user data to Facebook, roughly 28,000 to Google, and about 9,000 to Apple. Perhaps the most disturbing part of this story is how the National Security Agency conducted multiple espionage operations on US-allied governments, such as Germany, Belgium, France, and Spain.
Digger said
Feb 27 11:11 PM, 2020
Despite being one of the strongest proponents of the LGBT community today, Canada’s history isn’t as clean as one would think. In the 1960s, the Canadian government hired a university professor to create a “gaydar,” what it called the “Fruit Machine” at the time.
The university professor, Frank Robert Wake of Carleton University, went about this by forcing subjects to look at same-sex erotic imagery while he measured pupil dilation, perspiration levels, and changes in pulse to gauge just how “fruity” they were.[8]The program was part of a long-term effort to remove homosexuals from positions of civil service. In the late 1960s, funding was cut off—but not before the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had collected files on over 9,000 suspected homosexuals.
Digger said
Feb 27 11:11 PM, 2020
Liam Smith was having a great night in Bristol. He had met a girl on Tinder, and they went out for a nice dinner. They decided to continue the date back at his apartment with a bottle of wine and Netflix. The woman told Smith that she just needed a minute in the bathroom—and took a dump.After she was done, she tried to flush but it wouldn’t go down. She was horrified.
Things were going really well with this guy, and she didn’t want to ruin the mood with her floaters. So, in a state of panic, she grabbed her poo and tried to throw it out the window. Unfortunately, the window didn’t actually open to the street. It was a double pane with a gap in-between.
So, when she dropped the poo, it just rolled down and landed on the inside of the window, perfectly framed as a portrait of her indiscretion.She attempted to fix the situation by reaching into the window to grab her poo. Once she was inside the window, her body got stuck in-between the panes.
Smith had to call the fire department to dismantle the window and set her free. When asked if he planned to go on another date with her, he optimistically replied, “We’ve already got the most difficult stuff out of the way first.”
Syl said
Feb 27 11:33 PM, 2020
Some great articles here Digger.
Digger said
Feb 27 11:34 PM, 2020
The Lake Peigneur accident was caused by drilling in a salt mine beneath the shallow (10 feet deep) lake. The drill accidentally pierced the third level of the mine causing the lake to drain into the hole. This resulted in the expanding of the hole as soil and salt were washed into the mine by the rushing water, filling the enormous caverns left by the removal of salt over the years. The resultant whirlpool sucked in the drilling platform, eleven barges, many trees and 65 acres (260,000 m2) of the surrounding terrain. So much water drained into the caverns that the flow of the Delcambre Canal that usually empties the lake into Vermilion Bay was reversed, making the canal a temporary inlet. This backflow created, for a few days, the tallest waterfall ever in the state of Louisiana, at 164 feet (50 m), as the lake refilled with salt water from the Delcambre Canal and Vermilion Bay.
The water downflowing into the mine caverns displaced air which erupted as compressed air and then later as 400-foot (120 m) geysers up through the mineshafts.
Digger said
Feb 27 11:37 PM, 2020
On January 15, 1919, a tank of molasses exploded in Boston’s North End. The explosion caused a huge shockwave that was sufficient to knock houses off their foundations. Shards of metal from the tank were found up to 200 ft. away. Right after the explosion this accident took a very strange turn.The tank was filled with 2.3 million gallons of molasses. When the tank exploded, the molasses formed a 25-30 ft. wave, that went through the streets of Boston at speeds of around 35 mph. People caught in the wave were either smashed against large objects, or they drowned in the molasses.
This strange accident caused 21 deaths and 150 injuries. Rumor has it that, on a hot day in the North End, the air still smells sweet.
Digger said
Feb 27 11:43 PM, 2020
The next time you are visiting Pennsylvania, steer clear of a small mining town named Centralia. The place has been on fire since 1962 and could burn for another 250 years if estimates are correct. And you would be wise to read the signs posted all over the place that warn weary travellers of their probable deaths by asphyxiation or by being swallowed by the ground . . . which is often ablaze.
Centralia once hosted a modest population of 1,000 people, but it is now a modern-day ghost town thanks to an underground inferno that is consuming tons of coal. The townspeople were able to suppress the fire above ground, but it raged underground and continues to smoulder. Fissures open on the surface all the time and spew sulfurous gases that are deadly to anyone and anything.
There are 12 people still living there as they refuse to leave. But they represent just 1 percent of the original population. Moving to Centralia is a death sentence for most people, and it should never be on a list of places to check out while driving through Pennsylvania.
Silent Hill, anyone?
