Mammal Monday: It's a biggie

Today we feature the world's largest mammal the Blue Whale, Balaenoptera musculus

(Image: bbc.co.uk)

(for the whole gallery -it's fab - go to the National Geographic website)

 FACTS

• The largest mammal living today.The heart is about the size of a Volkswagon bug car. A human could crawl through the aorta. How awesome is that?
• Also the largest mammal to have ever lived....bigger than even the largest Dinosaur.
• The longest ever measured was a female, 33.58 m or 110ft long.
• The heaviest weighed over 190 tonnes - weights are estimated from the cut up remains (lovely).An average-sized blue whale will eat 900-4100 kg of plankton each day during the summer feeding season.
• Also the loudest animal on Earth - their call reaches levels up to 188 decibels. This low-frequency whistle can be heard for hundreds of miles. The blue whale is louder than a jet, which reaches only 140 decibels.
• Also endangered, of course.

(Image above and info from: enchantedlearning.com &earthlife.net )

Fun Fact Friday: Rhino Horn

Given that rhinos are the animals we're raising charity funds for I decided I should learn more about them and discovered that:

"Rhino horn is not a true horn, it is made of thickly matted hair that grows from the skull without skeletal support" (see link below).

Am I the only person that didn't know that? And how interesting (and awesome is that).

I also read that the only predator of rhinos are humans. Isn't that depressing.

Sorry it's not a more cheerful Fun Fact Friday.

More on rhinos here.

Top Ten Tuesday - I was born in the 80s

As the oldest member of Penny Puts Foot (and therefore the wisest) I think it only fair to honour the Top Ten songs in the year of my birth. 1984 was awesome.....

1. "When Doves Cry".....Prince

2. "What's Love Got To Do With It".....Tina Turner

3. "Jump".....Van Halen

4. "Karma Chameleon".....Culture Club

5. "Like A Virgin".....Madonna

6."Hello".....Lionel Richie

7. "Owner Of A Lonely Heart".....Yes

8. "Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)".....Phil Collins

9. "Footloose".....Kenny Loggins

10. "Ghostbusters".....Ray Parker, Jr.

For a full list - click here.

You know we're going to be listening to these ALOT in the Conquest.

Hooray!

Mammal Monday - Their tongues are blue

By far my favourite of the African mammals, giraffes are just so great with their long legs, crazy eye lashes and graceful giantness. They also have strangely blue tongues which is pretty cool. So today's Mammal Monday honours the lovely giraffe because they're epic.

 Photo from here - and there are so many other cool ones.

Fursday Thursday - Tyre versus Fur

Cool Material  which apparently finds cool trends "for men"....only men I ask, I think not...but let's not be otherwise because this is pretty damn cool and has given me all sorts of ideas for how we might cover Constance the Conquest. I admit post it notes are not going to last the 17 days but tyres - totally epic!

 Reasons to have a tyre covered car...
a) Protection - surely if covered in tyres we'd bounce if in an accident
b) Camouflage - we'd totally look like a rhino - maybe we can catch ourselves some poachers although we don't really want to do that. We could potentially run some over?
c) Warmth - that's insulation of the best sort
d) Bad-ass - it just would be.

A camera covered car would be cool too, but only if the cameras could continue to be functioning - that would be 360 degree imaging if I ever saw it!

To see all the cars click here.  Any suggestions on our car?

Top Ten Tuesday - Things We Can't Survive Without

With the minidiots planning to fit everything they need for 17 days into a mini I think the pitstoppers can definitely manage in their Toyota Conquest, with space to spare, well maybe not space to spare but we can cross roof rack off the list of things to buy perhaps...

