Interesting, cool, freaky, disgusting...

Fish's reaction to Ben Hillman's How Weird Is It?

How Weird Is It? by Ben Hillman via kwout

Victoria Fossil Cave

Rock formations inside the caves
Originally uploaded by riana_dzasta

Touring Victoria Fossil Cave at Naracoorte (on the way back from Woodchester near Adelaide). We were told a lot about how the different rocks are formed, how the fossils came to be there and the history of the caves. I wish I could recall it all more precisely, perhaps a virtual tour would strengthen the memory cells.

Halfway into the cave I realised I'd left the camera in the car - lucky me other Flickrers are better prepared.

If only the holiday at coincided with OzAct's appearance at the cave for a performance of MacBeth - I envy everyone who goes there for it, we're not up for another long drive so soon.


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Mythbusters

Today I watched Mythbusters and they were putting 1500 pound (3000 horse power) rockets on a car to answer "Can a '67 Chevy turn into a 350-mile per hour road warrior "

They were also testing to see if pop rocks + cola can cause your stomach explode (it didn't explode the dead pigs stomach until they added bicarbonate of soda).

Lunar eclipse 28 August 2007

IMG_0135
Originally uploaded by Niroshana Fernando

Cricket did suggest I get my camera, but I still don't have a tripod. So for colour and recollection I have to rely on others (eg thanks Niroshana Fernando). I love the photogallery at Backyard.

Graham phoned while we were watching Numbers, sending us running out the front to catch the blood moon. I think we may have missed the reddest (was that before the full eclipse? - or maybe clouds drifted over).

Still it was exciting just to watch an eclipse even if we didn't see the colour that others did.

How is capsicum spray made?

How is capsicum spray made?  Annotated

• this answered Mr14's question: how is capsicum spray made? - post by moonflowerdragon

Painted Swift spider

supunna picta 9mm
Originally uploaded by moonflowerdragon.

As I blogged over at moonflowerdragon, Cricket spotted this spider running very fast up the fridge. While he and Fish wanted me to just squash it, I was curious - not knowing what kind it is.

We know now, thanks to my new digital camera, and the entymology department at the Melbourne Museum.

We might have identified it ourselves at the University of Queensland Find-A-Spider Guide, but I was looking at medium-sized spiders, not small ones because I measured it at 9mm rather than 8mm or less. The boys didn't want to look at the photos at all. I must admit I didn't enjoy it either.

From Cassowary to India

Cassowary
Originally uploaded by chatallot.

Today, upon reading of the Tarzali home-edding family's cassowary spotting, I asked the boys whether they knew of the Cassowary. "Yeah" said Cricket, launching into his associations " a flightless bird... lives in the rainforest ... related to the emu". Fish didn't know.

...Wikipedia or Google? ... okay Google's first suggestion is Wikipedia anyway...

From there we learned that the Tarzali Tales would have been referring to the Southern Cassowary. But first we explored what 'ratite' meant ("any of a diverse group of large, flightless birds of Gondwanan origin ... hav[ing] no keel on their sternum and, lacking a strong anchor for their wing muscles, could not fly even were they to develop suitable wings); then checked that Gondwanan did indeed mean that the cassowary is supposed to have descended from beasts particular to the Gondwana supercontinent.

In the process I learned (I think for my first time) that the name of the supercontinent Gondwana is "derived from the Gondwana region of India", "because some of the earliest rock formations of this continent were first investigated in part of the region"

Blue whale Photo, Balaenoptera musculus :: Image #05824 :: Phillip Colla Natural History Photography

Now there is something you don't expect to learn every day.

Blue whale faeces (Photo, Balaenoptera musculus :: Image #05824 :: Phillip Colla Natural History Photography)

It was St. Joseph County Public Library's library for life blog (specifically Ewww, Gross!) that piqued my curiosity.

A study of small fluffy creatures and library usage

While my boys are not small fluffy creatures, it is never too soon to learn about appropriate library usage - perhaps this lesson from Peeps will prove valuable .

Weather site for Fish

Fish asked yesterday what makes tornados - maybe Web Weather for Kids can tell him.

