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English Yew

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English Yew

English yews rank up there with other ancient trees.

  • English yews are a species of evergreen tree, native to North Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.
  • The scientific name of the English yew is Taxus baccata and it is from the family Taxaceae, the family of yews.
  • ‘English yews’ are also known as ‘European yews’ and ‘common yews’; and they are a type of conifer that have been commonly grown on church properties and in cemeteries.
  • English yew trees can grow to be 10 to 30 metres (33 to 98 feet) in height, while its trunk can be as large as 2 metres (6.6 ft) in diameter or more.
  • It is not uncommon for English yews to be 400 to 600 years old; however they can be much older, with trees in existence estimated to be 2000 years old or more.
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English Yew
Image courtesy of grassrootsgroundwell/Flickr
  • The English yew is used ornamentally in many gardens, often as a clipped hedge or topiary, and it can be grown as a bonsai.
  • English yews are best grown in sunny to partly shady locations; and they have small narrow leaves that are green in colour, that can grow to a length of 3 cm (1.2 inches).
  • The seed of an English yew is brown, with a bright red fleshy fruit surrounding it, and the fruit is roughly 0.8 to 1.5 centimetres (0.3 to 0.6 inches) in diameter.
  • The leaves, bark, seeds, and other parts of English yews, excluding the flesh of the red fruit, is very poisonous and potentially fatal to humans and animals, and they can cause headaches, rashes, breathing issues, joint pain and cardiac arrest, although symptoms may be absent.
  • The wood of English yews is a flexible, hard softwood, that is of a quality suitable for woodworking, including the construction of bows and musical instruments.
Bibliography:
English Yew, n.d, Encyclopaedia Britannica, http://www.britannica.com/plant/English-yew
Taxus baccata, 2016, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxus_baccata
Taxus baccata (Common Yew), n.d, KEW Royal Botanical Gardens, http://www.kew.org/science-conservation/plants-fungi/taxus-baccata-common-yew
Taxus baccata: Englisn Yew, 2015, University of Florida, https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/st624

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Crocs

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Crocs

I assure you, these crocs do not bite.

  • Crocs are a type of shoe that have become popular in contemporary casual footwear, and they were invented in the county of Boulder, in Colorado in the United States.
  • Crocs have a shape similar to a clog, and they have holes at the top and the side that allow for airflow; movement of foreign objects or water out of the shoes; and decoration of the shoes.
  • Crocs are made of a special type of foam resin known as ‘Croslite’ or ‘Levirex’, which is an ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) material, and it is soft and light-weight, generally making them comfortable to wear.
  • Lyndon Hanson, Scott Seamans, and George Boedecker invented Crocs and co-founded the company, and the idea is said to have come about on a sailing excursion.
  • The design of Crocs was intended as a lightweight, waterproof shoe with good grip for boaters, and as such were first distributed in 2002 at a boat show.

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  • Crocs were patented in 2006, by the company of the same name, which has since manufactured a variety of lightweight shoes.
  • The colours used for Crocs are often bright, and they now come in a wide variety of colours and styles, while some versions feature no holes.
  • Crocs have been particularly popular in casual fashion, however, they are often labelled as an ‘ugly’ shoe, and they commonly used for outdoor activities like gardening or walking on the beach.
  • As of 2016, at least 100 million pairs of Crocs had been sold, though many cheap imitations of the shoes have also been purchased since they were first released for sale.
  • Crocs are able to be decorated and customised with charms made by Jibbitz, a company now owned by the shoe company, by placing the charms in the holes situated on the top of the shoe.
Bibliography:
About Crocs, 2016, Crocs, Inc, http://www.crocsaustralia.com.au/about_crocs/about-crocs,en_AU,pg.html
Bhasin K & Townsend M, A Chip Off the Old Croc: The Ugly Shoe Is Back, 2015, Bloomberg, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-01/a-chip-off-the-old-croc-the-ugly-shoe-is-back
Croc is 10!, 2012, Crocs, Inc, http://company.crocs.com/tag/crocs-history/
Crocs, 2016, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crocs
E-shots Web-exclusive: Patent check: What’s in a Croc?, 2007, Plastics Today, http://www.plasticstoday.com/e-shots-web-exclusive-patent-check-what%E2%80%99s-croc/8109936223408

 

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Whale Shark

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Whale Shark

Whale sharks have a whale of a time in the ocean.

