Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

[marhawkman]

I have had 2 or 3 spider bites in the UK that turned nasty but put it down
to whatever was on it's fangs when it bit not any venom it may inject.
This is not the biggest we get round here one or two have made even me jump back.

View attachment 68373

Argiope! <3

 

[escargot]

Oh, and good bras weren't available back then.

Yes they were. Not all women wore them.

 

[IbisNibs]

I've been bitten by spiders lots of times. I even had one hanging from my fingertip by its teeth ('fangs'?) one day when gardening.

 

[Peripart]

No...silly....
Mr Rutter uses a calendar of his own devising which (much like the change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in 1582) incorporates a 10 'jump'.

1582, you say? The UK didn't adopt the Gregorian calendar until 1752, of course. And according to Gordon, that's almost 400 years later.

 

[Trevp666]

1582, you say? The UK didn't adopt the Gregorian calendar until 1752, of course. And according to Gordon, that's almost 400 years later.

Indeed. But I was referring to the original introduction of the Gregorian Calendar in 1582 under instruction of Pope Gregory XIII.
In Great Britain, the new calendar was adopted in September 1752. In order to deal with the discrepancy of days, which by now had grown to eleven, it was ordered that 2nd September 1752 would be immediately followed by 14th September 1752.
(Which was, of course, when the BBC first introduced Richard Attenborough to our screens with his documentary on Benjamin Franklin and his famous electricity experiments of that year, invention of the lightning rod, bifocals and the Franklin stove.)

 

[uair01]

Photographing other people's smartphone messages:
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/the-photographer-peeking-at-your-phone

“Voyeuristic isn’t the same as harmful,” Mermelstein told me, when I asked him about the ethics of capturing people’s private thoughts without their knowledge or consent. “We’re all out there in the public domain, so part of everything we do engages with voyeurism. As a street photographer, I’ve been practicing this for a long time, and I trust that what I do isn’t hurting anyone.”

 

[escargot]

Photographing other people's smartphone messages:
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/the-photographer-peeking-at-your-phone

“Voyeuristic isn’t the same as harmful,” Mermelstein told me, when I asked him about the ethics of capturing people’s private thoughts without their knowledge or consent. “We’re all out there in the public domain, so part of everything we do engages with voyeurism. As a street photographer, I’ve been practicing this for a long time, and I trust that what I do isn’t hurting anyone.”

View attachment 68401

He'll find out when he gets a punch on the nose.

 

[catseye]

It may be a tick bite. Get it checked out.
Tick bites have a distinctive appearance.

It's not a tick, definitely.

I was sitting on the strip of concrete that separates my garden wall from the road pulling up these weeds, so I think ants are front runners as suspects.

 

[escargot]

It's not a tick, definitely.

I was sitting on the strip of concrete that separates my garden wall from the road pulling up these weeds, so I think ants are front runners as suspects.

I've recently noticed ants on our front doorstep. They can get lost.

 

[marhawkman]

It's not a tick, definitely.

I was sitting on the strip of concrete that separates my garden wall from the road pulling up these weeds, so I think ants are front runners as suspects.

Wasps perhaps? If the wall is made of wood, those will often have paper wasps collecting wood fibers to make into paper. also wasps will often sting and run.

 

[brownmane]

Wasps perhaps? If the wall is made of wood, those will often have paper wasps collecting wood fibers to make into paper. also wasps will often sting and run.

I think it's YOU who runs. I've been stung by bees several times and stung by a wasp on the ball of my foot when I stepped on it. The wasp sting is way more painful than bee and my toe throbbed and the ball of my foot was hard with slight swelling. It felt like I was walking on a big rock.

 

[escargot]

I think it's YOU who runs. I've been stung by bees several times and stung by a wasp on the ball of my foot when I stepped on it. The wasp sting is way more painful than bee and my toe throbbed and the ball of my foot was hard with slight swelling. It felt like I was walking on a big rock.

One of my dogs, when a pup of about six months, stepped on a wasp and was stung. He tried to walk home with one front leg held high in the air in case the wasp came back, poor lad.

 

[hunck]

One of my dogs, when a pup of about six months, stepped on a wasp and was stung. He tried to walk home with one front leg held high in the air in case the wasp came back, poor lad.

We had a dog who when young went after a bee & decided to eat it. It stung the inside of his mouth & he didn’t do it again. I think he was mystified as to what happened & was shaking his head around for a quite a while after.

 

[catseye]

We had a dog who when young went after a bee & decided to eat it. It stung the inside of his mouth & he didn’t do it again. I think he was mystified as to what happened & was shaking his head around for a quite a while after.

Teal chases and snaps at bees quite often, and it's not unusual for her to spend half a day with one side of her mouth looking as though she's had a go at a golfball. But, as I've previously stated on many occasions - she's an idiot.

