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How do wombats poop cubes? (2021)

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Re: How do wombats poop cubes? (2021)

#51

Post by jna_sh »

nickdothutton wrote: post #11
comrade1234 wrote: post #3

I climb a lot around the forests where I live in Switzerland. In one area there are a lot of yew trees - deadly to mammals. Just 30 grams of the needles will stop your heart. The bright red berry tastes very nice and isn't poisonous but the seed, if just one seed has a crack in it and you swallow it it will stop your heart in about thirty minutes. German kings have used it to kill themselves after being defeated by R…

They are planted in graveyards in the UK, it prevents grazing animals from entering and soiling up the place. The animals seem to know to keep away. They cant nibble the grass without getting a mouthful of the needles.

I’ve heard a different reason for their presence in graveyards: because yew kills grazing mammals that eat it, it was cut down everywhere that people grazed animals, which excluded graveyards

Re: How do wombats poop cubes? (2021)

#52

Post by vidarh »

seszett wrote: post #49
idiotsecant wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh wow I think we had these on the way to school when I was a kid too. Everyone told us not to eat them so we used to put the berries in our mouth and spit them out to show how tough we were. Wow we were very very stupid kids.

I think one of the problems is people thinking kids are more stupid than they are, and blanket "don't do that" statements without explanations don't really work for kids. If they had told you they were highly poisonous instead of just telling you "not to eat them" you might have taken them more seriously. And if they had given you a taste of the red berry around it (which is sweet but not that special either, and the…

It takes longer than people tend to think before kids learn to infer things well at all, and so being explicit about causal chains tends to make kids more likely to take advice. E.g "put your coat on" might not lead the child to think it is cold, and even a "put your coat on, it's cold outside" might still not lead the child to realise that means they'll freeze without the coat. A lot of tantrums would be avoided if parents were more explicit about why they're giving certain advice.

Re: How do wombats poop cubes? (2021)

#53

Post by [deleted] »

comrade1234 wrote: post #3

I climb a lot around the forests where I live in Switzerland. In one area there are a lot of yew trees - deadly to mammals. Just 30 grams of the needles will stop your heart. The bright red berry tastes very nice and isn't poisonous but the seed, if just one seed has a crack in it and you swallow it it will stop your heart in about thirty minutes. German kings have used it to kill themselves after being defeated by R…

[deleted]

Re: How do wombats poop cubes? (2021)

#54

Post by rob74 »

> Distinctive intestines mold feces into sharp-cornered poop

...written directly above a photo of the subject matter that clearly does not have sharp corners (which is all for the best, I guess, poor wombats!), not even sharp edges, just flattened sides.

Re: How do wombats poop cubes? (2021)

#57

Post by 14113 »

jna_sh wrote: post #51
nickdothutton wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are planted in graveyards in the UK, it prevents grazing animals from entering and soiling up the place. The animals seem to know to keep away. They cant nibble the grass without getting a mouthful of the needles.

I’ve heard a different reason for their presence in graveyards: because yew kills grazing mammals that eat it, it was cut down everywhere that people grazed animals, which excluded graveyards

My understanding is that churches were built next to yew trees, not yew trees planted next to churches.

Pre-Christian religions had many associations with yew trees (they live for a long time, give off mildly hallucinogenic gasses on hot days, discourage animals), and so built their holy sites around them. When Christianity came to Britain, churches were deliberately built on pagan holy sites to overrun the old religions, in the same way that early Christianity took over roman holy days (Saturnalia -> Christmas, Lemuria -> All Saint's Day). This led to churches being built next to sites with copious yew trees.

Re: How do wombats poop cubes? (2021)

#58

Post by mschuster91 »

vidarh wrote: post #52
seszett wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think one of the problems is people thinking kids are more stupid than they are, and blanket "don't do that" statements without explanations don't really work for kids. If they had told you they were highly poisonous instead of just telling you "not to eat them" you might have taken them more seriously. And if they had given you a taste of the red berry around it (which is sweet but not that special either, and the…

It takes longer than people tend to think before kids learn to infer things well at all, and so being explicit about causal chains tends to make kids more likely to take advice. E.g "put your coat on" might not lead the child to think it is cold, and even a "put your coat on, it's cold outside" might still not lead the child to realise that means they'll freeze without the coat. A lot of tantrums would be avoided if…

> A lot of tantrums would be avoided if parents were more explicit about why they're giving certain advice.

For that, parents would need time. But if we have to spend half of our day with work or work-related tasks (commute, lunch break)...

Society (or let's be real, capitalism) forces us to work unhealthy amounts of hours and then wonders why there aren't enough children and of the children that remain, they dumb down every year...

Re: How do wombats poop cubes? (2021)

#59

Post by ErigmolCt »

xattt wrote: post #14
comrade1234 wrote: post #3

I climb a lot around the forests where I live in Switzerland. In one area there are a lot of yew trees - deadly to mammals. Just 30 grams of the needles will stop your heart. The bright red berry tastes very nice and isn't poisonous but the seed, if just one seed has a crack in it and you swallow it it will stop your heart in about thirty minutes. German kings have used it to kill themselves after being defeated by R…

There was a yew bush on my walk to primary school. When berries were in season, I used to pick and squish the berry between my fingers because the shape was unique (berry with a seed that sticks out‽) ands its slimy feel. Thank goodness it never amounted to anything more, even through transdermal absorption.

The amount of childhood survival that comes down to "thankfully I only poked it and didn't eat it" is kind of alarming in retrospect

Re: How do wombats poop cubes? (2021)

#60

Post by thih9 »

lemming wrote: post #12

The always excellent Oatmeal: We need to have a conversation about wombats https://theoatmeal.com/comics/wombats Possibly NSFW, depending on your W.

> The Northern Hairy-nosed wombat is considered one of the rarest mammals in the world -- there are only 80 of them left. If you can, please donate or follow any of these organizations. I personally donated $10,000 to help kick things off.
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