Sideswipe: July 16: You couldn't pay me to work here ...

Keep your distance.

Shock and ale ...

A pub run by a farmer is making sure people social distance - by installing an electric fence at the bar. The Star Inn has installed a barrier normally used to deter cattle to stop punters crowding while getting a pint. It reopened along with pubs across England after lockdown but said it was worried about drinkers not maintaining social distancing.

Penguin poop projectile

In a new study, researchers revisit an Ignobel-winning 2003 paper about the physics of penguin faeces and find these tubby, aquatic birds can squirt arcing jets of poop to distances nearly twice their own body length: "The flying distance of penguin's faeces reaches about 0.4m even on the ground. Since a typical height of a Humboldt penguin is given at0.4m, this distance corresponds to the situation that if a human being whose height is 1.7m tries to evacuate his/her bowels, the object could fly to 1.7 m away. Therefore, one can immediately understand that [a] penguin's rectal pressure is relatively much [stronger] compared to that of a human." That means for a human to have the backdoor thrust of a penguin, they'd need to be able to propel waste matter almost 2m away. (Via Popular Mechanics)

Did you know …

1. One of the compounds responsible for the smell of cat pee is found in sauvignon grapes.
2. People tend to prefer round numbers. If told a vaccine is 90 per cent effective, most of the population think of it as more effective than if they'd been told it was 92.17 per cent effective.
3. The US has 5 per cent of the world's population but 25 per cent of its prison population. Ninety-five per cent are in jail for non-violent offences.
4. You've probably heard of a procrastinator, but what about a PRECRASTINATOR? Defined as someone who rushes to get something done earlier than is necessary so they can tick it off their mental to-do list.
5. When Barack Obama visited Darwin in 2011, his official welcoming gift from the city was $50,000 worth of crocodile-attack insurance.
6. American librarians have asked members of the public to stop microwaving their books. Some people believe it will help protect them against Covid-19 (it won't).
7. Youngest children tend to think they are funnier than their older siblings.
(Via Quite Interesting)