  • Whale sharks are large fish found in the warm central oceans of the Earth, and they can be found in coastal areas as well as deeper waters.
  • The scientific name of the whale shark is Rhincodon typus and it is the only member of the family Rhincodontidae.
  • ‘Whale sharks’ are also known as ‘butanding’, ‘balilan’, and ‘tofu sharks’ in various Asian cultures, and in Spanish they are called ‘tiburón ballena’.
  • Whale sharks generally reach a length between 5.5 and 14 metres (18 to 46 feet), though they can be up to 20 metres (65.6 feet) in length, and are the largest fish alive today.
  • Whale sharks are brown to dark grey in colour, with light grey on the underside, and they are patterned with spots and stripes.
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Whale Shark
Image courtesy of wpylnn/Flickr
  • The weight of whale sharks generally ranges from roughly 9 to 20 tonnes (9.9 to 22 tons), and they can be as heavy as 31 tonnes (34 tons).
  • The diet of whale sharks consists of plankton, small fish and small squid gathered by the filter feeding technique, and their food filtering system can capture anything as fine as one millimetre (0.04 inches).
  • Numbers of whale sharks have been decreasing, primarily due to humans hunting them for meat, oil and other products; and as such, they are considered a vulnerable species.
  • Whale sharks can reach 50 to 100 years in age and possibly more, and they grow notably quickly in their early life.
  • A female whale shark gives birth to live offspring, though they hatch from eggs inside her body, and she can produce 300 young that are 40 to 70 centimetres (15.7 to 27.6 inches) long when they are released.
Bibliography:
Calleros P & Vazquez J, Rhincodon typus, 2012, Animal Diversity Web, http://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Rhincodon_typus/
Whale Shark, 2011, Government of Western Australia, http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/Documents/recreational_fishing/fact_sheets/fact_sheet_whale_shark.pdf
Whale Shark, 2016, A-Z Animals, http://a-z-animals.com/animals/whale-shark/
Whale Shark, 2016, National Geographic, http://animals.nationalgeographic.com.au/animals/fish/whale-shark/
Whale Shark, 2016, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_shark

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Sørvágsvatn

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Sørvágsvatn

Sørvágsvatn is a place right out of the fantasy books.

  • Sørvágsvatn is a lake found on the island of Vágar, the third largest island of the Faroe Islands; and the group of islands is a country belonging to Denmark in Europe, that is located on the edge of the North Atlantic Sea between the United Kingdom, Iceland and Norway.
  • ‘Sørvágsvatn’ is also known as ‘Leitisvatn’, and these names have the meaning ‘the lake by Sørvágur’ and ‘the lake by Leiti’ respectively, although many just call it ‘Vatnið’, meaning ‘the lake’.
  • Sørvágsvatn covers an area of roughly 3.4 square kilometres (1.3 square miles) and is the largest lake of the country.
  • Whilst being significantly close to the ocean, Sørvágsvatn is located 30 to 40 metres (98 to 131 feet) above sea level, not far from the edge of a cliff.
  • The locals of the Sørvágsvatn area have not come to an agreement on the lake’s official name, with one community preferring one name (as the name is derived from their village) and the other communities preferring the other name.

Illusion, Sorvagasvatn, Trivia, Ten Random Facts, Lake, Water, Place, Islands, Atlantic, Illusion

The Sørvágsvatn Illusion
Image courtesy of Tommy Wooh/Flickr
  • At a certain angle, a photographic illusion can be made to cause Sørvágsvatn to appear hundreds of metres above sea level, in part due to the elevated landscape surrounding the lake and its close proximity to the ocean.
  • Sørvágsvatn spreads a distance of 6 kilometres (3.7 miles) in length, and it feeds into the ocean via a waterfall known as Bøsdalafossur, that falls 30 to 35 metres (98 to 115 feet) over the end of a cliff.
  • There is a walking track along the edge of a section of Sørvágsvatn, where the waterfall can be reached, and there are some good vantage points of the surrounding areas, and birds can often be spotted in the area.
  • The British army used Sørvágsvatn as a base for seaplanes throughout World War II, and built an airport adjacent to the lake, which is still used today for civilian purposes.
  • A road follows the edge of a significant portion of Sørvágsvatn; and a boat tour can be taken across the lake, and the tour also includes a walk to the waterfall.
Bibliography:
Excursions in Vagar, 2015, Faroe Islands Tourist Guide, https://www.faroeislands.com/excursions/v%C3%A1gar/
Hiking in the Faroe Islands, 2014, The Faroe Islands, http://www.visitfaroeislands.com/media/276297/VFI_Hiking_UK_HQcompressed.pdf
Lake Sørvágsvatn in Faroe Islands, 2012, Amusing Planet, http://www.amusingplanet.com/2012/04/lake-srvagsvatn-in-faroe-islands.html
Lake Sørvágsvat, 2016, Atlas Obscura, http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/lake-sorvagsvatn
Sørvágsvatn, 2016, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%B8rv%C3%A1gsvatn
Strutner S, An Optical Illusion Makes Lake Sørvágsvatn Look Absolutely Trippy, 2015, The Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/story_n_7306018.html?section=australia

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Cape Gooseberry

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Cape Gooseberry

The Cape gooseberry is not a gooseberry, nor is it from the Cape district in South Africa!

