Did You know - outdoor edition

[K-Guy]

That 4F story is just that. The link below will explain that it's just a way labeling the different recruits.

4-F « The Word Detective


WV Sawmiller
I had women above and below me in rank during my service and just like men there are good and bad. Please no bad puns intended(this time).

[WV Sawmiller]

K-guy,

   I had the same experiences with women I served with. Twice my number two were women and they were top notch.

   Okay, for today's topic:

Did you know that some species of fish will guard their nests and even their young once they have hatched. I remember fishing in a small borrow pit in N. Fla left from a sand and gravel operation and I'd hear splashing and see fins breaking the water periodically in a shallow area. I went over to investigate and found about a gallon of newly hatched little black catfish fry about 1/2" long which I would normally have just thought were tadpoles. I think it was a flathead catfish which was a species I had never seen there at that time. (I hear they are very common now.) The mother (I assume) was swimming circles around the group keeping them in a tight circle. She was probably about a 2 lb fish. Periodically a small bass or goggle-eye or other predator fish would approach the fry and she would viciously attack and chase them off. While I am ashamed of it now I caught the mother fish and took her home. Almost immediately predators began attacking and eating the fry. They quickly scattered. I returned that afternoon and there was no recognizable group any more and there would be a catfish fry every few feet around the edge of the pond. I have never seen another fish as diligent about keeping her children together and as well protected.

   While scuba diving in in the Red Sea south of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia I accidently swam over and too close to the nest of a Picasso Triggerfish. I guess the fish weighed 5-6 lbs or so. It sneaked up and viciously attacked the tip of my swim fins. I had been warned by others in the area to be alert for them as they would attack. 

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know that some fish can survive being completely frozen in ice? They basically go into a type of hibernation with all their systems going dormant. When the ices thaws the fish resume its normal activities.

   Amazingly there have been cases of people drowning in freezing or very cold water who were revived and survived. The cold water slowing down the body's systems is critical to any chance of revival. 

   I remember a class when I was in University where we did experiments such as submerging animals, including classmates, in water and monitoring heartbeats and found that when even nonaquatic animals such as a chicken had their heads under water their heartrate slowed. You could expect such in a seal or even a person who spends some time in the water but it was strange in an animal that never swims. You'd have thought such animals heartrates would go through the roof when underwater.

[doc henderson]

the cold water can slow the heart rate as a result of vagal nerve stimulation.  this is what causes vaso-vagal syncope, also known as a "Victorian Constitution" or fainting.  any hollow organ distention, or sight of something you are not accustomed to seeing such as blood or child birth, can cause this reaction.  your heart rate drops and vascular tone decreases and less blood to the brain makes you faint, unless you put your head down,  (fainting accomplishes this, so do not try to hold someone up who has fainted).  Survival after submersion in cold water is due to decreased metabolism, so the brain now requires very little O2 to survive.  It has to be cold, like near freezing.  drownings in our area often to not survive unless in the dead of winter.  Now after a resuscitation and the patient does not wake up after, we drop their body temp for a few days, and they survive with brain intact.  Did you know the first (very few) girl to survive rabies, did so by being cooled so the brain could weather the storm and brain irritation until the body fought off the virus.  this is why the animals act so strange when they are infected.  they have one hell of a headache.  another virus and that darn immune system.   :     

[WV Sawmiller]

   The mention about fainting at the sight of blood is interesting. I think it is not always just the sight of blood but whose blood. My dad took my older brother when he was about 5-6 y/o in to have his eyebrow sewed up after it was cut by a falling trash barrel. His younger brother ( :) thought it was fun to push it over and big brother tried to stop me him and was too late that time. Dad took him to the doctor who put several stitches in his eyelid and when done, Dad passed out.

  Similarly, in 2004 my #2 local Iraqi in Bagdad, while coming to work had the car in front of him at the 17 July Bridge checkpoint blown up by an IED. Anwar stayed and helped pick up body parts for a good while. While working for me his 4-5 y/o son fell and hit the corner of a table or such and cut his eyelid or forehead and he had to take him to the doctor who sewed him up. When finished, Anwar passed out.

[WV Sawmiller]

   We mentioned bats earlier but did you know dolphins use sonar to locate their prey and other animals and objects in the water? They make a high pitched whistling sound and when it bounces off object the dolphins can tell the direction and distance. They will also work together in packs or pods to herd and catch fish. They round them up and push them into shallow water and such so they can catch them.

[firefighter ontheside]

It is definitely true that who I am dealing changes the way I deal with things.  Luckily I have never had to deal with a friend or family member with a gruesome injury and I'm sure that I would be more affected than I am with patients while working.  What I do notice is how I deal with poop.  Many times I nearly threw up while changing my childrens' diapers, but it has never bothered me at work.  Some guys will have to leave the house we are in because of it or put Vicks on their lip to deal with the smell.  The respect I have for military medics who are having to treat their comrades with terrible injuries is immense.

