Sylvia Shults's Blog, page 4

Today I Learned …

A Swedish company, Corvid Cleaning, trains crows to pick up trash from streets in exchange for food. More than one billion cigarette butts are discarded on Sweden’s streets each year, and the crows are helping with that. They’re rewarded with a treat for each one they collect. (From Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Level Up)

Today I Learned …

In the 1993 movie Jurassic Park, some of the sounds of the fearsome Tyrannosuarus Rex were actually made by sound designer Gary Rydstrom’s tiny Jack Russell terrier, Buster. The growling noise when the T-Rex catches a smaller dinosaur, Gallimimus, and shakes it to death, is that of Buster playing tug-of-war with a rope. (From Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Level Up)

Today I Learned …

Gary Numan is thirteen days older than Gary Oldman.

English musician Gary Numan, known as one of the “founding fathers of synth pop,” was born in London on March 8, 1958. English actor Gary Oldman, an Academy Award-winning chameleon, was born in London on March 21, 1958. 

So Gary Oldman is actually 13 days newer than Gary Numan. (Source: Ranker)

Today I Learned …

If a bald eagle loses a wing feather while molting, it will drop a matching feather from the other side to remain balanced in flight. (From Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Level Up)

Today I Learned …

Jules’ Undersea Lodge, an underwater hotel in Key Largo, Florida, offers scuba diving pizza delivery to their guests. Divers use a dry box and extra bags to keep the pizzas from getting wet, and add weights to ensure that the box remains level in the water so the toppings don’t fall off. (From Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Level Up)

Today I Learned …

Customers at the Sweet Fish Cafe in Khanom, Thailand, walk to their tables through ankle-deep water that covers the entire floor and contains dozens of koi fish. Before entering the cafe, people must remove their shoes and disinfect their feet. They are not allowed to touch the fish. (From Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Level Up)

Today I Learned …

Some new parents in Japan sent bags of rice that weighed the same as their babies to relatives who were unable to visit during the COVID lockdown. The bag of rice featured a picture of the baby on the front so that family members could feel like they were really holding the newborn. (From Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Level Up)

Today I Learned …

We’ve all heard the stories about octopi slithering out of their tanks and escaping, or playing tricks on their keepers. There is a story in a treatise called The Nature of Animals, written by the Roman author Claudius Aelianus (175-235 AD). He claims that a giant octopus would sneak into a town through the sewers on many occasions to steal pickled fish from unsuspecting merchants.

Today I Learned …

Africa’s Lake Malawi is popularly known as Calendar Lake. It is 365 miles long, 52 miles wide, and fed by 12 main rivers. (From Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Level Up)

Today I Learned …

Bongo Marie, an African gray parrot, was always picking on another parrot named Paco. One night, parrot behavior expert Sally Blanchard was cooking dinner at her home in Loveland, Colorado, where Bongo Marie and Paco lived with her. Pulling a chicken out of the oven, Blanchard set the steaming bird on the kitchen counter. “Oh no! Paco!” Bongo Marie shrieked, tossing her head back and chuckling.

“That’s not Paco,” laughed Blanchard. She showed Bongo Marie that Paco was in the other room. “Oh … no,” Bongo Marie repeated, before chuckling again.

“I’m convinced she knew she was being funny,” Blanchard said. “It was like she was laughing at her own joke.” (From National Geographic Kids, August 2024)