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an article that is both profoundly trivial and superficially deep.
Published on January 19, 2005 By Toblerone In Misc
Toblerone here, still keepin' it surreal for the unwashed masses. Today I bring you a random article to fill in your long dreary days until the next Understanding the Universe article.

It isn't unusual for me to become fixated on a random topic for one or two weeks. For example once several years ago I decided to find out everything I could on Scandinavian Lemmings. Did you know that Lemmings don't really commit suicide? The myth stems from the fact that Lemmings experience a population boom at a certain time of the year. They breed extremely fast and become sexual mature after only two weeks. Anyway due to this some Lemmings are crowded out and forced to live in valleys that get flooded. This forces them to migrate to higher ground.

The problem with Lemmings is that they aren't too smart (from a human perspective). They pick a high point in the distance and go DIRECTLY for it. I mean they won't go around anything. If they come across a boat for example, they won't swim around it, they'll go over it! On rare occasions their direct path will lead them over the side of a cliff. This is where the Lemming mass sucide myth comes from.

I bring up this useless fact because I am currently on a new topic. This time I am researching my family tree. So far I've found four distance relations on the internet; two sixth cousins, a sixth cousin 3 times removed and a fouth cousins several times removed.
It really brings home the fact that everyone is related somehow if we go back far enough. It's a shame we sometimes treat our own family like shit.

Until next time, spare a thought for the humble Lemming...and move your damn boat.

Comments
on Jan 20, 2005
Actually what caused this wide spread belief was a Disney documentary. Disney brought in several hundred lemmings to film falling off of a turntable thing. Afterwards they brought them to a cliff and made the little guys run off so that they could film them dying and bobbing like little fuzzy buoys. Just a little bit of evil that Disney is capable of. If you want to find out more about the evils of Disney check out this site Link Click on the Disney link there and behold the evil!

~Zoo

on Jan 20, 2005
I think you'll find that the myth has been around longer than disney has. They may well have popularised the myth though, thanks for that piece of info.
on Jan 20, 2005
You're welcome...always here to help

~Zoo
on Jan 22, 2005
Thanks - now I have rock the casbah in my head!!!

Did you ever play lemmings? It was SO addictive - I really hated how to save the majority you had to blow a few up (or turn them into blocks)

I really wouldn't know where to start on my family tree, do I start with my dads name, mums maiden name, grandmas maiden name, nana's maiden name, nana's mothers maiden name?? Do I go over to Nicks side and yeah - where to begin.

I'm pretty sure I can relate myself to QLD cricketer Stuart (stewart) Law though - Somehow -- You know I may be able to relate myself to Jude Law if I went back further enough... Food for thought.

Great blogs so far!!
on Jan 22, 2005
Thanks Trina, I thrive on complements!

I have heard of the Lemmings game but unfortunately never got to play it. I think my computer was a commodore 64 at the time that game came out!! We bought it when it was state of the art and our family took a while to update. I played a lot of Frogger as a consequence.

My genealogy research was made easier by the fact I had some unusual family names like Rubidge and Riggall. Of course the best place to start is older relatives, many of them may have already catalogued your ancestors. See how far you go back with that, that is a good place to start. Work on one branch of tree at a time maternal, paternal or whatever. Try to make note of enough info that will allow you to find further branches. I found a lot of info just by typing in surnames into a search engines along with keywords like genealogy, family tree etc.. I just happened to come across sites where my other relatives (previously unknown to me) had already done some family research. There are literally thousands of people on the net trying to find relatives and there is a fair bit of overlap in the research. The crucial thing is to be aware of info beyond names like births dates, locations, property names, migration routes, naturalisation dates, marriage dates, military positions (for example I found my great grandfathers sign up forms for the Boer War on the National Archive Website Link
which can be freely accessed) as often there will be several people of the same name that are not DIRECTLY related to you. Geneaology message boards would be useful except that people often don't give enough info to be useful.

Hope that helps.

Toblerone