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Do Penguins Topple When Planes Fly Over?
dannyspanner was among the teeming masses to point out that: "The BBC has a short story about some research that will be carried out to see if penguin colonies fall over when aircraft fly overhead. I hope they get some footage if they prove it's true ..." I secretly believe that news outlets like stories like this because penguins look so comical already -- thinking of them rolling around like duckpins (rather than the ultra-coordinated hero of Tuxracer) makes everybody laugh.
I've seen little kids do it... if they can, why not a pinguin?
It's www.tuxracer.com, foo.
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You can't read this story without watching the BBC's animated GIF that was linked to it earlier today...
i ns_supuf.gif
http:// new s.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1000000/images/_1003469_pengu
Pablo Nevares, "the freshmaker".
Pablo Nevares, "the freshmaker".
That reminds me of a sociological reasearch that concluded the amazing fact that 50% of divorcees in Israel's kibutz are women.
I assume that somewhere in late October scientists with unused annual grants panick. There should be a journal for such researh:
how about:
THe Journal of "Pure" Science
international Sqanderer
Laughingstock Quarterly
Eyebrow Raiser Almanac
-- look, cheese ahoy!
This urban legend surfaces from time to time. It is debunked here
Reality has a liberal bias
http://www.urbanlegends.com/animals/penguins_fall_ over.html
With a explanation what really happens when fighter jets fly over a penguin colony...
This is the definitive site for debunking urban legends...
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
It was pretty much supersceded by the Annals of Improbable Research . They're the folks responsible for the Ig Noble awards.
...phil
...phil
"For a list of the ways which technology has failed to improve our quality of life, press 3."
I believe the Pengiuns won the right to a court hearing, but it was settled out of court before it even could go. I'm not sure how much the British Government had to pay but I do know it was a healthy sum as all the penguins wear nothing but tuxedos now, own several hockey teams, and are sole investors in some sort of computer operating system.
If the penguins do fall over, are they going to run the results of their reasearch through ksymoops to find out why ?
Outland wasn't a "horrible rip off". It was a diversion from BC because Berke Breathed was tired of doing a daily.
And here's the original strip we were talking about.
Any sufficiently advanced civilization is indistinguishable from Gods.
I visited some penguin colonies on the Antarctic penisula over christmas 1998. Penguins are often portrayed as awkward and clumsy but seeing them in *that* environment is something else - they swim at about 15-20 knots and are just by far the most widespread of all the creatures down there.
Anyway some of the colonies were about 50000+ birds, just a huge crown of penguins. It was chick hatching season, and all the birds were sitting on their eggs/chicks. When skuas (agressive antarctic bird of prey - huge attitudes) swooped over the colony all the nesting penguins would crouch over their eggs and young like a mexican wave.
They'd probably do the same for planes.
:wq
there's ofcxourse the Ig-Nobel awards. this year a dutch guy won for a couple of porn-pics in an MRI machine, to determine the shape of the human penis during copulation. The guy is now trying to get a grant to determine the shape and size of the clitoris, which could benefit a lot of men.. ;)
//rdj
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
--Sheikh Abd-Al-Kadir, 1587