Random thoughts (Nature edition)

From time to time, I like to post random thoughts on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog and this week is no different. Well, there is one slight difference. This week's random thoughts are all on the theme of nature...

Unfortunately I haven't got a photo of a real turtle, but I think you'll agree,
this fake turtle made from stones makes an impressive improvised version.
(If you squint your eyes, and just glance quickly.)

1) The early bird catches the worm, but surely sometimes the lazy bird must catch the lazy worm.



2) If a turtle doesn't have a shell, is it naked or homeless?



3) There are no baby butterflies.

True or false: 10 weird facts about nature

My cousin is a big fan of wildlife and nature, so he'll often relate unusual facts about nature which even a non-nature dude like myself find interesting. So as it's World Wildlife Day in a few day's time, I thought this would be an appropriate time to round up a collection of interesting facts on the theme of nature.

Editor's note: "Charles, that's a duck, not a swift!"
Charles: "Yes, I know, but it was the closest I could find,
so it'll have to do."

However, as I often like to do, I've decided to turn things into a true or false quiz by also including a few made-up bluffs! Take a look at the following 'facts' and see if you can guess which of the following facts are totally true, and which are complete bluffs!

1) Fly me to the Moon

During the course of their lifetime, a swift will typically fly around 4.5 million kilometres, which is roughly equivalent to flying to the Moon and back six times!

To clarify things for the benefit of stupid people, swifts don't actually fly to the Moon - that would be ridiculous - but they cover the same distance as flying to the Moon and back six times.

True or false?

Nature vs technology: A 'higher or lower' quiz

This week technology takes on nature in a series of head-to-head battles, as I pit nature against technology in a 'higher or lower' comparison. Round one is a battle of temperatures.

In the red corner...  The sun's core.
And in the blue corner...  The Large Hadron Collider.

Round 1) Temperature

The Large Hadron Collider, pictured yesterday,

One of the earliest scentific facts I remember being aware of is that the Sun is extremely hot indeed. I remember in a child-like way thinking, 'You definitely wouldn't want to touch it!'

However, another scientific fact I learnt a bit later on is that sub-atomic shenanigans can also produce extremely high temperatures. Scientists are always firing atoms and stuff at each other inside the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), so how does the Sun's temperature compare with some of the experiments at the LHC?

Which is the hottest? The Sun's core, or the hottest temperature recorded at the LHC?

a) The Sun's core
b) Hottest temperature recorded at the Large Hadron Collider