Dust bunny
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Look up dust bunny in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
Dust Bunnies (or dustbunnies), also called dust mice, are small clumps of dust that form under furniture and in corners that are not cleaned regularly. They are made of hair, lint, dead skin, spider webs, dust, and sometimes light rubbish and debris, and are held together by static electricity and felt-like entanglement.[1] They can house dust mites or other parasites, and can lower the efficiency of dust filters by clogging.[2] The movement of a single large particle can start the formation of a dust bunny.[3]
Dust bunnies are harmful to electronics, as they can obstruct air flow through heat sinks, raising temperatures significantly, and therefore shortening the life of electronic components.[4]
A trademark for "Dustbunny" was registered in 2006 for the "Dustbunny Cleaner", a robotic ball with an electrostatic sleeve that rolls around under furniture to collect dust bunnies and other material.[5][6]
Dust bunnies have been used as an analogy for the accretion of cosmic matter in planetoids.[7][8]
In popular culture
- Players in Dust 514 are often referred to as dust bunnies.
- Two "dust bunnies", who were actually dusty rabbits, lived under the couch in The Big Comfy Couch TV show. Only Molly believed in their existence, often keeping them safe from Loonette so she could continue to play with them.
- Living dust bunnies are encountered in Beyond Zork.
In other languages
- In Danish they are called "nullermænd" ("nuller-" from the verb "nulre", meaning to move something between one's fingers, and "-mænd" meaning "men")
- In Finnish they are called "villakoira" (meaning: wool dog) after the language's nickname for the actual dog breed poodle
- In French they are called "moutons" (meaning: sheep)
- In German they are called "Wollmäuse" (meaning: wool mice) [9]
- In Norwegian they are called "hybelkaniner" (meaning: "lodging bunnies") [10]
- In Polish they are called "koty" (meaning: cats)
- In Portuguese they are called "cotão".
- The Scots word is "oose"[11][12]
- In Spanish they are called "pelusa".
- In Swedish they are called "dammråttor" (meaning: dust rats).
- In Turkish they are called "hav".
References
- ↑ http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/q-and-a/a5590/dust-bunnies-0309/
- ↑ Dust Control in Finite Air Volumes at Zero Gravity - Mean-Field Like Analysis. T.R.Krishna Mohan, Surajit Sen. 8 April 2004.
- ↑ Dust and fibers as a cause of indoor environment problems. T. Schneider. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health. 2008.
- ↑ Three Easy Ways to Save Your Computer From an Early Retirement. Christian Science Monitor. Chris Gaylord. April 15, 2010.
- ↑ http://www.trademarkia.com/dustbunny-78490362.html USPTO Dustbunny Trademark
- ↑ A Method and Apparatus for self-propelled cleaning. Bradford Morse et al. United States Patent Application Publication, US2006/0054187 2006 A1
- ↑ Formation of Cosmic Dust Bunnies. Matthews, L.S. Hayes, R.L. Freed, M.S. Hyde, T.W. IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science. April 2007.
- ↑ Comet Dust Bunny. George Musser. Scientific American. October 24, 2005.
- ↑ http://www.dict.cc/?s=Wollmaus
- ↑ https://nb.glosbe.com/en/nb/dust%20bunny
- ↑ Kirkpatrick, Betty. "Useful Scots word: Oose". Caledonian Mercury. Retrieved 22 October 2014.
- ↑ Harris, Andrew S (2004). "O". Scots Dictionary. Retrieved 22 October 2014.