h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have heard a story that when Walt Disney got his first BB gun he shot and killed an owl. He felt so bad about it that for the rest of his life he portrayed them as wise and kind.

In American Native culture they are considered harbingers of fate, not evil or causing anything bad, but they believe that they can warn of death, or other misfortune.

I love watching owls, and bats too! Then again I may just be a bit weird

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Its quite uncanny getting swooped from behind by one of our local desert owls when out walking at night, so utterly silent one doesn't know its there until it comes into view.

The owls must hide really well around here, never run into one. They are beautiful things, aren't they?

Not when they're young.

http://youtu.be/NCrtdBO6fYA

Like most wild animals, not seen unless they mean to be, as a rule.

Those are rare babies! I'm sure Mom thinks they're beautiful.

Ze uugh!liest ducklings.

A long time ago I had a good friend who was in the Army. He was home on leave and he ordered a brand new Ford F-150 pick-up truck to drive to his new assignment in Alaska. As it happened, it arrived just one day before he had to leave. He wanted to show it off and invited me to go for a ride with him. There is a large island which is a county park, but at the time it was closed to the public. They put 4 foot tall (a bit over a metre) hills of dirt over all the entrances. While they were a barrier to most people, for two kids in their early 20's, in a brand new 4x4 wheel drive pick-up truck, they were only a challenge.

It was already dark when we crossed the barrier and started to cruise the many roads behind. We passed one tree with an owl sitting on a limb at eye level. he was close enough I could have reached out and touched him (but of course I did not try).

We drove around the island for several hours and we passed that tree at least a half-dozen times. Each time the owl swiveled his head watching us (as owls do) He was still sitting there just before we left.

He decided to head north that very night and wrote a note to his sleeping mother to say goodbye. On a whim I wrote a note to my own parents telling them I would be home in a day or so and rode with him as far as Atlanta Airport where I could get a flight home. Just to date myself and this story - Jimmy Carter and his family were filming a campaign commercial at the entrance of the airport as part of his first run for the White House.

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story!

This fact is fairly useless:

Anyone remember SonofRojBlake?

I can report that there is now a son of SonofRojBlake.

Imagine that.

Aww... sweet!

Congrats in order.

Lovely.

Well done,

That cheerful piece of news has put a big grin on my face. All the best to the whole family.

Salvia officinalus, culinary sage, was developed from a strain of salvia vulgaris originally ordered into cultivation by Charlemagne, hence the designation "sovereign herb".

I had heard somewhere that Moe Howard (born Moe Horowitz) was a great grandfather, or possibly a great uncle to Winona Ryder (born Winona Horowitz).

But apparently, this wasn't true.

That said, while trying to confirm or refute this, I learned that her godfather actually was Timothy Leary.



(I had a better Useless Fact to share but I can't recall it at the moment, but since I'd already scrolled this far back in the convos, I thought I'd give the thread a bump anyway. Maybe I'll remember a better one later.)

In his lifetime,the Frenchman Michel Lotito ate 18 bicycles, 15 shopping carts, 8 television sets, 6 chandeliers, 2 NERF guns, 1 octopus (whole), 3 toilet bowls, 5 sheeps' hearts, 2 beds, 1 pair of skis, 1 coffin, 400m steel chain and 1 Cessna 150 two-seater airplane.

Apparently accompanied by some oil and lots of water.


I wonder if he ever had to go through customs. That would take a lut of explaining, I guess.