Mike's World (brain farts and other adventures)Monday
Einstein found E=mc^2 by guesswork, not by experiment.
Tuesday
I found that I like Old Amsterdam cheese.
Wednesday
A 8 week old kitten has a stomach the size of a walnut.
Thursday
I learnt how to assemble an office chair.
Friday
There is no native toads in Madagascar
Saturday
The scoville scale for chillis was created in 1902
Sunday
A donkey is stronger than a horse of the same size.
I did not know until today that Bilberry (or Whortleberry) and Blueberry were different species.
Monday
Marmite is named after the type of french cooking pot which appears on the label.
Tuesday
10th of October is metric day. Wonder if Clintons will make cards for it…
Wednesday
Lattice multiplication has been about in Europe since the 13th century.
Thursday
India recently approved a new symbol for the rupee after a nationwide competition. 
Friday
I learnt a neat trick for sketching cartoons using a blue pencil and GIMP
http://www.georgetoon.com/blog/blue/
Saturday
UK postcodes in the second group of letters exclude the letters CIKMOV as they may be confused with other numbers or letters.
Sunday
Rabbits do not vomit, they are incapable of it. Cecotropes is the name given to the produce of their anus that they eat to give food a second go through their digestive system.
So I am having that 6 weeks off that those lucky teachers get. Have found I learn less when I am having a lazy time, but still something new every day…
Monday
The sound of the star wars doors opening was actually some paper being slid from an envelope.
Tuesday
it costs £10.40 for an off peak day return from Taunton to Bristol.
Wednesday
S4C sometimes show Glamorgan twenty20 cricket matches.
Thursday
Michael Jackson’s favourite song was “smile” by Charlie Chaplin
Friday
There is no butter in peanut butter. There are peanuts though.
Saturday
Pandas have a digestive tract more suitable for meat eating, and will actually eat meat if offered.
Sunday
Eric Cartman’s middle name is Theodore. Something I had not noticed until today, probably ignored it.
Monday
Grasshoppers can bite.
Tuesday
The GM food scare may well have started from a discredited scientific study that poisoned mice with potatoes. All the study really showed was that potatoes contain poisons (which incidently are contained on the outisde 6mm of a potato).
Wednesday
People have the ability to take a football predicting octopus seriously. Incidently a German win today would at last show that octopodes cannot predict football results! (Something surely we should all know!)
Unfortunately for my desire for rational explanations Spain won and the octopus was correct.
Even worse news is that it predicted the final but if it hadn’t a parakeet would have been celebrated for its psychic powers!
Thursday
On Saturday it is the 31st annual “Moon Amtrak” day, when people gather by the side of a railway in Orange County and bare their backsides at passing trains. This annual event occurs on the second Saturday in July every year.
Friday
If you have 8 railings and remove the 2nd 3rd 6th and 8th railings, running a stick down the 1st 4th 5th and 7th at an even speed will give you a tango beat. (incidently if you have 30 railings leave 1 4 6 8 9 12 14 16 17 18 19 20 26 27 28 29 30 and you will get the rhythm for the Simpsons theme)
Saturday
The Monty Hall dilemma actually dates to the 30s, and not to Monty Hall himself. Monty Hall never gave contestants the opportunity to swap doors.
Sunday
Annabel Chong was from Singapore… something they don’t seem to advertise much.
Monday
“Ich drücke Dir die Daumen” (singular you), “Ich drücke euch die Daumen” (plural you) is german for an equivalent to “I’ll cross my fingers for you” (but is more to do with thumbs).
Tuesday
I learnt a few ways to fold a pocket square, and I will probably model the 3 stairs method on Saturday.
Wednesday
I now know what causes that smell you can smell during a thunderstorm and sometimes just before a summer storm. Apparantly it is geosmins from the spores of the streptomyces bacteria that live in soil. I personally still love the smell despite now knowing this.
