Ripley's Believe It or Not by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for July 24, 2022

The “second stomach” in bees can more precisely be called a “crop”, or a temporary storage organ. Other types of animals have these, including many birds and reptiles.

Dorodango are frequently made from clay, but a lot of them, especially traditionally, are made from feces, proving once and for all that you can polish a you-know-what.

I thought about making these facts/clarifications into two separate comments, but oh well, they’re both digestive in their own ways.

I suspect that the Connect 4 factoid is wrong. It’s probably calculating every possible combination. But in reality, the combinations have to start from the bottom and work up or across.

But it’s too late at night to calculate that right now.

I don’t know about storing nectar, but bees collect pollen on their legs.

I intended to post a different joke, but found this one first.

A drunk was walking down the street and bumped into a cop.

The drunk says to the cop, “Man, somebody stole my car.”

Cop says, “Well, where was it?”

The drunk says, “It was right here on the end of this key.”

Cop replies, “I dunno man, you better go down to the precinct and report it down there and they’ll fill out all the proper paperwork.”

The drunk turns around to leave but the cop stops him and says, “Whoa there, before you head downtown you better zip up your fly.”

The drunk looks down and says, “Aw man, they got my girl too.”

Still looking for my first joke.

It was the days of the Old West when an Indian walks into a cafe with a shotgun in one hand, pulling a male buffalo with the other. He says to the counter guy, “Want coffee.”

“Coming right up,” is the reply, and he gets the Indian a tall mug of coffee. The Indian drinks the coffee down in one gulp, turns and blasts the buffalo with the shotgun, causing parts of the animal to splatter everywhere, tosses down a coin for the coffee, and walks out….

The next morning the Indian returns. He has his shotgun in one hand pulling another male buffalo with the other. He walks up to the counter and says again, “Want coffee.”

This time the guy is ready. “Whoa there, fella!” he says. "We’re still cleaning up your mess from yesterday!What was all that about, anyway?"

The Indian smiles and proudly says, “Training for upper management position.”

Not surprisingly, “Huh?” came the reply.

“Yuh,” he says. “Come in, drink coffee, shoot the bull, leave mess for others to clean up, disappear for rest of day.”

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how modern Management Theory began.

Until next time.

Good. That means honey is bee puke and not bee poopy. Glad of that, I’m sure.

Take care, may giddy mud baller Hirohito “I Am Certain I Have Friends Somewhere Many Walk By Quickly” Nagayamahord be with you, and gesundheit.

The patience and determination of some connect 4 researchers. Wow. Those could be helpful with some life important matters.

Thank God for George Lucas having the sense of wisdom to change the surname!!

IIRC in a Star Wars novel there was a place called “Starkiller Base.” “Hardware Wars” has great names as well. Puke Starpluker, Augie BenDoggie, Arty-Dooty, Ham Salad, etc.

I’m trying to figure out how they got that Connect 4 number. All I can figure is that each space can be one of two colors, so it would be 2×2×2.. etc., or 2 raised to the power of 42. But that only gets 4,398,046,511,104

Actually, earlier than Luke Starkiller, they had a character named "Luke Jaywalker’ – he did not last long though … walked into the traffic one day, and ….

Yes, but how many ways are there to fill a Connect Four board where no one has four in a row?

I heard that a LEGO Store has opened up.

People will be lined up for Blocks.

I also tried 2^42 (two to the 42nd power), as some here did. And I got the same answer: 4,398,046,511,104, that differs slightly from Ripley’s. But that assumes you have 44 pieces — 22 of each color, so the 42nd spot can be filled with either color. If the game comes with 21 pieces of each color (I don’t know if it does or not), you can’t choose the final color — it has to be whichever color is leftover. In that case, the solution would seem to be 2^41, which would be a total of 2,199,023,255,552.

Thinking further on this, it seems that for 2^42, you must have 42 of each color, so that you always have the option to put in either of the two colors. Otherwise, a grid containing all red or all yellow would be impossible. And with only 21 — or even 22 — of each color, you also couldn’t have 1 red and the rest yellow, so that’s 42 possible combinations you couldn’t use (where the red piece goes into any of the 42 spots, with the rest yellow).

I’m not sure I’m figuring this out correctly. I’m not a mathematician, I just like math — and puzzles. I’d love to see the formula that would calculate the possible number of combinations if you did start with 21 pieces of each color.

I wonder what they do with the mud balls when they’re finished?