Friday, April 30, 2010

All in the reporting

News this morning tells of the successful in-captivity breeding by an English aquarium of South American frogs which have a poison 200 times more powerful than morphine. The species, Phantasmal poison frogs, is bright red with three greenish fluorescent stripes, and is classed as endangered - with populations only surviving in seven (known) sites in Ecuador. Now the most interesting thing about these incredibly poisonous frogs - which was mentioned in the last paragraph of the news item I saw - is that their toxins can block pain 200 times more effectively than morphine without addiction and more serious side effects. (On re-reading the article, it was mentioned earlier - but I missed it in my haste to read the article to see why they were putting the effort in to saving this extremely rare poisonous amphibian.)

Art and life

This from Yahoo today: "The actress who played Thelma Lou on "The Andy Griffith Show" was robbed in the town that inspired the show's idyllic Mayberry setting, after moving to the area to avoid big city crime.". Times have changed.

Thursday, April 08, 2010

Undecided

I am unsure what approach to take to today's Sudoku puzzle in The Daily Telegraph. It is rated as "easy/medium/hard". Hmmmm.

Monday, April 05, 2010

Horse sense?

The Victorian Government has a mission - to reunite Phar Lap for the 150th anniversay of The Melbounre Cup. I'd be more inclined to believe this story if it wasn't so close to 1 April - but the general gist is that they want Phar Lap's skeleton (currently in New Zealand) and his heart (currently in Canberra) brought to Melboure and displayed alongside his hide at Melbourne Museum. Racing figures are divided over the plan, some thinking it would be best if Phar Lap's bits were left in situ. I don't know if I'd like to see him in pieces like that - the least they could do - if the scheme does go ahead as planned - is put him back together!

On the run

From the land which gave us very funny footage of two fleeing handcuffed prisoners coming to grief when they tried to run on separate sides of an iron pole - knocking themselves unconscious in the process - comes news of two men trying to break INTO a New Zealand prison.
Security footage at Auckland's Mt Eden Prison shows the men running from the scene after they had tripped an alarm; they have not yet been tracked down. Local authorities are unsure whether the episode was a prank, or if the would-be intruders were intoxicated or fuelled by another motive; but they say it was good practice for their security staff - ahem ... not catching people escaping from the prison precinct???