How big is a whale's blowhole?

Search: how big is a whale's blowhole; blowhole size

Why: You guys, guess where I finally went Sunday for the first time ever? I'll give you 3 hints:

 

That's right: Comic-Con!

Answer: Well, what kind of whale we talking here? 

• Blue? According to this documentary about bleu whales, their blowholes are big enough for a toddler to fit inside.
• The humpback whale blowhole is 8-10 inches long.
• The sperm whale blowhole is about 20 inches long. It is also S-shaped.

• I can't find any information about killer whale blowholes, but based on this photo (which must have been taken before this happened), I am going to estimate that it's something like... 4 inches in diameter? I have no idea. You could definitely fit your whole fist in it, if that's what you're wondering.

The blowhole leads to the whale's trachea, which then goes to its lungs, bypassing the mouth. The spray from a humpback whale's blow hole goes 10-13 feet in the air. The spray from a blue whale's blowhole can go up to 30 feet!

It takes a dolphin only a fraction of a second to empty its blowhole. Baby dolphins are too dumb to understand breathing, so they raise their heads out way above the water until they get the hang of it.

Source: Enchanted Learning, Neatorama, National Geographic, this site, Understand Dolphins, Panda's Thumb (which also has part of an interesting essay about the evolution of whale nipples)

The More You Know: The blowhole is covered by a muscular flap that the whale contracts to open. When closed, the seal is water-tight. If water gets in there, the whale could drown.

Also, baleen whales (humpbacks, blue whales, gray whales) each have 2 blowholes! TWO!!

The other kind of whale (Odontoceti - sperm, killer, beluga, dolphin) is called "toothed."

One of the nostrils (air-passages) of toothed whales evolved into their echolocation system (the sensing system in which they make and receive high-pitched sounds in order to orient themselves, catch prey, and communicate), leaving them with only one blowhole.

Put that in your hole and smoke it.

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Are there any pets in the Bible?

Search: pets in the bible

Why: I made this list of the Best Fictional Pets the other day at my place of business, and I was looking at it again just now. I included Argos, the loyal puppy from The Odyssey, and then I thought "O wait! Maybe it's rude to call The Odyssey 'fiction'?" I don't know why I thought that, but then my brain obviously leapt straight to the Bible.

Answer: No! Not named ones, anyway. There are animals about, but they don't seem to be domesticated enough where you could have them live in your house and take naps on your tummy.

Interestingly (? you be the judge), there are exactly 40 references to dogs in "the Bible or citations in Scripture." The fellow who wrote this article believes that means that dogs are messengers of God, though it looks like he had to do quite a bit of finessing to come up with that nice round sacred number. After all, several of the verses are identical, and one time, he counts the verb "to dog," which I don't think translates the same way in Aramaic. (PS: One of the only words I remember from a billion years of Hebrew school is kelev, "dog.")

Also, most of the times they're mentioned, dogs are described as wild ominous beasts who eat people, get treated poorly, and/or are disgusting. For example:

• 1 Kings 14:11
  Dogs will eat those belonging to Jeroboam who die in the city, and the birds of the air will feed on those who die in the country. The LORD has spoken!'

• Psalm 22:16
  Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet.

They're coming.

• Proverbs 26:11
  As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.

• Philippians 3:2
  Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh.

• Revelation 22:15
  Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

Dogs also did some shepherding, hunting, and companioning, and it looks like they were occasionally not dangerous:

• Mark 7:27
  "First let the children eat all they want," he told her, "for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."

•  Luke 16:21
  ...and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

• Proverbs 12:10
  Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.

I don't know. Some of the other animals mentioned in the Bible were ones from the Middle East: cattle, camels, ostriches, locusts, fish, lizards... Not tigers or penguins or Galapagos turtles or velociraptors or anything, but they were all probably just lumped under categories like "birds" and "beasts" and then, obviously, on the Arc.

But anyway: no, there weren't any pets in the Bible. And I'll tell you something else that was for sure never said:

Source: Yahoo! Voices, Wikipedia, All About the Bible, answers2prayer

The More You Know: There are no cats in the Bible as we know it... But have you heard of the Book of Baruch? Most of the text of it has been lost, but it allegedly had a line or two about kitties. Nobody knows what they called them or anything, but I'm sure whatever the name was, it was adorable.

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