And you thought you knew everything!!

[guyver01]

Originally posted by: Red Dawn

*Turtles can breathe through their butts.

Big deal, my dog exhales through hers

"Find the subject of butt-breathers fascinating? Then here?s some more info: Dragonfly nymphs, which are aquatic, take water in through the rectum and absorb oxygen through gill-like structures in the hindgut. They can also travel by jet-propulsion by expelling a powerful stream of water from their rear end. Sea cucumbers, related to starfish, have elaborate respiratory trees branching from the end of the digestive tract, through which they breathe. They also use the anus in self defense. Some can shoot out sticky threads that can entangle an enemy. Others actually disembowel themselves when disturbed: they eject the digestive tract and respiratory tract from the anus. The innards crawl around by themselves for awhile outside the animal, and as they are sticky they can also entangle an attacker. The sea cucumber then blithely crawls off to regenerate its digestive tract."

 

[guyver01]

**MOST TURTLES CANNOT BREATHE THRU THEIR BUTT**

A few "side-necked" turtles (like the Fitzroy River guy) can, but the vast majority of turtles either don't have cloacal bursae, or have them but can't use them for breathing.

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: guyver01

Originally posted by: Daxxax
*A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.

I'm sorry to say that it's not true about the quack of a duck. Quacks echo as much as any other sound in nature. However, there is a way to avoid an echo, the problem is that it depends on your distance from the object reflecting the sound, and not the type of sound itself.

Sound travels in waves, and all of these waves have a specific wavelength (the distance from point on a wave to the exact point on the next). If by chance, the distance between the emitter of the wave and the reflector is exactly on one of the nodes of the wave... the sound will not reflect back at all. There will just be a standing wave created between one place and another, as all points on the wave would have zero net displacement. You can try this in the lab with a strobe light and a string oscillator. Also, if you have done the experiment with the column of water and the tuning fork, you will notice dead spots. These are distances where no matter what you do with the tuning fork, you won't hear anything coming from the tube.

The second way to avoid an echo, is to use a partially reflective material. This method is one of many that helps to hide aircraft from radar. If you position a half-reflective layer exactly one-quarter wavelength in front of a fully reflective layer, the wave will cancel itself out. By separating the layers by 1/4 wavelength, half the wave bounces off the first, and the other half of the wave bounces of the second. The travel time from the first layer to the second and back again, is exactly 1/2 wavelength, which means that the positive peak displacement is balanced exactly by the negative peak displacement. Again, no net displacement = no discernable wave return.

Yeah.. umm... we all knew that already.

 

[ROTC1983]

Originally posted by: Brutuskend

Originally posted by: kranky
There are quite a few in that list which are false, including the one about a duck's quack.

True that.

I posted this same list once and it was cut to pieces!!

Thats right, you posted it the first time

 

[Dudd]

Originally posted by: guapo337

Originally posted by: murphy55d
How many people tried to lick their elbow after reading that?

Be honest.

ill admit that i did.

 

[TuxDave]

Originally posted by: xospec1alk

Originally posted by: TheEvil1

No piece of paper can be folded in half more than 7 times.

i actually think thats 11 times. IRC but i could be sring

its 7 times....try it...

I folded a long sheet of 1-ply toilet paper 8 times! take that