Question of the Day

Possibly disturbing/gross for some people:

Does a centipede really have one hundred feet?

Scientists, whether intentionally, or unintentionally, tripped us up when they named the centipede, one of the oldest creatures in existence.

Yes, centipede really does mean "100-footed," and yes, some centipedes actually do have 100 feet, but no, not all do. In fact, some centipedes have more than 100 feet, and some have as few as 30. Perhaps, mathematicians , not scientists, should have done the calculations, and should have named this member of the species "Myriapoda," Latin for many footed. Yes, the millepede also belongs to this ancient species, but does it really have 1,000 feet, as it's name implies? Doubtful.

The centipede emerges from eggs, laid in the open, with either a full set of legs, or with a starter set of seven pairs, and plays add-a-pair each time it sheds its skin, until maturity. These paired legs grow out of a segment of the centipede's flat, many jointed body, making them much easier to keep track of, and the centipede less likely to stumble as he forrages for food by night. The sheer number of legs, however, may present a problem for the centipede by day, as it must safely tuck them in, when taking cover under rocks or rotting wood.

Tired

I was called to work today. I was out at Cayuga, a first for me. I was doing, you guessed it, tech courses again. It was for three sections, occurring in the first three periods. Then I was in a civics class for the last period. It wasn't that bad of a day, but the third period students.......I'd love to have dealt with them in my own way. Playing with lighters, using pieces of wood as bats to hit things around, playing with the machinery that they don't know how to use, etc. Yeah. I'd have given them more than a piece of my mind if I was the regular teacher. I ran into a few students from summer school which was good, also ran into a teacher from summer school, also good. Friendly bunch there I found. Unfortunately, I jammed my left hand during the day, you know, the injured one? I'm in more pain than before and it's not going down. Typing is even hurting a bit sort of thing.

This article is rather interesting. Originally, Canada was the location of the original nuclear fission reactor and we were one of the three original pioneers in nuclear power with the US and Russia also working on the same thing at the same time. But in this case, they are talking about nuclear fusion. Due to the extreme cost for research, several countries are working together on it. Also helps that there are huge benefits when this finally is viable. So we may wind up being the site for the original nuclear fusion reactor as well. The environmental twits are being kind of stupid about things. They want immediate solutions to problems that can't be solved easily. Nuclear fusion would help solve A LOT of environmental problems and should be investigated as soon as possible. They also seem to miss the point that nuclear fusion is the biggest renewable energy source of them all.