[HemlockKing]

I had a friend a few years back that would faint on the sight of blood. He was a otherwise rough around the edges/mean type, so when I witnessed his eyes roll in the back of his head and hit the ground over a gash on his hand it caught me by surprise, and there was another time it happened. each time passed out for about 30 seconds and slowly came to, confused etc..

[firefighter ontheside]

Did you know that a bobcat will jump off of a river bridge when they feel trapped by the car that is approaching.  As i was approaching the bridge this morning I noticed something running along the lane.  As I got closer I realized it was a bobcat.  This is a 2 lane bridge that crosses the small river right by my house.  It originally jumped up to the concrete rail and must have thought better about jumping.  It came back down and ran around the bridge a little, but then jumped back up on the rail and leapt off.  I'm not certain how far it fell, but we were about 1/3 of the way across the bridge.  It may have jumped to a tree below or otherwise I assume it fell about 30 feet to the river bank.  I hope it landed on its feet and hadn't done that 8 times previously.

[doc henderson]

I had an IV for fluids while in med school.  I had a kidney stone.  I was getting Demerol, as a shot in my hip.  the older nurse who had a wart on her nose and apparently did not care much for med students, started in the hallway and ran towards me with the needle each time I got the shot (2 times).  that was all fine, but a friend came to visit, and I sat the bed up to visit, and when I looked sown, my IV line backed up with blood, and caught me off guard.  I got woozy and laid back.  I got nauseated another time in a small-town hospital when a teen arrived in active labor.  she was not really prepared for the experience and was screaming like something was trying to get out of her body through a small opening (and it was), I was down the hall.  the process was since there was no one else on OB, they left the big double door open (in case the nurse caring for her needed help, she could yell), so her screams led to imagination, but I was not involved with her care.  you can always imagine more than is actually happening.  I can never just set in a line of cars at an accident, I have to get out and see if I can help, and what is going on.  maybe this reaction is natural, and the ones of us that overcome it, end up with PTSD.  would be interesting to study.  some military guys say that guys that are in for a brief period do not fully adjust to what they have to do, and others in for 20 make the adjustment.  I do not know.

[wisconsitom]

Frogs spend the winter in a frozen state as well, at pond bottom in the mud.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I think snakes and many turtles also "hibernate" to some fashion. They may not totally sleep but they certainly doze and don't use much energy.

[WV Sawmiller]

FFOTS,

  On the military medics they sure have my respect. I worked a project in the Gobi desert in Mongolia about 50 miles N of the Chinese border. We were in the middle of nowhere. If we heard or a saw plane it was coming to see us as there was nothing else there. We had a contract for medical support and most of the guys they sent were old military medics which was a perfect fit for the needs we had. We had falls, punctures, explosions, burns, traumatic amputations, etc. The nearest town was an hour away and they'd bring patients to us that were beyond the skill level of their "doctor". I remember our medic had to amputate most of a guys fingers on one hand who had caught it in a motorcycle chain. They brought us an illegal gold miner with a broken back and we made available a seat for him on our 3 times weekly flight to fly him to the capital of Ulaanbaatar. 

   I worked real closely with our medics as I was the camp manager and we'd have to either get a special medivac or make a seat available for some of our team or even a guest/local almost every week. The special medivacs were rare but getting a seat reserved on our regular flights was a normal routine. Our medics were a confidence booster to me. I knew they were not going to let me die there in in their care. I might die once I got to a big hospital but they were going to keep me alive till then.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know the heart of the sable palm (State Tree of Fla) and possibly many other palm species is edible? In central Fla we called in Swamp Cabbage. It could be eaten raw or cooked. You could boil it like a green cabbage or fry a piece or two of bacon to grease the pan then fry one inch sections in it till tender. The perfect size to cut was about waist high. We'd cut it from all sides with a sharp ax then break it off. Then we'd start cutting and peeling off the sections till we got to the tender heart. Dad used to say a dull knife was best for cutting swamp cabbage. When it got too tough to cut through it was time to peel off a few more sections. If you cut too high up it got a bitter taste from the quinine that was present. It was a staple food item for the Seminole Indians and this quinine was speculated as one of the reasons they did not get malaria. Bears will sometimes pull the bud out and eat it. My grandfather said he had checked and every time he found a bear killed swamp cabbage he'd find a spot on the ground where the bear had fallen out of the tree. Evidently the would climb up, wrap their hind legs around the trunk, push off with their front feet while pulling the bud out with there teeth. When the bud pulled free they would fall backwards onto the ground below. The bud matures in a young cabbage and you would get the same amount of "meat" out of a 3' tall cabbage as one 50' tall.

