Even Fish are going crazy
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ST. LOUIS (Aug. 28) - Crazy carp have invaded Missouri's rivers.
Two species of nonnative carp have been jumping into boats, injuring
occupants and damaging the watercraft.
A state fisheries biologist motoring near Columbia had a filling
knocked out of his tooth by a high-flying fish that struck him on the
side of the head. Another state biologist in the St. Charles area was
seriously hurt when he was hit by a giant carp.
Brian Todd of the Missouri Department of Conservation said the
big head carp and silver carp were brought to private fish hatcheries
from Asia by the aquaculture industry. They were intended to eat
excess algae and waste in aquaculture ponds - which grow fish
for food as well as bait and tropical fish. But they escaped in
floodwaters in 1993, 1995 and 2002.
``This could be an indefinite problem,'' Todd said. ``They are
safe to eat, but ecologically they could damage the mussel
population and are competing with native fish for food. We are
going to hear more and more over the next few years about the
problems these fish are causing, especially injuries to boaters
and anglers.'' Todd said the carp have been spotted in many
of Missouri's rivers, including throughout the Missouri River.
``The sound of a propeller under water makes these fish go
crazy,'' Todd said. ``The fish don't jump if you're sitting there
without the motor on, but the higher the RPMs, the greater
the noise, the higher these fish jump.''
08/28/03 11:39 EDT
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press.
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More useless trivia:
Wild plants that are edible: (this is about the only non-useless info on
here...)
Burdock (very bitter)
Dogwood berries, but not the plant (the berries taste like burdock)
The inside bark of a cottonwood tree
The white inside part of a cattail (tastes good! Sort of like a really mild
cucumber.)
Watercress (sold as a delicacy in restaurants, but I don't like it much, it
tastes like a really spicy radish)
Poplar bark
Anise (Very good, if you like black licorice!)
Dandelions. The leaves make a great salad, and the roots can be roasted and
ground into something kind of like coffee.
Any kind of mint, which is recognizable from the smell
Wild rose hips, but not the plant (the hips are high in Vitamin C and are an
ingredient in many teas.)
Thistle (Scrape the thorns off, duh! Eat the leaf or the inside of the
blossom.)
Quaking aspen leaves, but they aren't exactly for eating. Make a tea of them
to kill minor headaches because they contain salicylic (sic?) acid, the active
ingredient of aspirin.
Some berries, including strawberries, raspberries, chokecherries (too much
pit to be worth it), currants (TART!), serviceberries, gooseberries (green and
stripy and TART!), purple elderberries (red ones are poisonous), etc. Don't eat
sumac berries, they are poisonous!
Prickly pear. If you scrape off the skin and boil the inside, it tastes good!
Clover. Not sure how that tastes.
Wild plants that are poisonous! (some more non-useless, a disgrace to the
site)
Nightshade, recognizable by its purple and yellow flower
Dogwood
Houndstounge
The wild rose plant, not the hips
Most mushrooms. Don't eat any unless you know what you are doing.
RED elderberries. Purple ones are okay.
A whole lot of other things. If you don't know what it is, don't eat it.
Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet away from
a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.
The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as substitute for blood plasma.
No piece of paper can be folded in half consecutively more than 7 times
(doubling factor... you end up folding 27 == 128 sheets of paper).
1 in every 4 Americans has appeared on television. (I have!)
You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television.
Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty years of age or older.
The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum.
The king of hearts on playing cards is the only king without a moustache.
A Boeing 747's wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight.
Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.
Apples are more efficient than caffeine in waking you up in the morning. (Go
figure.)
The little plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets. (Why do
you name them?)
Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin.
The first owner of the Marlboro Company died of lung cancer. (Hmm, wonder
why.)
Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.
Betsy Ross, Jackie Onassis, JFK, and Daniel Boone have all appeared on Pez
dispensers.
Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike
factory workers in Malaysia combined.
Adolf Hitler's mother seriously considered having an abortion but was talked
out of it by her doctor.
Walt Disney was afraid of mice<A HREF="http://www.anti-leech.com/spam/spambot_stopper.php">.</A>
The sound of E.T. walking was made by someone squishing their hands in jelly.
Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.
There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar. (I'm not sure if that counts
50 cent pieces or not.)
The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.
There are more chickens than people in the world.
Two-thirds of the world's eggplant is grown in New Jersey.
The longest one-syllable word in the English language is "screeched."
All of the clocks in the movie "Pulp Fiction" are stuck on 4:20.
"Dreamt" and "undreamt" are the only English words that end in the letters
"mt."
47.2% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
26 (easily visible, there may be more) states are listed across the top of
the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the old US $5 bill.
The almond is a member of the peach family.
Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.
Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.
Los Angeles' full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los
Angeles de Porciuncula."
A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
-DLReagan+