Monday, April 25, 2005

Ok, here's another one. Catgut? It's that string stuff that we had in tennis rackets which we often found in the back of the gargage. It was on old guitars. But is it made of CAT? YUCK!

The answer is no. If you believe this source.
Catgut or Gut, cord made from the intestines of various animals (especially sheep and horses, but not cats). The membrane is chemically treated, and slender strands are woven together into cords of great strength, which are used for stringing musical instruments such as the violin and the harp.

Friday, April 22, 2005

"Hail the size of grapefruit".

Today a co-worker reminded me of this phrase which I had heard on the radio just this week.

It is such a cliche, but is it true?

Well, a simple web search found this information about hail the size of grapefruit.

This quote explains all:
Smaller hail tends to fall in large batches near the heart of a storm. Larger stones, which are fewer in number, typically get centrifuged toward the edge of a storm. The biggest hailstones are aggregates of smaller stones, which gives them a spiky, irregular shape.
They do exist. You can see these photos.