Digger said
Feb 27 11:47 PM, 2020
In mid-2016, scientists were able to wrap up a mystery that had been puzzling archaeologists since Howard Carter found King Tutankhamen’s tomb in 1922. Among the many items buried with the young pharaoh was a dagger made of iron. This was unusual as ironwork in Egypt 3,300 years ago was incredibly rare and the dagger had not rusted.An examination with an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer revealed that the metal used for the dagger was of extraterrestrial origin.
The high levels of cobalt and nickel matched that of known meteorites recovered from the Red Sea.Another iron artifact from ancient Egypt was tested in 2013 and was also made using meteorite fragments. Archaeologists suspected this outcome due to ancient texts referencing “iron of the sky.” Now they believe that other items recovered from the pharaoh’s tomb were also made using meteorite iron.
Digger said
Feb 27 11:53 PM, 2020
In 1948, the Soviet Union established a top-secret bio-weapons lab on an island in the Aral Sea, used to turn anthrax and the bubonic plague into weapons. They also developed smallpox weapons and, in 1971, conducted an open-air test. In a surprising turn of events, the weapon—designed to cause an outbreak of smallpox when activated in the open air—in fact caused an outbreak of smallpox when activated in the open air.
Ten people became ill, three of whom died. Hundreds were quarantined, and fifty thousand people from the surrounding area were vaccinated in a fortnight.The incident became known to the wider public only as recently as 2002. The outbreak was contained effectively, but despite the scale and widespread documentation of the incident, Moscow has never acknowledged its existence. This is unfortunate, as there may be lessons to be learned that could save lives if biological weapons were ever to fall into the hands of terrorists.
John Doe said
Feb 27 11:57 PM, 2020
Marry me Digs!
Digger said
Feb 27 11:57 PM, 2020
A 30-year-old Swedish woman named Emmy Abrahamson was on a trip to Amsterdam. She was waiting to meet up with a friend, so she sat on a park bench. A young homeless man approached her. His beard was long, and he smelled awful. But Emmy saw a handsome man with intelligent eyes underneath the dirt.He asked, “Excuse me, miss, do you know what time it is?” They both glanced over to a gigantic clock that was in front of them, and Emmy burst out laughing at his cheesy pickup line. They talked for a few minutes.Emmy learned that this man’s name was Vic, and he was from Canada.
He became homeless after a backpacking trip gone wrong. He spent most of his days begging for money, drinking, and stealing food. Without any money to fly back home, he was sleeping under a bush every night.[2]When her friend showed up, Emmy turned to Vic and asked, “Can I see you again?” They met up a few days later at the same bench and had a picnic in the park. Emmy had to go home to Vienna, but she gave Vic her number. He knew that if he wanted to see her again, he needed to clean up his act. No more drinking or stealing.He saved up the money to catch the train to Vienna and called her.
Fast-forward a few years, and Vic had finished his college degree in mechanical engineering. The two got married, and now they have two children.
Digger said
Feb 28 12:01 AM, 2020
Jahed Choudhary grew up in a Muslim family in the United Kingdom. As a child, he knew that he was somehow different than the rest of the kids at school. He was bullied on a daily basis, and he wasn’t sure why everyone hated him.At 18, he did some online research about his feelings and realised that he was gay. He tried to tell his mum, but his family told him that it was a “disease” or a phase.
So they sent him to mosques where they performed rituals and made him take medications to “cure” his homosexuality. Jahed didn’t want to be different, so he willingly went along with these rituals to try his best to change. When he couldn’t “fix” his homosexuality, the mosque he was attending excommunicated him. He attempted suicide.The very next day, he sat down on a park bench and started to cry. He prayed to Allah for an answer to his suffering.
A young man named Sean saw him crying and sat down on the bench to ask what was wrong.Sean and Jahed ended up dating for years. Jahed’s mother learned to accept her son’s sexuality. When Jahed was 24 years old, he and Sean became the first gay couple to have a Muslim wedding in Britain, which was performed at a courthouse.
John Doe said
Feb 28 12:04 AM, 2020
Digger wrote:
A 30-year-old Swedish woman named Emmy Abrahamson was on a trip to Amsterdam. She was waiting to meet up with a friend, so she sat on a park bench. A young homeless man approached her. His beard was long, and he smelled awful. But Emmy saw a handsome man with intelligent eyes underneath the dirt.He asked, “Excuse me, miss, do you know what time it is?” They both glanced over to a gigantic clock that was in front of them, and Emmy burst out laughing at his cheesy pickup line. They talked for a few minutes.Emmy learned that this man’s name was Vic, and he was from Canada.
