TRIVIA TODAY - October 17, 2014

Greetings Infomaniacs,

Congratulations to "Robert Blank" who won this week's
"Mind Scrambler". Here was the scrambler:

With three eyes and as black as night, I frequently knock
down ten men with a single strike! What am I?

ANSWER: A bowling ball.

Enjoy!
Melissa

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Questions? Comments? Email Melissa


WHO SAID IT?
QUOTE: "Every beginning is a consequence - every beginning ends some thing."

HINT: (1871-1945), French poet, essayist, and philosopher.


RANDOM TIDBITS
The oldest known octopus fossil belongs to an animal that lived some 296 million years ago, during the Carboniferous period.

Octopuses have three hearts. Two of the hearts work exclusively to move blood beyond the animal's gills, while the third keeps circulation flowing for the organs. The organ heart actually stops beating when the octopus swims, explaining the species' penchant for crawling rather than swimming, which exhausts them.

Octopus arms have a mind of their own. Two-thirds of an octopus' neurons reside in its arms, not its head.

Octopus ink doesn't just hide the animal. The ink also physically harms enemies. It contains a compound called tyrosinase, which, in humans, helps to control the production of the natural pigment melanin. But when sprayed in a predator's eyes, tyrosinase causes a blinding irritation. It also garbles creatures' sense of smell and taste.

Octopuses have blue blood. To survive in the deep ocean, octopuses evolved a copper rather than iron-based blood called hemocyanin, which turns its blood blue. This copper base is more efficient at transporting oxygen then hemoglobin when water temperature is very low and not much oxygen is around.

The species practices external fertilization. Multiple males either insert their spermatophores directly into a tubular funnel that the female uses to breathe, or else literally hand her the sperm, which she always accepts with one of her right arm (researchers do not know why). Males die shortly after; when eggs hatch, the females body turns on her.

(www.smithsonianmag.com)


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WHO SAID IT?
QUOTE: "Every beginning is a consequence - every beginning ends some thing."

ANSWER: Paul Valery.

***
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