  • A Cape gooseberry is a species of tomato-like fruit, that originated in South American countries including Brazil, Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Columbia.
  • ‘Cape gooseberries’ are also known as ‘Physalis’, ‘giant groundcherries’, ‘golden berries’, ‘Aztec berries’, ‘African ground cherries’, ‘Peruvian groundcherries’, ‘husk cherries’, ‘Inca berries’, ‘Peruvian tomatoes’, ‘Peruvian cherries’, ‘poha berries’, and many other names.
  • The plant that the cape gooseberry grows on has the scientific name Physalis peruviana, from the family Solanaceae, the family of nightshades; and it is similar to other edible fruits that grow in a similar form in the Physalis genus, like the tomatillo, husk tomato and other groundcherries.
  • The Cape gooseberry fruit is contained inside a dry, leaf-like receptacle known as a ‘husk’, that is something comparable to a lantern in shape.
  • Cape gooseberries typically have smooth, glossy skin that is orange or yellow when ripe, with juicy flesh the same colour; and they are green when unripe.
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Cape Gooseberry
Image courtesy of Pen Waggener/Flickr
  • The Cape gooseberry can be eaten fresh, dried or cooked, often in Mexican cuisine; made into jams, pies or other desserts; and added to salads.
  • Cape gooseberries have a sweet to tangy taste with a fruity flavour, and a sweetness that is greater than tomatoes; though they should not be eaten when unripe, as they tend to be poisonous.
  • The shape of a Cape gooseberry is spherical, and the fruit generally ranges from 1 to 3 centimetres (0.4 to 1.2 inches) in diameter, and the pulp contains many small edible seeds.
  • Cape gooseberries are a good source of vitamin C, vitamin A and niacin, and they contain a number of other vitamins and minerals.
  • Cape gooseberries generally fall to the ground before they are ripe, and they can be stored for many months in their husk.
Bibliography:
Cape Gooseberry, 1997, California Rare Fruit Growers, https://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/cape-gooseberry.html
McLeod C, Cape Gooseberry – Physalis, 2014, Garden Drum, http://gardendrum.com/2014/05/29/cape-gooseberry-physalis/
Physalis, 2016, University of Minnesota Extension, http://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/yard-garden/vegetables/physalis/
Physalis peruviana, 2016, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physalis_peruviana

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Bottled Water

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Bottled Water

The irony of it is that despite water being a free resource, bottled water is popularly purchased.

  • Bottled water is water that has been packaged in a bottle for commercial retail purposes or distribution; and it was originally contained in glass, although today, plastic bottles are more commonly used.
  • Bottled water is generally purposed for drinking, although it can be used for other purposes, especially when tap or pumped water is not available.
  • The water found in bottled water can be mineral, spring, distilled, sparkling, ground or well water, and it can be sold carbonated.
  • Although water has been stored in containers for the purpose of transportation throughout history, it wasn’t until 1767, in Boston, when bottled water was first released for sale, in the United States.
  • Despite being a ‘free’ resource, bottled water became a popular choice, especially as the first packaged water was mineral spring water, a rarer form that was considered to have health benefits.

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  • Bottled water became increasingly sought after in the 1800s, due to people fearing the potential harmful affects of unsafe drinking water, however when water chlorination became widespread in the 1900s, sales decreased in countries such as America, though Europe’s interest grew significantly, becoming increasingly widespread both in retail outlets and restaurants.
  • Despite the fact that most bottled water does not become unsafe as long as it remains sealed, many still have use-by dates printed on the bottles, which are the manufacturer’s suggested deadline before the water content may become distasteful or ‘unfresh’.
  • Popularity of bottled water grew significantly at the end of the 20th century and into the 21st, and in 2008, roughly 30 billion bottles of water were sold in the United States.
  • The taste of bottled water is not necessarily any better than tap water, nor cleaner, nor healthier, especially in developed countries with reliable water treatment facilities.
  • Bottled water is often considered overpriced, being more expensive than milk and petrol in many places, especially since water is available via tap for very little cost; and while the discarded bottles are considered a significant environmental hazard, it can take from two to seven times more water to produce the end product.
Bibliography:
Bottled Water, 2015, Clean Up, http://www.cleanup.org.au/files/clean_up_australia_bottled_water_factsheet.pdf
Bottled Water, 2016, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottled_water
Bottled Water, n.d, Cool Australia, http://www.coolaustralia.org/bottled-water-secondary/

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