All this being said I've spent alot of time thinking about what I can't live without on the trip and what the first ten things I'm going to put in my suitcase are and I've narrowed it down to:

1) Headlamp - yes I'm vaguely frightened of the dark and if I'm going to get eaten by a lion in any late-night tent to bathroom rambles I want to at least see it happen to me. Perhaps I also need a little camera attached to the light for when they want real-life footage in my bio-pic.
2) A Kindle - apparently they have 6-8 weeks battery life and I can't survive 8 hours a day in a car without something to read. There will be another blog post (or 10) about what on earth is suitable reading material but that is definitely for another day.
3) Insect repellant - it may be winter, we may be hardy but I can't help it if my blood is sweet and I certainly don't intend to spend 2 weeks scratching at myself. My recent brush with bed bugs has once more brought the reality of insects and their bites to my coddled first world existance.
4)  Sunscreen - I don't deny I long to be nut brown but Lyn's nose peeling (not her fault, the fault of ten hours at the border - yet more content for another posting) has reminded me the perils of sunning one's self. There is of course the great fear of old-before-my-time skin (and there is no space for anti-ageing cream on this trip) and skin cancer. 'Nough said.
5) Passport - fairly obvious but important
6) Cold Hard Cash - I don't think any officials that might need a bit of palm greasing will carry a card swipe machine.
7) Address book with contact numbers written down in pen, on paper. I read recently that you know you're old when you carry a filofax (good thing I don't then) but we best have contact numbers somewhere accessible for the hugely unlikely (but then almost definitely going to happen) situation when not one of our phones is accessible (lost, stolen, not charged) and we really really need to call mum and there's somehow a payphone to hand, or perhaps a kindly stranger with a phone.
8) Headache pills - self explanatory
9) Wheel jack. We may not know anything about cars but we can change a tyre so we should at least be prepared to do that.
10) Duct tape and Swiss Army knife - homage to McGyver - he's gotten out of worse situations than we'll find ourselves in using these two items. Surely we can too, after all we're a scientist, a writer and an organising fundi. There isn't a lot we can't do!

Mammal Monday: Little Big Cats

Can I have one please...pretty pretty please...

To see all the little kitties go to the National Geographic website.

The year of living dangerously!

For our first Fursday of the year we’ve found something a little different from your run-of-the-mill, garden variety animal print. Nothing says badass like “I-just-killed-this-python-with-my-bare-hands-and-used-the-skin-to-cover-my-hatchback”. Here’s to 2012 – the year of living dangerously!

Pics found here

Top Ten: Wilderness Whizzing

Back from a mini-adventure to Zimbabwe which involved many hours in a car I thought it was important to make a Top Ten 10 comment on the extremely important issue of urinating in the wild.

1) Avoid as much as is humanly possible while remembering that holding it in can lead to bladder infection.
2) Hold out till the last possible moment, even the most nervous bladder can't beat the call of nature after 6 hours, 4 cups of coffee, 5 bottles of water and 3 cokes.
3) Best to avoid drinking that much in so short a time in your normal life but particularly on long car journeys.
4) Take loo paper with you, it's bio degradable and I'm just not sure I know enough about plant life to be sure I wouldn't pick something poisonous and that would not be pleasant, to say the least. We have enough to worry about without finding a camp doctor to identify and treat stinging nettle rash on the no-no place. Is there even stinging nettle in Southern Africa....? You see what I mean about plant life knowledge.  
5) Spread your feet as wide as possible.
6) When choosing a spot make sure that you're well out of eye-shot.
7) And that you've surveyed the area thoroughly - I'd say that snake/spider bite in the no-no place is worse than stinging nettle.
8) Chose a spot with something sturdy to balance against - there isn't enough toilet paper in the world to hide your shame if you inadvertantly tumble into your own puddle. You aren't the first, and won't be the last.
9) Trajectory is key - this will depend entirely on your height, the suppleness of your knees and the sturdiness of the object you have found to lean against.
10) Buy a SheeWee - peeing standing up is no longer only a man's game. Thank heavens for bits of plastic that mirror the male anatomical form...

A New Beginning

Happy 2012 Everybody.

Hope everyone had a cracking New Year and is ready for this year to kick ass.

So now is the time where everyone puts together their list of new year's resolutions. You know, the usual lose weight, get fit, quit smoking, stop lurking all over your numero uno crushes facebook page.

Ha, well good luck to you.

There's nothing usual about the Penny Pitstoppers so here is our list for 2012:

1. Raise lots of money
2. Learn to change a car tyre
3. Be More Awesome

Although to be fair we're not even sure if the third one would be humanly possible.

Keep it real kiddos

(pics sourced from here)