Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with spots

What kind of bird was this unfortunate creature which was killed by my cat? Green/olive feathers with a white/black spotted breast.

h00py — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:44:17 -0800

My cat killed a bird which I was unable to identify and I'm wondering what it was. It had a greenish/olivish tinge to its feathers but its breast and underside was white with black spots. Its beak was similar to a doves. This poor bird somehow managed to find its way onto my balcony at night so my initial thought was that it was a nocturnal bird that somehow got lost, but it didn't really look anything like what I've always imagined night birds to look like (my knowledge of such is Extremely Limited) so I'm thinking that perhaps it wasn't a night bird, it was a day bird of some kind which just, very unluckily, fell out of its night time perch and ended up on my balcony where my incredibly quick cat decided to leap upon it and kill before I had a chance to do anything! I'm in Ipswich, Queensland, Australia. I've done a quick google search for birds but alas, my google searching skills are pathetic and I wasn't able to narrow my search down far enough to get any meaningful results. If anyone could help, it would be appreciated.

My sore bitter tasting tongue

Grums — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 15:56:19 -0800

Why is my taste bitter and my tongue has some sore white spots? 10 days ago, Wedensday, I ate dinner and after dinner my tongue felt like it was burned. This burning soreness continued for days and gradually my taste changed. Usually a burned tongue is cured in 24 hours. By sunday my taste buds was hyper sensitive and some food with Provance spice tasted like the hottes chilli and orange juice tasted like bitter lemon juice.

This continued for a few days and then gradually got better. Today, Saturday, most of the taste has returned to normal, but the white spots is still there and is still a bit sore.

From my research I have onlye gotten som vague hints that it might
be some kind of virus that you can get at the same time that you have a cold. I had a sore throath for a couple of days, but nothing serious. I could still do my work out routine.

So even if I should be good after this weekend I wonder if anybody knows or have experienced the same thing. This is the first time for me.

Four-year-old with mysterious recurring spots

winston — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 07:53:56 -0800

Mysterious recurring spots on a four-year-old. His pediatrician's not in the office today and it looks like today's batch will be faded by the time the after-hours pediatric clinic opens. In fact, it's almost gone already. Other options are easily available if it's important to be seen by a physician sooner.

On Christmas day, both boys (2 and 4) appeared to have a mild case of Hand Foot and Mouth Disease (having been exposed the week before). The two-year-old had a blister on his lip, one on his cheek, and one on each wrist (these looked like the type of blister you might get on your foot from rubbing shoes). The four-year-old had a scattering smaller spots on his cheeks, like small zits (red spots about 2 mm in diameter with a tiny pimple in the middle) -- these were pretty much gone the next day, while the blisters on the toddler were gone in just over two days.

This week, Monday and Tuesday, the four-year-old has been irritable and had little appetite. Today he is very irritable and somewhat lethargic. While I was holding him, I noticed he had about 20 of those same small red spots with the little pimple on his right ear, front and back. I didn't see them anywhere else (though I just checked areas visible with clothes on). He doesn't feel hot (and taking his temp today would require pinning him down it seems -- but he hasn't had a fever earlier this week nor at Christmas).

There's not much to see anymore (I can still see some faded spots, but it probably would not be remarkable if this was the first time I was seeing it). It doesn't seem to match what I've seen in online "identifying childhood illnesses" articles. He is completely up-to-date on vaccinations.

(The two-year old has a very stuffed up nose and is drooling today, in case that's relevant.)

Spotty flowers!!

artychoke — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 07:59:25 -0800

How do you deal with brown spots on roses? I'm posting for my mom and sister who are non-professionally doing my cousin's wedding flowers for tonight. Some of the flowers have brown spots - is there any way to deal with this? Cut the rose petals with scissors? Google is yielding nothing but, "Don't use flowers with brown spots."

Out, damn spots... I want spotless dishes.

Corky — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 17:31:09 -0800

Can the white spots on my dishes be removed? My old dishwasher stopped rinsing properly some weeks ago. It started leaving ugly whitish spots and streaks on my dishes. (Sango Nova Blue - two-toned blue dishes that I really like a lot)

Vinegar doesn't remove them. A small test with Soft Scrub shows limited promise, but only limited, and it would take much scrubbing to see any satisfying results. My best efforts still left a ghost mark.

The bottoms of my glasses are cloudy where water sat.

I am the proud owner of a new dishwasher that promises to behave better, but I'd really like to get rid of the unsightly spots on my plates and bowls and glasses.

Give me hope, AskMefites. I don't want to think they are permanently etched.

Seeing spots...

bonobothegreat — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 12:25:34 -0800

I woke up this morning and noticed a darkish, donut-shaped spot almost in the middle of the field of view of my left eye. It's exactly like seeing a spot after looking at a bright light -dark when looking at a light surface but when I shut my eyes it's lighter against the dark background. It's been there all day. I've made an opthamologist appointment for Monday, but was wondering if anybody here had ever experienced this.

