Fact of the Day: Shrike

The Shrike is a greyish medium sized bird that has been dubbed "The Butcher". Its prey usually consists of small birds, mammals, insects and frogs. What is truly unique about this bird is that it catches its prey and impales it on tree limbs or thorny leaves. Since they are able to catch prey that is larger than their mouth, they use the thorn as a skewer so they can rip apart their food. I think this bird is onto something. Maybe if the other birds take notice it won't be long until we start to see birds eating with chopsticks!

Fact of the Day: Unguligrade

The word unguligrade is just so darn fun to say that I decided to make it my fact of the day. Ungulilates are mammals that walk on their tiptoes. Usually, ungulates have hooves such as deer or horses but can also have "toes" like the llama.

Fact of the Day: Opossum

When baby opossum are born, they climb from the vagina to the pouch(marsupium). Once they make it to the pouch, they find a nipple to hang onto. They stay this way for about 60 days. Kind of...gross.

Fact of the Day: Venomous Mammals

Some mammals have venom in their saliva that will paralyze its prey when bitten. The only venomous mammal that resides in Missouri is the Northern Short-tailed Shrew. For that matter, it is the only venomous mammal in all of North America.

Other venomous mammals include the Eurasian Water Shrew, Southern Short-tailed Shrew, the European Mole and the male Platypus. The Platypus is unique because only males have venomous spurs located on their hind legs. The Platypus is also an egg laying mammal.

Fact of the Day: Cicada

The Periodical Cicada spends 17 years underground in total darkness and complete seclusion, feeding off the roots of a tree. After 17 years of loneliness, it decides to stop wallowing like an EMO teen and surfaces to come out and party. Hopefully, it finds a rave soon since it only has a few weeks to mate, lay eggs and then die. The Periodical Cicada is one of if not the longest, living insects in the world.

Fact of the Day: Ticks

Ticks have been kept in captivity under starvation for over three years without any negative effects.

Also, for all of you out there(well, those in St. Louis) who are worried about the diseases ticks can carry, there has not been a single reported case of Lyme Disease in Missouri. Phew!

Fact of the Day: Turtle

I am taking a zoology course that involves memorizing a shit ton of facts and being tested on those facts within two days. We also get to go out in the wilderness and watch the teacher orgasm over Fowler's toads and aromatic sumac. Instead of having a mental overload, I have decided to write a fact I have learned from this class each day.

Fact: Turtles breathe through their anus. Talk about never getting any fresh air!

So it goes

On Sunday I went to The Decemberists concert and noticed a woman who was wearing a dress that revealed a tattoo on her back. The tattoo was simple. It was a phrase I was familiar with from the novel Slaughter House-Five. It simply said, "So it goes." I thought that was a rather unique and fun tattoo to have and if she were at a coffee house I would have asked her about it. Unfortunately, I was stuck listening to a whiny rhapsody. So it goes...

A few days later I had dinner with a friend and tattoos were brought into conversation. I told my friend about the Vonnegut tattoo and he casually replied "Oh, that was Langen." We went to the same high school but I was three years ahead and we never really knew one another. Every so often I run into her at the most adventitious moments and to add to the randomness, my friend happens to know Langen. The logical side of me thinks that St.Louis is just so darn small; I know a lot of people and run into someone weekly but there is a difference between them and Langen. I run into her at places far from where I usually go and the times I run into her are completely unconnected to anyone else I know. So, I have decided that I have a karrass. She is in it.

Busy, busy, busy.

Zombies in the Storm

This afternoon a big storm came through and I experienced something new-oblong hail. I have never seen hail that resembled Lego blocks and perhaps if the rain did not hurt upon hitting my skin I would have built an ice castle.

A few hours after the storm passed and the ice melted, my brother asked me to tag along with him to Target in search of Xbox gear. Due to the storm, the power had been knocked out along Lindbergh but Ryan bravely fought the congested and crazy road. The path leading up to Target was dark and all the stores had lost power. The entire area was deserted and calm. Remarkably, the automatic doors at Target were still operating which was a sure sign that Target was still open for business. Ryan and I walked into Target which was being backed by generators. The lighting was dim making it difficult to see anything and the atmosphere was eerie. The speakers were out and dead silence filled the atmosphere. Briefly, I stood in wonderment of how peaceful Target had become when it hit me-the zombie apocolypse may have just begun. I was waiting for the zombies to come from behind, perhaps out of the vitamin isle. My only weapon was a pack of gum but fortunately I didn't need to use it. I scanned the room and didn't see anyone vomiting or reak of death so I felt I was in the clear. It was bit curious that a handful of people continued to shop- in the dark-acting like this wasn't unusual. The zombies were not in the vitamin isle,no, they were in every isle and I was surrounded! Ryan and I escaped without a scratch but there are zombies still out there. Beware.