He became homeless after a backpacking trip gone wrong. He spent most of his days begging for money, drinking, and stealing food. Without any money to fly back home, he was sleeping under a bush every night.[2]When her friend showed up, Emmy turned to Vic and asked, “Can I see you again?” They met up a few days later at the same bench and had a picnic in the park. Emmy had to go home to Vienna, but she gave Vic her number. He knew that if he wanted to see her again, he needed to clean up his act. No more drinking or stealing.He saved up the money to catch the train to Vienna and called her.
Fast-forward a few years, and Vic had finished his college degree in mechanical engineering. The two got married, and now they have two children.
Was the 'l' a mistake?
Digger said
Feb 28 12:18 AM, 2020
Ingvar Kamprad was born on a farm in rural Sweden. His family was so poor that he began working at six years old to sell matches to people in town. At 10, he rode his bicycle around, trying to sell Christmas decorations door-to-door. Kamprad had dyslexia, which made it difficult for him to get good grades. But he tried his best to overcome his disability. When he was 17, his father gave him a small reward for getting such good grades in high school. He decided to use that money to start a business called Ingvar Kamprad from Elmtaryd, Agunnaryd (aka “IKEA”).
After years of trying to sell to his neighbors, he realized that everyone needed furniture and home decor. So he began selling products at lower prices than his competitors. The local furniture businesses began to boycott him to stop him from buying wholesale.If he wanted to sell furniture, they said, it needed to be his own design. He decided to create furniture that was simple, modern, and cheap. Today, there are over 350 IKEA stores worldwide. Ingvar Kamprad died at 91 years old in January 2018. At the time of his death, he was worth $58.7 billion.
Digger said
Feb 28 12:21 AM, 2020
Sound warfare has long been used. Soldiers can sometimes unnerve their enemies with eerie sounds, beating them into submission without firing a shot. Among the Vietnamese, there was a belief that the dead must be buried – otherwise their souls would wander the earth, unable to find rest. During the Vietnam war, the US army produced recordings of ghostly voices over weird sounds which would sound to their Vietcong enemies like the moanings of wandering souls.
Syl said
Feb 28 12:22 AM, 2020
John Doe wrote:
Digger wrote:
A 30-year-old Swedish woman named Emmy Abrahamson was on a trip to Amsterdam. She was waiting to meet up with a friend, so she sat on a park bench. A young homeless man approached her. His beard was long, and he smelled awful. But Emmy saw a handsome man with intelligent eyes underneath the dirt.He asked, “Excuse me, miss, do you know what time it is?” They both glanced over to a gigantic clock that was in front of them, and Emmy burst out laughing at his cheesy pickup line. They talked for a few minutes.Emmy learned that this man’s name was Vic, and he was from Canada.
He became homeless after a backpacking trip gone wrong. He spent most of his days begging for money, drinking, and stealing food. Without any money to fly back home, he was sleeping under a bush every night.[2]When her friend showed up, Emmy turned to Vic and asked, “Can I see you again?” They met up a few days later at the same bench and had a picnic in the park. Emmy had to go home to Vienna, but she gave Vic her number. He knew that if he wanted to see her again, he needed to clean up his act. No more drinking or stealing.He saved up the money to catch the train to Vienna and called her.
Fast-forward a few years, and Vic had finished his college degree in mechanical engineering. The two got married, and now they have two children.
Was the 'l' a mistake?
Do you mind. This is a rare educational thread.
John Doe said
Feb 28 12:24 AM, 2020
Syl wrote:
John Doe wrote:
Digger wrote:
A 30-year-old Swedish woman named Emmy Abrahamson was on a trip to Amsterdam. She was waiting to meet up with a friend, so she sat on a park bench. A young homeless man approached her. His beard was long, and he smelled awful. But Emmy saw a handsome man with intelligent eyes underneath the dirt.He asked, “Excuse me, miss, do you know what time it is?” They both glanced over to a gigantic clock that was in front of them, and Emmy burst out laughing at his cheesy pickup line. They talked for a few minutes.Emmy learned that this man’s name was Vic, and he was from Canada.
He became homeless after a backpacking trip gone wrong. He spent most of his days begging for money, drinking, and stealing food. Without any money to fly back home, he was sleeping under a bush every night.[2]When her friend showed up, Emmy turned to Vic and asked, “Can I see you again?” They met up a few days later at the same bench and had a picnic in the park. Emmy had to go home to Vienna, but she gave Vic her number. He knew that if he wanted to see her again, he needed to clean up his act. No more drinking or stealing.He saved up the money to catch the train to Vienna and called her.