   My uncle who lived in Dixie County Fla used to say if you saw a cabbage the perfect height to cut there was something wrong or someone would have already cut it. It might have a wasp nest in it, an old fence ran through it or there was a rattlesnake den under it.

   Many folks would get the idea how easy it would be to cut with a chainsaw but once you stuck the saw tip to the truck the string like fiber would rip free and completely choke down the saw. Maybe this is the same principle use for chainsaw chaps and pants.

[beenthere]

Did you know that the tigers and the tide are playing ladies BB now?

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know I think watching basketball is about as exciting as watching a mule eat a turnip? Now if it were lady's beach volleyball I might be surfing the channels. :D 

[doc henderson]

great game between the Chiefs and the Bills.

[Walnut Beast]

Absolutely incredible!!!! CHIEFS!!!!!!

[WV Sawmiller]

  Did you know that man's best friend may not be? I remember reading about a guy who took his bird dogs out before season for some training, which was legal as such "toughening" was allowed in his state. He took it a step further though and shot a nice mess of quail. He hid the quail in his hubcaps. On the way out the game warden had the road blocked and checked him out. Everything was great as there was no evidence of any violations of the states hunting regs and the hunter and Game Warden were having a nice conversation until Phydeaux (Sound it out) jumped out and pointed the left rear wheel. Busted! :

   No more kibbles and bits for you, Pal!

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know the nut of the beech tree is shaped like a triangle? It is slightly smaller then a shelled peanut and tastes a lot like a raw peanut. It is a preferred mast food for bear, deer, turkeys, coons, squirrels, doves, chipmunks, and many other wild animals. The tree tends to have a hollow heart or cavities from broken limbs and such and makes an excellent den tree for many animals and birds such as squirrels, flying squirrels, racoons, possums, owls, woodpeckers, etc.

   There was a big beech tree in Tennessee that was famous for the carved inscription "D. Boone cilled a bar on tree in year 1760". It fell a few years ago and investigators determined it was already over 200 years when old Dan killed his bear.

   It is a very dense, heavy wood and makes good firewood but it can bounce a splitting maul right back at your head if you are not careful.

[KEC]

Did you know that Black Bears will climb beech trees to get the nuts. They reach out and pull in small branches, breaking many of them. When they get done it looks like a big stick nest, hence "bear nests." Saw these in the adirondacks once. Only an occaisional bear sighting where I live.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I'd love to see that. I suspect they would do the same with oaks and such too. 

[Don P]

They will absolutely tear up a black heart cherry. 

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know the limbs on a mango tree are pretty brittle? I was working a project in Douala (Doo Alla) Cameroon and the sidewalks were lined with huge mango trees that were loaded with big, sweet mangos every spring. Along about March every kid you saw would be carrying a rattan vine about 20' long with a reverse fork fashioned on the end. They would lift the vine over the limb and slide it down to the clump of mango fruit at the end and give it a jerk and pull the fruit down. I asked a local employee why they did not just climb the trees and climb out the limb to reach the fruit and pick it by hand. He told me the limbs were very brittle and would certainly snap off if they tried that.

[WV Sawmiller]

  Did you know that with many species the leader of the herd/harem spends almost all his time keeping other males of his species chased away but with gorillas the lead silverback protects the females and young from predators and other threats? If threatened a gorilla in the troop sounds the alarm and the other females and young run or climb to safety but the silverback charges toward the threat fully ready and expecting to do battle to the death if necessary. In many cases he will make a mock charge toward the threat and stop a few feet short to allow the person, leopard, hyena, etc. to see the error of their ways and beat a hasty retreat. Trust me! Seeing a huge silverback who is 500 lbs of rippling muscles 10' away and ripping small trees and bushes up by the roots, beating his chest and roaring at the top of his lungs makes you think about business you have elsewhere.

  On 23 June 2003 my wife and I were trekking with members of the WWF in the Central Africa Republic on the Dzanga/Sangha Reserve. They were studying gorillas and our trackers inadvertently walked us up the trail right up to a juvenile gorilla about 5 y/o who had been sitting beside a log eating termites on a stick. He'd poke his stick in the termite hole and when the soldier termites rushed out and up the stick, he'd lick then off and repeat. When we walked up within 5-6 feet of him without either seeing the other he jumped up and hooted and ran away. We froze but it was too late as the Silverback charged to within 10-15 feet away and roared at us to leave. We froze and looked at the ground submissively. You never want to make eye contact in such cases as he sees that as a threat. (I'm not sure but I may have been too busy looking at the puddle forming between my feet to look him in the eye anyway. :)

  The week before a similar incident had occurred and the silverback walked up to the kneeling local tracker and "bopped" him lightly on the head with his gorilla fist as a warning then turned and walked away.

  Unfortunately poachers know this trait and use it to kill the silverback. They will sneak up and capture a young gorilla who will immediately start screaming then when the silverback charges they will shoot or spear him.