National Pug Day (part 2)

Last year on National Pug Day I featured a few photos of my parents' mischievous pugs, Bella and Phoebe. It was a very popular post, so there must be lots of pug lovers out there (just like me), so as today is National Pug Day here are a few more photos of Bella and Phoebe, featuring ice cream, general mischief and snuggly pugs!

1) The happiest day of Bella's life!

This was one of the happiest day of Bella's life. The day she discovered the fridge!

"Wow! Look at all the goodies in here!"

Higher or lower quiz

This week the Charles Fudgemuffin blog features a higher or lower quiz covering a variety of random topics, such as germs, volcanic lava and Lego. For each question see if you can guess which of the two choices is the highest, but bear in mind that some of the answers perhaps aren't always what you would expect...

1) Bacteria at work

One of the most germ-free places in the house, apparently.

If you were to examine a square inch on a typical toilet seat and compare it with a square inch on a typical work desk, which would have the most germs?

A) Toilet seat
B) Work desk

Answer:
Surprisingly, a toilet seat is vastly more hygienic than a workdesk. A square inch would typically contain a mere 50 microbes on a toilet seat, compared with a massive 10 million microbes on a workdesk!

According to Dr Gerba, "It's (toilet seat) one of the cleanest things you'll run across in terms of micro-organisms. It's our gold standard. There are not many things cleaner than a toilet seat when it comes to germs."

That may be true, but I still wouldn't fancy doing my work on a toilet seat!

Answer:
A) Toilet seat - 50 microbes
B) Work desk - 10 million microbes - Most germs

Disclaimer: Despite the low germ count, Charles Fudgemuffin does not recommend eating your dinner off your toilet seat!

The World According To The Man In The Pub 2

Can a gecko support its entire body weight with only one toe?

I'm a fan of weird trivia and I also like 'true or false' quizzes, so a book which instantly appealed to me was 'The World According To The Man In The Pub 2' by Robert Anwood.

It's full of dubious 'pub facts', i.e. interesting claims which are often reported by pub patrons as facts. In some cases the claims are indeed true, but in other cases the claims are as ridiculous as they sound.

The pub facts are grouped together into various categories, such as science, sports and showbiz, and to give you an idea of what to expect, here's a brief sample of the type of facts and misfacts found in the book. See if you can guess which of the following pub facts are true, and which are fictitious...

1) A gecko's skin is so sticky that it can support its entire body weight clinging upside down to the ceiling by only one toe.
True or false?

A brilliant offer on the High Street!

...but always read the small print.

Magazines are excluded from the offer.

The other day I received a discount voucher for a special offer on the high street which was so good I just had to share it with other shoppers. The offer is available at WHSmith and the voucher gives you a generous 20% off every time you shop throughout the store. They even underlined the words 'every time' on the voucher to highlight just how great the offer is.

However, before you get too excited, I should probably mention that as with many offers, there are one or two exclusions mentioned in the small print, namely:

"Excludes Newspapers, Magazines & Bookazines and all Post Office products."

Oh, well. That's not too bad, I suppose. There are still plenty of other products you can buy to get the 20% discount.

Or are there? When you read further into the small print you also discover a few more exclusions, namely:

Random thoughts (part 2)

An invisible piano player.

This week the Charles Fudgemuffin once again features a collection of random thoughts which have nothing in common with each other, other than their unconnected randomness. To start things off, here's a random thought on undead pianists...

1) The musical undead

If you photoshopped pianos out of photos, all pianists would look like they were doing a zombie impression.

2) The force of magnetism

When I first discovered that 'the force' could move objects in Star Wars it was an awe-inspiring jaw-droppingly impressive 'Wow!' moment, even though it's not real. And yet as a child, when I first witnessed real life magnetism pulling metal through the air towards a magnet I just accepted it without question.

"Oops, I've made another terrible error!"

Previously on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog I've taken a look at high profile mistakes made in the world of movies, books, music and sport. Here are a few more examples of notable mistakes throughout history, this time from the world of science and technology, starting with an example which highlights the importance of being ambitious and dreaming big...

Tonight's official party attendance: 5
Figures courtesy of Thomas J. Watson.

1) Dream Big

Back in 1943 Thomas J. Watson, the former chairman of IBM, thought he was being extremely ambitious when he revealed he had big expansion plans for his computer company.  He famously predicted...

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."

As it turned out, Thomas was slightly out with his prediction.  In fact as of today there are estimated to be more than two billion computers in use in the world! Given his inaccuracy with figures, I wonder if Thomas would like to lend me a fiver?

It just goes to show how reality can sometimes massively exceed expectations, so if you're going to dream, then you might as well dream big.

10 nerd jokes (part 4)

Three sheep.
Or if you round up to the nearest hundred, one hundred sheep.

Before I get to this week's round-up of nerd jokes, I'll start things off with an impossible promise from Bill Clinton which I think he might struggle to achieve...

1) "Every American should have above average income, and my administration is going to see they get it."
...Bill Clinton


2) I wanted to marry my English teacher when she got out of prison, but unfortunately you can't end a sentence with a proposition.


3) After working in the farmer's field one day, a sheepdog reported back to the farmer...

Sheepdog: "That's me finished for the day. All 100 sheep are in the sheep pen."
Farmer: "100 sheep? But I only have 98 sheep."
Sheepdog: "Yeah, but I rounded them up."