Fast-forward a few years, and Vic had finished his college degree in mechanical engineering. The two got married, and now they have two children.
Was the 'l' a mistake?
Do you mind. This is a rare educational thread.
That's why I said it - I was waiting for you to comment Syl!
Digger said
Feb 28 12:24 AM, 2020
John Doe wrote:
Digger wrote:
A 30-year-old Swedish woman named Emmy Abrahamson was on a trip to Amsterdam. She was waiting to meet up with a friend, so she sat on a park bench. A young homeless man approached her. His beard was long, and he smelled awful. But Emmy saw a handsome man with intelligent eyes underneath the dirt.He asked, “Excuse me, miss, do you know what time it is?” They both glanced over to a gigantic clock that was in front of them, and Emmy burst out laughing at his cheesy pickup line. They talked for a few minutes.Emmy learned that this man’s name was Vic, and he was from Canada.
He became homeless after a backpacking trip gone wrong. He spent most of his days begging for money, drinking, and stealing food. Without any money to fly back home, he was sleeping under a bush every night.[2]When her friend showed up, Emmy turned to Vic and asked, “Can I see you again?” They met up a few days later at the same bench and had a picnic in the park. Emmy had to go home to Vienna, but she gave Vic her number. He knew that if he wanted to see her again, he needed to clean up his act. No more drinking or stealing.He saved up the money to catch the train to Vienna and called her.
Fast-forward a few years, and Vic had finished his college degree in mechanical engineering. The two got married, and now they have two children.
So if the females didn’t pollinate the plant, there would be no way for the males to get the scent, and the bees would die out with the plant.As if that isn’t specific enough already, the Brazil nut’s infamously tough shell can only be broken by a few animals, including the agouti, a rodent that breaks open the shell and buries the seeds in other parts of the rain forest. Any attempts to grow these trees in orchards have always failed. With so much damage being done to the rain forest, this is just one example of how easy it is for this biome to fall like dominoes.
However, despite being a relative dwarf, the Bodele Depression is the source of about 3.6 million metric tons (40 million tons) of mineral sand that blows over the Atlantic and into the Amazon basin every year, fertilizing the land. Overall, it is estimated that over half of the Amazon’s dust comes from this tiny spot in the Sahara 5,000 kilometers (3,100 mi) away, and that without it, the rain forest as we know it today would not exist
Much of this spying was done through social networking companies; for instance, in 2016, US government agencies sent approximately 50,000 requests for user data to Facebook, roughly 28,000 to Google, and about 9,000 to Apple. Perhaps the most disturbing part of this story is how the National Security Agency conducted multiple espionage operations on US-allied governments, such as Germany, Belgium, France, and Spain.
Despite being one of the strongest proponents of the LGBT community today, Canada’s history isn’t as clean as one would think. In the 1960s, the Canadian government hired a university professor to create a “gaydar,” what it called the “Fruit Machine” at the time.
The university professor, Frank Robert Wake of Carleton University, went about this by forcing subjects to look at same-sex erotic imagery while he measured pupil dilation, perspiration levels, and changes in pulse to gauge just how “fruity” they were.[8]The program was part of a long-term effort to remove homosexuals from positions of civil service. In the late 1960s, funding was cut off—but not before the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had collected files on over 9,000 suspected homosexuals.
Things were going really well with this guy, and she didn’t want to ruin the mood with her floaters. So, in a state of panic, she grabbed her poo and tried to throw it out the window. Unfortunately, the window didn’t actually open to the street. It was a double pane with a gap in-between.
So, when she dropped the poo, it just rolled down and landed on the inside of the window, perfectly framed as a portrait of her indiscretion.She attempted to fix the situation by reaching into the window to grab her poo. Once she was inside the window, her body got stuck in-between the panes.
Smith had to call the fire department to dismantle the window and set her free. When asked if he planned to go on another date with her, he optimistically replied, “We’ve already got the most difficult stuff out of the way first.”
Some great articles here Digger.
The Lake Peigneur accident was caused by drilling in a salt mine beneath the shallow (10 feet deep) lake. The drill accidentally pierced the third level of the mine causing the lake to drain into the hole. This resulted in the expanding of the hole as soil and salt were washed into the mine by the rushing water, filling the enormous caverns left by the removal of salt over the years. The resultant whirlpool sucked in the drilling platform, eleven barges, many trees and 65 acres (260,000 m2) of the surrounding terrain. So much water drained into the caverns that the flow of the Delcambre Canal that usually empties the lake into Vermilion Bay was reversed, making the canal a temporary inlet. This backflow created, for a few days, the tallest waterfall ever in the state of Louisiana, at 164 feet (50 m), as the lake refilled with salt water from the Delcambre Canal and Vermilion Bay.