Ballaarat Observatory

Today we went to the Ballarat Observatory for National Science Week.
We did a scavenger hunt.
The Jelbart building was built in 1918 - I guess, from the date over the door.
The longitude on the sundial was east 143º51'.
On the leadlight window on the front of the baker building there was a magpie and a kookaburrawith a snake in its mouth.
The federation telescope was opened in 2001.
The gears used to open the roof on the baker building were made by tennant&co in Edinburgh.
One of the leadlight windows on the baker building has a eye in the middle of it.
The observatory was built in 1884.
The Jelbart building has leadlight windows facing each direction, the window to North contained an N, to west W and to east E. The south window does not have a S.

Xrefer Brainteaser: Hot and Cold

Disappointed that House is not on tonight - Mum scrolled through her backlog of newsfeeds and found a recent brainteaser...

Cricket identified snow from the "dictionary definition: "Precipitation in the form of aggregations of ice crystals falling to the ground in soft white flakes, or lying on the ground as a soft white mass"."

Cricket identified correctly that direct sunlight causes sunburn from UV (ultraviolet) rays.

For measuring temperatures, Cricket guessed first at "Fahrenheit", but immediately agreed with Mum's suggestion of " Celsius" as the word officially replaced "centigrade" in 1948.

We learned that Frostbite is what made the explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes abandon his solo trek to the North Pole in 2000.

Cricket was correct this time that Fahrenheit is the name for the scale of temperatures in which 212 degrees represents the boiling point of water.

Fish & Cricket both immediately declared Antarctica to be the coldest continent on Earth.

Cricket correctly remembered (he thinks from M*A*S*H) that "Pyrexia" is another word for Fever.

Mum couldn't call to mind the phrase absolute zero to describe the point at which it would be impossible to get any colder (minus 273.15 degrees C)?

Mum guessed correctly that in 1626, the famous person who died of a cold contracted when stuffing a fowl with snow as an experiment in refrigeration was Francis Bacon not Christopher Marlowe or William Shakespeare?

Making friends with Black Cockatoos and a King Parrot

Cricket and Mum enjoyed the close company of Black Cockatoos at Ballarat Bird World.  We are grateful to whoever it was in Parents Without Partners who suggested the excursion because we have never been so up close and personal with so many lovely birds.

In the walk through aviary a King Parrot took a liking to cricket, grooming his coat. 

We'd love to go there again - maybe by then we'll have a digital camera to capture such pleasant memories.

Medieval Birthday Madness

Cricket & Fish have been holidaying with their dad so I was very pleased to hear Sir Lucas would be celebrating his birthday at Kryal Castle. When I arrived Fish's shoes, socks and feet were soaked from the puddles in the maze. Fish later showed "sufficient skill with the bow to be of service in protecting King and Country" and was "made an honourary member of the Castle Guard". He is now a Castle Archer.

I couldn't keep up with Cricket, so I took in the Full Flight Birds of Prey display: meeting a peregrine falcon, owls and eagles.

Ballaarat Astronomical Society

Cricket, Fish, Oma and Mum joined the Ballaarat Astronomical Society tonight, intending to return frequently to the Ballaarat Observatory . What a thrill to see Saturn for real.

QuadrapopTree: Science Lists and Sites for Teens

Hey boys, the science links offered by Quadrapop could lead to interesting things... like BBC Science & Nature where you can meet the goat bred to spin spider silk.

Massive Nature

I wandered into the lounge to reconnect with the boys after reading an email from their father in which he requested instructions as to the boys' "schoolwork" to do during their next visit to him. (Yeah, not one to appreciate gestalt learning)

Cricket and Fish were watching Massive Nature and during a break told me that their father had coerced them into watching an episode during their last visit with him, ie they were not permitted to play a computer game and had to sit and watch, even though that particular episode (on penguin migration) just didn't capture their interest. Weird... no coercion needed here.

Hands on with Wild Action

Cricket, Fish & I joined Merry, Emby & Grub at at Wild Action show learning about Australian animals. We touched a live baby salt-water crocodile, ring-tailed possum, python snakes, a turtle, green tree frog, skinks, phasmids and a tree goanna.

The entertaining, high-speed delivery introduced us to the different animal body coverings, dietary requirements, habitats/environmental needs, morphology, habits (nocturnal/diurnal, arboreal/terrestrial, camouflage & other defence strategies, reproduction.

How to NOT get eaten by a shark...

...Don't look like a seal.

I'm sure it is never too soon to gain such useful advice. Thanks Cricket for watching The Deadliest Sharks on the World Around Us with Lisa McCune.

Although apparently he also learned that bull sharks are the only sharks that can swim in both salt and fresh water.