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Приметы весны: проснулись шмели
About an old maid, Bumblebee and the British Navy
There's an old joke, illustrating that everything is connected to everything - depending on the power of the British fleet on the number of spinsters. Rummaging through the internet, I found the original source:
"Darwin discovered that bumblebees with their long proboscis - the only insects that can pollinate deep tubular flowers of red clover. From this he concluded that the spread of red clover in England is explained by the abundance of bumblebees. In this case, referring to one of the entomological works, he points out that most often found near the nest of bumblebees towns and villages, where they are less than ruining vole feeding on larvae and pupae. Why, in the vicinity of towns and villages little voles? Yes, because there are lots of cats, which greatly reduces the populations of voles. A German scientist continued this argument as follows: if it is proved, he said that cats are responsible for the prevalence in England clover - the main cattle feed and clover ecologically associated with the British Navy, as the beef - the staple food of sailors, it follows that cats belongs to the main merit is that Britain is a great maritime power. The next step did Thomas Huxley, he argued - partly in jest - that because cats in England kept mostly spinsters, the British might be logically - and environmentally - derived from "koshkolyubiya" numerous British old ladies "(P. Farb, 1971 ).