Happy Fatner Day.
Humans not the only nosepickers
Prof Anne-Claire Fabre from the University of Bern has been studying the nose-picking habits of aye-ayes, a type of lemur. The nocturnal primates are found only in Madagascar and are famous for their strange, skinny, long fingers, which they use to fish grubs out of
branches. Moreover, the aye-aye uses its preternaturally long middle finger for the task of nose-picking – reaching, scientists believe, so far back that it extends into the animal’s pharynx. “I wanted to know where is this finger going?” Fabre told the BBC. “I wondered - is it inserting it into its brain?” she wondered. No. “It was so weird and seemed impossible ... It was going into the sinus and from the sinus into the throat and into the mouth.” This makes the aye-aye one of at least 12 primates known to pick their noses, all of them deft with their hands (some even use sticks). Studies that investigate the behaviour in humans say the majority of humans pick their nose often but are reluctant to admit it. Some science says the habit spreads harmful bacteria. But there is at least one study suggesting that the ingestion of nasal mucus could play an important role for the immune system, because of the immune proteins in the mucus.
Beyond frugal
“I knew someone who owned one of the most expensive houses in town but was too cheap to run his swimming pool filter except when he was actually swimming. With virtually no filtration, the water would get thick with debris and algae. He would then buy stuff to kill the algae but then he would have water full of dead algae. And the crud would stiff on the pool bottom, making it very hard to clean off. He spent way more on chemicals than he would have spent on electricity. The owner of this cement pond was a retired scientist.”
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