My grandparents have had cataracts and glaucoma.

What are the metallic looking spots that float on top of my iced tea?

realpseudonym — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:40:07 -0800

What are the metallic looking spots that float on top of my iced tea? So I got an iced tea maker, and if I have leftovers at the end of the day, I put the pitcher into the refrigerator. The next day, the tea develops metallic looking spots which float on top of the iced tea. What are those?

out damn spot!

jalebi — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:07:07 -0800

Besides sunspots/liver spots, what could be the reason that my hands have developed little brown spots on them? Because I come from Mediterranean-ish descent, I tend to be a wee bit hairier than is generally desired for an American woman. Because of this, about 3 weeks ago, I waxed my arms including the tops of my hands. I only do this a few times a year.

A few days after doing so, I noticed light brown spots on my hands - only between my thumb and index finger (on both hands). I'm certain they're not broken capillaries. The look like small and pale(er) liverspots, that develop along with aging. I'm 28 and have never seen these spots before.

What could the be? Should I be scared? It's been about 2-2.5 weeks now. They're just a few shades darker than the general color on my arms (a Mediterranean-ish hue. I'm kind of pale, but my arms are naturally, and weirdly a shade or two more golden/dark than the rest of my body - even in the winter when they don't see the sun for months).

From about 3 feet away, the spots are not visible. In fact, at first glance, it looks like I ate something - maybe a sandwich with a generous amount of sloppy balsamic dressing - that just got my hands a little dirty.

I'm pretty conscientious about sun exposure, having had a relative die from skin cancer when I was a kid. I wear sunscreen, don't go out tanning, but follow the common sense rule - stay in the shade, but a few minutes of sun is generally fine.

Are they just sun spots? Should I be worried? What else could these spots be?

lunchtime spot in SOMA?

ethel — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 10:55:49 -0800

Where to take a take-out lunch in San Francisco's SOMA neighborhood.. I've lived in San Francisco before, but just moved back and started a new job, working in [sometimes gritty] South of Market neighborhood (9th and Mission).

Does anyone know a pleasant (indoor or outdoor) area to take a lunch from home/take-out, where I wouldn't have to buy anything to sit and eat in peace? My building has no proper lunch room, and it would be a treat to get out of the office at lunchtime..

thanks for any ideas!

Blotchy laundry

Oriole Adams — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 13:40:56 -0800

Laundry filter: A lot of my clothing comes out of the washing machine with white blotches. It looks similar to when your deodorant hasn't dried properly and leaves marks. The white comes out if I rub the dried clothes vigorously with a wet washcloth. All my Google searches result in "your powdered detergent isn't dissolving properly, switch to liquid." The thing is, I am using liquid detergent. I usually wash in either cold or warm water, if that makes a difference. Any ideas on how to wipe out the white?

Out damn spot!

backseatpilot — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 20:23:15 -0800

How do I get these black spots off my car? I think it's tree sap. They are small black spots all over my car, each about the size of a pinhead. The material is soft; I can scrape it off with my thumbnail. A run through the car wash (and plenty of ran and snow after) has not removed, well, any of it.

So, how can I get it off? I was thinking of something like Goo Gone, but I'm afraid of doing bad things to the paint. Am I going to be forced to pick each little dot off with my nails?

I'm going mental right?

lemonfridge — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 09:33:22 -0800

Am I going mental, or is my body making it's self symmetrical? Since my teens, whenever I got a spot on one side of my face, a day later another would appear in the exact same place on the opposite side. Looking in the mirror this morning I noticed that I also have very symmetrical moles.

It's also noticeable when I get a spot on my shoulder, as they are almost perfectly symmetrical.

Sometimes if its just a red mark instead, but it's always in the same place, but opposite, and with no apparent cause

Sorry for all the spot talk, and sounding crazy, but I'm really starting to get freaked, and interested by what my body is doing.

(other freaky stuff worth noticing, is that if I cut myself and see the blood, I instantly taste that copper taste)

Is there any kind of explanation for this?

olive oil spot remover

leafwoman — Sat, 04 Jun 2005 13:54:50 -0800

I wear lots of silk knits and I love to cook. Sometimes I get olive oil spots splashed on the knit and I can't seem to ever get the spots out. I wear an apron but the stuff is sneaky. How can I get those spots out of my silk knits?

How do I stop touching my face?

altolinguistic — Tue, 10 May 2005 08:06:30 -0800

How can I stop touching my face? Whenever I am sitting still and concentrating, and sometimes when I am anxious or nervous, I touch, scratch and otherwise fiddle with my face. This is not good for me, and results in any small spots/blemishes getting much worse and inflamed, and they stick around for longer than they should. Please help me break this habit and help me get prettier!