Wind in the willows
WHEN zoologist Dani Rabaiotti鈥檚 teenage brother asked her whether snakes fart, she was stumped. So she asked on Twitter, and informed her that they do. Soon, the internet was abuzz with enquiries about animal flatulence, adorned with the hashtag ? A year later, Rabaiotti has co-authored a book titled Does It Fart?, offering an definitive guide to animals鈥� rear-end gas emissions, that went on sale in the US last week. Here are a few things it tells us.
Rabbits, we discover, can suffer from a gas build-up called intestinal stasis, which can quickly become fatal unless the gas is released. When startled, zebras begin to run and the motion propels gas from their body, causing them to fart loudly with each stride. An insect called the beaded lacewing farts on the termites it feeds on to stun and kill them. And while there are nearly 10,000 species of bird, none of them fart.
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鈥淥ur colleague received an ominous press alert from Penguin books for Jim Al-Khalili鈥檚 new tome Sunfall, 鈥渄ue to be released 1st January 2098鈥�. What does he know that we don鈥檛?鈥�
Cup of char
MORE air of mystery: scientists are scratching their heads over a video of . The footage, recorded by Vinay Kumar of India鈥檚 Wildlife Conservation Society, shows a female elephant in the Nagarhole forest blowing a cloud of ash from her mouth after picking up charcoal from the ground, presumably to eat. The area had recently been cleared by a controlled fire.
A taste for chargrilled vegetation hasn鈥檛 been observed in elephants before, but it鈥檚 not unheard of in the animal kingdom. Red colobus monkeys on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar, for instance, are known to eat charcoal, probably to neutralise the toxins found in the mango and almond leaves they eat. Charcoal also helps to soothe digestive troubles 鈥� so perhaps this was one elephant with a jumbo upset stomach.
Murder most fowl
鈥淲HOEVER saves one life saves the world entire,鈥� according to the Talmud, but this isn鈥檛 always true, as a man in the UK demonstrated rather graphically. After spying a heron swallow a newborn duckling, he shot the offending bird and cut it open to remove the duckling from its stomach. 鈥淏ut obviously he was then left with a dead heron,鈥� the North Wales Police rural crime team reported on Twitter.
All wild birds are protected in the UK, so killing one can result in a 拢5000 fine and six months in jail. However, as it was the man鈥檚 first offence and he had confessed voluntarily, the police decided to let him off with a caution.
Despite the light ticking off, team leader Rob Taylor dismissed claims of a bias against herons, stating: 鈥淎s a police team, we鈥檙e extremely caring toward wildlife offences.鈥� The duckling lived to quack another day.
Up, up and away
THE privatisation of space flight continues: amateur rocket man 鈥淢ad鈥� Mike Hughes is feeling over the moon following a successful ascent to 570 metres in his home-made bottle rocket last month in Amboy, California.
His goal is to reach an altitude of 110 kilometres, a vantage point from which he will be able to authoritatively report on whether Earth is flat or not.
In 2014, the 61-year-old limo driver soared over Arizona in his steam-powered rocket. A planned launch late last year in California was scrubbed after the Bureau of Land Management denied him permission to fly over heritage sites. By modifying the launch ramp he had built from a mobile home, Hughes was able to avoid any infringements.
Although he has yet to flatten the 鈥渃onspiracy鈥� that has promoted a globist model of Earth for the past few millennia, Hughes is out to bust myths or die trying.
Cold conspiracy
A COUNCILLOR in Washington DC has apologised for a video in which he claimed recent snowfall in the city was the result of a weather-control programme run by Jewish financiers.
On 16 March, Trayon White Sr shot a brief video on his mobile phone as he drove to work, telling viewers: 鈥淚t just started snowing out of nowhere鈥� Pay attention to this climate control鈥� this climate manipulation鈥� That鈥檚 a model based off the Rothschilds controlling the climate to create natural disasters they can pay for to own the cities鈥︹��
The Rothschilds, a wealthy banking dynasty, have been the subject of numerous conspiracy theories over the centuries, accusing them of orchestrating world events. When The Washington Post asked for clarification, White initially replied: 鈥淭he video says what it says.鈥�
But when the paper published its story, he recanted, stating: 鈥淚 did not intend to be anti-Semitic, and I see I should not have said that after learning from my colleagues.鈥�
Feedback thinks there are quite enough climate change conspiracies to be found on Capitol Hill without this one joining the mix 鈥� if only the others would be retracted as swiftly.
Half moon
YOU have been supplying Feedback with scientific theories forged by child minds. Charlie Robinson says, 鈥淚 was very impressed with the lateral thinking of my 3-year-old son.鈥� Looking up at a half moon one night, he enquired, 鈥淒addy, does someone have to go up there on a ladder to fold it?鈥�
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