In The News:
Steven Seagull?
Steven Seagull has
returned to a Super 8 motel, looking for his customary cake doughnut.
Year after year, the ring-billed gull has tapped at the lobby’s front
door until a staff member gives him the doughnut, said general manager
Jodi Chambers. “If it’s quiet in the lobby, you can hear him tapping on
it,” Chambers said. “But if we’re busy, he starts squawking like crazy.”
Steven
has returned again. Chambers said she’s sure it’s the same bird because
he behaves the same way every year. For one thing, Steven chases away
other gulls looking for his food. “We don’t feed them if there’s more
than one, and he’s figured that out,” Chambers said. Leslie Larsen, the
education director of the Lake Superior Zoo, said Steven Seagull has
learned to respond to positive reinforcement. “What I do know is that
animals, they don’t necessarily have to be intelligent to respond to
what we call operant conditioning,” she said. “Without knowing it or
meaning to, they’ve trained that gull. They’ve given him a positive
consequence to come back.” Whatever the reason, Chambers said Steven is
a hit. “The guests love it,” she said. “I’ve had a few come in and say
‘We came to check out your bird.’”
A Smoking Turtle!
A
tortoise that smokes and appears to be addicted to nicotine has been
discovered in China’s northeastern province of Jilin. The animal is the
pet of a man, identified by his surname Yun, who is himself a smoker,
Xinhua news agency said, quoting a local newspaper. One day, Yun teased
the tortoise by putting a cigarette butt into its mouth, and to his
surprise it started to smoke it. From then on, he shared his cigarettes
with his pet, Xinhua said. “It seems to have become addicted,” Yun was
quoted as saying. “Whenever I smoke in front of it, it will stick its
head out of the water and fidget about until I give it the stub.” Yun
proved his claim by putting a cigarette in the tortoise’s mouth in
front the paper’s reporter and his neighbours. To everyone’s surprise,
the tortoise finished it in less than four minutes.
Hooked On Facts:
Drivers kill more deer than hunters.
A jiffy is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second. Thus the saying, I will be there in a jiffy.
The warmest temperature ever recorded on Antarctica was 3 degrees F.
The U.S. Government will not allow portraits of living persons to appear on stamps.
Until the year 1920, Canada was planning on invading the United States.
Brought to you by HookedOnFacts.com
Just Joking:
Coloring Lesson:
A kindergarten teacher
handed out a coloring page to her class. On it was a picture of a duck
holding an umbrella. The teacher told her class to color the duck in
yellow and the umbrella green, however, Bobby, he class rebel, colored
the duck in a bright fire truck red.
After seeing this, the teacher asked him: “Bobby, how many times have you see a red duck?”
Young Bobby replied with “The same number of times I’ve seen a duck holding an umbrella.”
A Little Chuckle:
Three
old couples were having tea one fine day. There were all chatting and
whatnot when one of the men, trying to get a chuckle, said to his wife,
“Pass the honey, honey!” Everyone had a little chuckle.
A moment later, the second man said, “Pass the sugar, sugar!”
This
got a bit of a bigger laugh, so the third man, although not quite as
clever or quick-witted as the other two, decided to join in the fun. He
waited for the perfect opportunity, cleared his throat and then
confidently said, “Pass the tea, bag!”
911:
An elderly woman called 911 on her
cell phone to report that her car had been broken in to. She is
hysterical as she explains her situation to the dispatcher:
“They’ve stolen the stereo, the steering wheel, the brake pedal and even the accelerator!” she cried.
The dispatcher said, “Stay calm. An officer is on the way.”
A few minutes later, the officer radios in. “Disregard.” He says. “She got in the back-seat by mistake.”
Bean Soup:
When the waitress in a New York City restaurant brought him the soup of the day, the Englishman was a bit dismayed.
“Good heavens,” he said, “what is this?”
“It’s bean soup,” she replied.
“I don’t care what it’s been,” he replied. “What is it now?”
Cocky Government Employee:
A
cocky State Highways employee stopped at a farm and talked with an old
farmer. He told the farmer, “I need to inspect your farm for a possible
new road.”
The old farmer said, “OK, but don’t go in that field.”
The Highways employee said, “I have the authority of the State
Government to go where I want. See this card? I am allowed to go
wherever I wish on farm land.”
So the old farmer went about
his farm chores. Later, he heard loud screams and saw the State
Highways employee running for the fence and close behind was the
farmer’s prize bull. The bull was madder than a nest full of hornets
and the bull was gaining on the employee at every step!!
The old farmer called out, “Show him your card!!”
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2008 Archives 