Wasps perhaps? If the wall is made of wood, those will often have paper wasps collecting wood fibers to make into paper. also wasps will often sting and run.

It's definitely not wasps. The garden wall is a wall, not a fence. Besides, I'm wary of wasps (after my Stupid Accident a couple of years ago) and don't hang around if they are getting going.

 

[Trevp666]

I've recently noticed ants on our front doorstep. They can get lost.

I think you'll find they can't get lost. They follow a trail of pheromones laid down by other ants.

 

[CharmerKamelion]

I think you'll find they can't get lost. They follow a trail of pheromones laid down by other ants.

Ants do seem to love hanging around on doorsteps. I find politely asking them to go away usually works.

Or is that Jehovah's Witnesses?

 

[Trevp666]

You can get rid of them by pouring boiling water on them.

(go on......I'll set them up - you can knock them down)

 

[CharmerKamelion]

You can get rid of them by pouring boiling water on them.

(go on......I'll set them up - you can knock them down)

I opt for boiling oil. Well, only if asking nicely hasn't worked.

 

[Erinaceus]

I think you'll find they can't get lost. They follow a trail of pheromones laid down by other ants.

But what happens if the ant laying down the pheromone trail doesn't know where it's going?

 

[Stormkhan]

Ants can also be deterred by a sprinkling of turmeric.

 

[CharmerKamelion]

Ants can also be deterred by a sprinkling of turmeric.

Makes them tastier too. So my friend Otis says.

 

[kesavaross]

I think you'll find they can't get lost. They follow a trail of pheromones laid down by other ants.

How did the first ants who laid down the pheromones find their way back?

 

[CharmerKamelion]

How did the first ants who laid down the pheromones find their way back?

Ah, those hardy pioneer ants. Striking out boldly with nothing but a ball of string to find their way back to the nest.

 

[catseye]

Ants can also be deterred by a sprinkling of turmeric.

To be fair, so can I.

 

[CharmerKamelion]

To be fair, so can I.

Noted, catseye. You never know when info like that might come in handy.

 

[Floyd]

Noted, catseye. You never know when info like that might come in handy.

Why do you think I've covered myself in the stuff?

 

[Floyd]

MrsF's parents insist on putting little pieces of off-cut carpet (about 3'' square) under every cabinet and table leg.
I asked what it was all about and apparently it's to ''stop the carpet being marked''.

Why would it matter if the carpet got marked? You wouldn't be able to see it. They don't move furniture around (unlike my mother who moved it every five minutes for some bizarre reason) and it looks unsightly.

It's akin to people who leave the plastic covering on sofas/chairs.
Very odd.

 

[Trevp666]

My parents used to put little brown plastic 'cups' under the feet of items of furniture to 'stop them marking the carpet'.
But they just made bigger, circular marks instead.

 

[Stormkhan]

The use of 'pressure spreaders' like the cups above do work.
As someone who lives in rented accomodation, I like to minimise any damage or impact on the home. Thus, I use 'cups' such as above, to reduce the surface pressure from armchair feet, rollers etc. My library shelving is enough that I place wooden panels under the feet of my shelves.
It works thus - it spreads the weight imposed on the surface. Yes - the 'cups' still leave impressions on the carpet fibre, or even on the padded lino that we have, but when the weight is taken off, the material can 'recover' better.
Strangely enough, the best way I've heard this surface pressure effect explained is from a You Tube tank commander (The Chieftain) who explained why tanks can go places a car can't. As he describes, he gave a lift to some infantry on his M1 Abrahams in Iraq. He told them the surface was soft ... but when they jumped off, they sank knee-deep in sand.
Bottom line - it's a matter of spreading mass on a surface.

 

[CharmerKamelion]

The use of 'pressure spreaders' like the cups above do work.
As someone who lives in rented accomodation, I like to minimise any damage or impact on the home. Thus, I use 'cups' such as above, to reduce the surface pressure from armchair feet, rollers etc. My library shelving is enough that I place wooden panels under the feet of my shelves.
It works thus - it spreads the weight imposed on the surface. Yes - the 'cups' still leave impressions on the carpet fibre, or even on the padded lino that we have, but when the weight is taken off, the material can 'recover' better.
Strangely enough, the best way I've heard this surface pressure effect explained is from a You Tube tank commander (The Chieftain) who explained why tanks can go places a car can't. As he describes, he gave a lift to some infantry on his M1 Abrahams in Iraq. He told them the surface was soft ... but when they jumped off, they sank knee-deep in sand.
Bottom line - it's a matter of spreading mass on a surface.

Quite. I am sitting in a mid-19th Century chair as I type this, with castors. And I have a pressure-spreading cup under each castor. They do prevent the dents in the carpet from being too severe. The chair is usually in the same place, but I have shifted it on occasion for various reasons and the dents do seem to recover.