Ripley's Believe It or Not by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for July 30, 2014

So, birdy, was it the butler? (Just saying.) Also, at least Andy Capp didn’t live in the 1800s and sell off Flo to do his gambling.

Hmm. She does the shopping and you sell her to pay off her debts. Ooo-kay…

Why is the surface of the sun (which is only 10k deg.) used as a reference point. Not like anyone can stand there (congress can go burn) the center is much hotter 1 million degrees, there there’s plasma which can reach 90 million easily!

Scientists at Hadran particle collider in Switzerland must be off their nut! I hope we are not somehow paying for their research.

A good reason for getting into debt.

What type of thermometer can take temperatures at 10,000.000,000,000 degrees without melting or burning up?

My understanding is that the EU is bearing most of the cost. I certainly could be wrong. And we should be paying our share. Who knows what wonderful and useful discoveries will come out of this basic research into the structure of matter, energy and time? Of course we could just keep building those Abrams tanks at $8.5 million a copy. Production is way down on those, though. Only about one every 2 days. But then since they are only guarding our desert out west just maybe that is about .5 per day more than we need! The Egyptians won’t take any more—they have more than they can use now. The Army begs congress to just stop making them, but nooooo…..Where we spend our money, says it all about us as a people.

We build military equipment that we don’t need because some some Senator has the pull to put it in an unrelated bill in order to get the cash flow in his state. Then he will say that the deficit is a tragedy.

Regarding the Parrot: Shades of TinTin and the Broken Ear!

1 billionth of a second? Believe it or not. I choose ‘not’.

Some of the comments here seem to indicate that there is some fear that we might discover some ‘truths’ about the universe.Because of the study physics, your are now using a very powerful machine to read, and comment on, this strip.

I believe that they did it but why?

As a scientist, I believe it can and has been done. Practical applications: that may be a while off, but one has to start somewhere. Who could foresee the engineering, technological and medical possibilities that would open up following the theoretical discoveries in physics, genetics, etc? -Look at it this way. A university researches something at a cost to the funding agencies/taxpayers, even though it’s not yet yielding any returns. After it reaches a point where it can be applied for profit the corporations grab it, mass produce something marketable, and they make money. Or, academic research lays the foundation (not profitable), then industry builds on that foundation. Not the most perfect analogy, but I hope it does shed light on the subject.-Every particle has it’s antiparticle: neutrino, antineutrino; hadron, antihadron; boson, boson’s mate and so on.

The parrot first reminded me of Girard, the parrot in Michael Crichton’s book titled, “Next.” Like our African parrots, he would initiate sentences, but he also imitated Jamie Kendall’s voice and Jamie’s kidnappers near the end of the book when Jamie’s mother came looking for him. So Jamie was rescued and Girard went home with the Kendalls, happier with them than he had been with his French owner. Sam, the parrot on Gilligan’s Island, also reacted hysterically when he heard the word, “jewel” or “jewelry,” and led the men to a box of Jewel Crackers.

Auctioning off your wife is a more productive way to get out of debt than hiring an overpriced attorney.