The water downflowing into the mine caverns displaced air which erupted as compressed air and then later as 400-foot (120 m) geysers up through the mineshafts.
This strange accident caused 21 deaths and 150 injuries. Rumor has it that, on a hot day in the North End, the air still smells sweet.
The next time you are visiting Pennsylvania, steer clear of a small mining town named Centralia. The place has been on fire since 1962 and could burn for another 250 years if estimates are correct. And you would be wise to read the signs posted all over the place that warn weary travellers of their probable deaths by asphyxiation or by being swallowed by the ground . . . which is often ablaze.
Centralia once hosted a modest population of 1,000 people, but it is now a modern-day ghost town thanks to an underground inferno that is consuming tons of coal. The townspeople were able to suppress the fire above ground, but it raged underground and continues to smoulder. Fissures open on the surface all the time and spew sulfurous gases that are deadly to anyone and anything.
There are 12 people still living there as they refuse to leave. But they represent just 1 percent of the original population. Moving to Centralia is a death sentence for most people, and it should never be on a list of places to check out while driving through Pennsylvania.
Silent Hill, anyone?
The high levels of cobalt and nickel matched that of known meteorites recovered from the Red Sea.Another iron artifact from ancient Egypt was tested in 2013 and was also made using meteorite fragments. Archaeologists suspected this outcome due to ancient texts referencing “iron of the sky.” Now they believe that other items recovered from the pharaoh’s tomb were also made using meteorite iron.
Ten people became ill, three of whom died. Hundreds were quarantined, and fifty thousand people from the surrounding area were vaccinated in a fortnight.The incident became known to the wider public only as recently as 2002. The outbreak was contained effectively, but despite the scale and widespread documentation of the incident, Moscow has never acknowledged its existence. This is unfortunate, as there may be lessons to be learned that could save lives if biological weapons were ever to fall into the hands of terrorists.
Marry me Digs!
He became homeless after a backpacking trip gone wrong. He spent most of his days begging for money, drinking, and stealing food. Without any money to fly back home, he was sleeping under a bush every night.[2]When her friend showed up, Emmy turned to Vic and asked, “Can I see you again?” They met up a few days later at the same bench and had a picnic in the park. Emmy had to go home to Vienna, but she gave Vic her number. He knew that if he wanted to see her again, he needed to clean up his act. No more drinking or stealing.He saved up the money to catch the train to Vienna and called her.
Fast-forward a few years, and Vic had finished his college degree in mechanical engineering. The two got married, and now they have two children.
Jahed Choudhary grew up in a Muslim family in the United Kingdom. As a child, he knew that he was somehow different than the rest of the kids at school. He was bullied on a daily basis, and he wasn’t sure why everyone hated him.At 18, he did some online research about his feelings and realised that he was gay. He tried to tell his mum, but his family told him that it was a “disease” or a phase.
So they sent him to mosques where they performed rituals and made him take medications to “cure” his homosexuality. Jahed didn’t want to be different, so he willingly went along with these rituals to try his best to change. When he couldn’t “fix” his homosexuality, the mosque he was attending excommunicated him. He attempted suicide.The very next day, he sat down on a park bench and started to cry. He prayed to Allah for an answer to his suffering.
A young man named Sean saw him crying and sat down on the bench to ask what was wrong.Sean and Jahed ended up dating for years. Jahed’s mother learned to accept her son’s sexuality. When Jahed was 24 years old, he and Sean became the first gay couple to have a Muslim wedding in Britain, which was performed at a courthouse.
Was the 'l' a mistake?
After years of trying to sell to his neighbors, he realized that everyone needed furniture and home decor. So he began selling products at lower prices than his competitors. The local furniture businesses began to boycott him to stop him from buying wholesale.If he wanted to sell furniture, they said, it needed to be his own design. He decided to create furniture that was simple, modern, and cheap. Today, there are over 350 IKEA stores worldwide. Ingvar Kamprad died at 91 years old in January 2018. At the time of his death, he was worth $58.7 billion.
Sound warfare has long been used. Soldiers can sometimes unnerve their enemies with eerie sounds, beating them into submission without firing a shot. Among the Vietnamese, there was a belief that the dead must be buried – otherwise their souls would wander the earth, unable to find rest. During the Vietnam war, the US army produced recordings of ghostly voices over weird sounds which would sound to their Vietcong enemies like the moanings of wandering souls.
Do you mind. This is a rare educational thread.
That's why I said it - I was waiting for you to comment Syl!
Not sure what you mean.