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Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Top o' the Minor News

A sampling of today's Minor News headlines:

1) Would-be thieves in small Alaska village steal frozen pizzas, sell them to police

"Police say they received a strong tip when 29-year-old John Koozaata and 21-year-old Lewis Oozeva called the police department and tried to sell the pizzas to on-duty officers."

2) Man driving motorhome leads Alaska State Troopers on a chase

"Eligah Christian of Wasilla was arrested Friday morning, but not before he mashed the bulky vehicle into several patrol cars."

3) They're back! The end of winter also means the arrival of mosquitoes

"[Derik S.] Sikes [curator of insects at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Museum of the North] recently was asked to estimate the weight of all of the mosquitoes in Alaska, and the numbers are surprising. Based on an estimate of the amount of mosquitoes killed by spiders, Sikes said every year Alaska is home to 17 trillion mosquitoes, weighing in at a whopping 96,191,666 pounds."

I have several questions... First of all, while extrapolating from "an estimate of the amount of mosquitoes killed by spiders" sounds reasonable to me, how is the number of mosquitoes killed by spiders any easier to estimate than the number of mosquitoes at all? Also, 96,191,666 pounds? How good is this estimate, such that we get a whopping 8 significant figures?

Oh, well. Here are the girls is a photo of the girls on the couch:

4 comments:

mdr said...

I heard this news from the radio last week:

In Arkansas, this thief microwaved some food to eat, then fell asleep in sofa. The owner came downstairs and called the police. Cops had to wake him up to take him in.

e.davis said...

Stoopid crooks - actually thought they'd get away with it? (sigh)

Whew - that's a lot of mosquito poundage!

Those girls- daahling as always :)

bt said...

I assume it's easier to count the number of mosquitoes in spider webs in a controlled environment and extrapolate from there than to try to count 'em in a controlled environment while they are flying about...

Arvay said...

@BT, hmm... you're probably onto something. :)