October 16 — Meaningful gifts, German train cleaning, mantis sexual cannabilism, and a raccoon invasion

A video I watched with my boy

How German trains are kept clean. It’s an old video but it illustrates one reason why European public transit is far more popular than its American equivalent. Sorry, it’s in German and no translation available. Maybe you can just mute it and listen to some Jerry Garcia.

Gifts give meaning

A cheap trinket means little by itself. But if it’s given as a gift in the right situation, it gives meaning to the trinket far beyond its intrinsic value. The significance bestowed upon the trinket comes from the bond created between the giver and the receiver in the situation.

Do you have a relic, or trinket or heirloom that you hold dear? Maybe it’s totally silly but it means something to you because of an experience you shared with someone?

Female mantises eat males BEFORE breeding

I had heard that female mantises eat the male after sex. Honestly, I never gave it a ton of thought before I recently saw a nature special that showed a decapitated male mantis
complete the breeding process. It’s true: a
female can eat a male mantis and still get sex. With the body. It’s pretty wild. You can
read more info here, too.

Bonus: Imagine your property overtaken by raccoons

A woman in Washington state was afraid to enter her home after raccoons had swarmed her property. She shared that she has been feeding raccoons since the 1980’s. You can’t make this stuff up.
Here’s a video from the local news.

I actually had a nightmare as a young boy, about giant raccoons. Still remember it, clear as day.


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