Monday
The barnacle has a penis 40 times its own body length. (Not surewhether to be impressed, jealous or take pity as what I would do with one over 240 feet? Maybe use it as a scarf.) They also have testes near the back of their head, and maybe it is a throwback to this sort of anatomy that makes us men sometimes think with our testicles.
Tuesday
The Naegleria Fowleri is a single celled organism that occasionally can enter the nose and meander up the nervous system and start feeding on the human brain. This is how it has got its other name the “brain eating amoeba”. It is enough to put you off swimming in lakes in the Czech Republic, New Zealand and the USA. Probably best I didnt know about that before I did go swimming in lakes in Eastern Europe and the US! (Of course if one has swum up my nose and eaten my brain would have been better to know…)
Wednesday
This is turning out to be penis length fact week. Humans have the largest penis size of any ape (I vaguely may have known this). A result of this is for the phrase to be “hung like a gorilla” is considered an insult in some african countries. (They have a penis as thin as a pencil but maybe they know what to do with it as that is what matters!)
Thursday
A promethean interactive whiteboard can be set up (accidently) to autohide the toolbox.
Friday
Most birds do not have a penis, although ducks do. A breed of duck jas one twice its body length.
Saturday
I learnt today a good way to grow mushrooms, decided it is a smelly business though so might just let Tescos grow mine.
Sunday
Taunton is at longitude 3.1 degrees west (I have known the latitude was 51.0 for some time as this is useful for telescope setting up, longitude less so). The sun sets about 13 minutes after it does in London.
Monday
I learnt about the process of radio therapy and its possible side effects.
Tuesday
I learnt that my great great great….great grandfather was a sea squirt, and so was yours. If you cannot admit it you are truly are a spineless individual (unless creationism is correct)
Wednesday
I learnt where the A level maths exam is being held and how long it takes to draw a map. And that it means a missed train when I do. I also now know Aardman Animations were involved in the Sledgehammer video
Thursday
Delia Smith made the cake for the Rolling Stones album cover, Let It Bleed
Friday
For some reason during Korean elections people dance for their chosen candidates. I personally like the policies discussed in this political debate…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0OgRr9y8fA
but my vote may well go to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVTjrjf0Di8&feature=related
Saturday
There is a Brazilian Grill in the O2
Sunday
First Great Western not only run on what was once called Gods Wonderful Railway but they apparantly have the worlds first on-train entertainment system (a bit like on planes)
Monday
The axolotl never grows up and will not undergo metamosphosis in its natural state. However a cheeky iodine injection can make its balls drop and bring it into an adult form.
Tuesday
The Oxford English Dictionary since 1911 has incorrectly dephined a siphon as something that moves liquid using atmospheric pressure. (Gravity has been doing all the work and getting none of the credit).
Wednesday
Today was the first day that I could picture Nick Clegg in my mind, without needing to see a picture of him. More useful is probably the knowledge that Van Helsing’s first name was Abraham.
Thursday
The RSPB was set up to protect the great crested grebe. Also parakeets have set up home and living in the UK wild and free from BNP politicians.
Friday
Nick Clegg once burnt a professor’s cacti when an exchange student in Germany at the age of 16 and had to do community service.
Saturday
In cricket if the ball hits a helmet on the way to a boundary you score 5 runs only, you do not score 9 (5+4). I knew about the 5 runs but was not sure about whether like wides and no balls you would get a further 4. Also Boobby McFerrin’s voice is the only sound you here on a certain track of his, no instruments. So “Don’t worry, be happy”.
Sunday
Until today England had never won an ICC world cup of any type. Now they have won one. I found out the name of the Schengen agreement, which is suprisingly the Schengen agreement. I also found out what Montgomery Glands are.
Saturday
Kopi Luwak is the name of the “cat poo” coffee that is made from beans that have been through the asian palm civet (which is not a cat). I also deduced correctly that the power of hindsight is subtely different and more powerful than foresight although together I bet they would make a powerful world beating combo.
Sunday
Used ground coffee can be used as a fertiliser
