Click through for some interesting facts that were found in the Christmas 2006 edition of the Soli Deo Gloria magazine.
- Guinea pigs and rabbits can't sweat.
- Sharks and rays are the only animals known to man that don't get cancer. Scientists believe this has something to do with the fact that they don't have bones, but cartilage.
- The duckbill platypus can store as many as six hundred worms in the pouches of its cheeks.
- A biological reserve has been made for golden toads because they are so rare.
- A group of twelve or more cows is called a flink.
- Cats often rub up against people and furniture to lay their scent and mark their territory. They do it this way, as opposed to the way dogs do it, because they have scent glands in their faces.
- Tuatara lizards, from New Zealand, have two eyes in the centre of their heads and a third one on top of their heads.
- Giraffes can't cough.
- Elephants can smell water from as far away as three miles.
- All shrimp are born male, but slowly grow into females as they mature.
- Cows are the only mammals that pee backwards.
- Honeybees have hair on their eyes.
- The only insect that can turn its head 360 degrees is the praying mantis
- Between 20,000 and 60,000 bees live in a single hive. The queen bee lays nearly 1,500 eggs a day and lives for up to 2 years. The drone, whose only job is to mate with the queen bee, has a lifespan of around 24 days—he has no sting. Worker bees - all sterile females - usually work themselves to death within 40 days, collecting pollen and nectar. Worker bees will fly up to 9 miles to find pollen and nectar, flying at speeds as fast as 15 mph.
- 62 degrees Fahrenheit is the minimum temperature required for a grasshopper to be able to hop.
- Mosquitoes prefer children to adults, and blondes to brunettes.
- Spiders have transparent blood.
- The cashew is part of a fruit that grows in tropical regions called 'a cashew apple'. After harvesting, the cashew apple keeps for only 24 hours before the soft fruit deteriorates. The cashew apple is not commercially important since it spoils quickly, but local people love the fruit. To harvest the nut, the ripe apple is allowed to fall to the ground where natives easily gather it. The apple and nut are separated.
- An apple, onion, and potato all have the same taste. The differences in flavour are caused by their smell. To prove this - pinch your nose and take a bite from each. They will all taste sweet.
- The only nation whose name begins with an "A", but doesn't end in an "A" is Afghanistan.
- People who laugh a lot are much healthier than those who don't. Dr. Lee Berk at the Loma Linda School of Public Health in California found that laughing lowers levels of stress hormones, and strengthens the immune system. Six-year-olds have it best - they laugh an average of 300 times a day. Adults only laugh 15 to 100 times a day.
- Men have more blood than women. Men have 1.5 gallons for men versus 0.875 gallons for women
- In 1977, a 13 year old child found a tooth growing out of his left foot.
- Blood is red only in the arteries after it has left the heart and is full of oxygen. Blood is a purplish, blue colour in the veins as it returns to the heart, thanks to having picked up carbon dioxide and other wastes from the body's cells. In fact, your blood is red throughout only half your body. When cut, of course, the blood always appears red because it is instantly exposed to oxygen outside the body.
- During his or her lifetime, the average human will grow 590 miles of hair.
- Orchids are grown from seed so small that it would take thirty thousand to weigh as much as one grain of wheat.
- Oak trees do not have acorns until they are fifty years old or older.
- An ear of corn averages 800 kernels in 16 rows. A pound of corn consists of approximately 1,300 kernels. 100 bushels of corn produces approximately 7,280,000 kernels. Corn is produced on every continent of the world with the exception of Antarctica.
- Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell.
- Every year about 98% of atoms in your body are replaced.
- A ball of glass will bounce higher than a ball of rubber. A ball of solid steel will bounce higher than one made entirely of glass.
- The wick of a trick candle has small amounts of magnesium in them. When you light the candle, you are also lighting the magnesium. When someone tries to blow out the flame, the magnesium inside the wick continues to burn and, in just a split second (or two or three), relights the wick.
- Billiards great, Henry Lewis once sank 46 balls in a row.
- Since 1896, the beginning of the modern Olympics, only Greece and Australia have participated in every Games.
- Racehorses have been known to wear out new shoes in one race.
- In the state of Queensland, Australia, it is still constitutional law that all pubs (hotel/bar) must have a railing outside for patrons to tie up their horse.
- In most American states, a wedding ring is exempt by law from inclusion among the assets in a bankruptcy estate. This means that a wedding ring cannot be seized by creditors, no matter how much the bankrupt person owes.
- In Saudi Arabia, a woman reportedly may divorce her husband if he does not keep her supplied with coffee.
- According to a 1995 survey, 7 out of 10 British dogs get Christmas gifts from their doting owners.
- Two out of three people sleep on their sides, and they're about equally divided as to WHICH side. Of the remainder, slightly more sleep on their stomachs than sleep on their backs.
- The average human scalp has 100,000 hairs.
- Forty percent of the American population has never visited a dentist.
- Muppets creator Jim Henson first created Kermit in 1955 - as a lizard. He was made from Henson's mother's coat and two halves of a Ping-Pong ball (no flipper feet or eleven-point collar).
- The person who performs the Muppets - Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Animal, and Grover is Frank Oz. Oz is also the voice of Star Wars Yoda. By the way, his real name is Frank Oznowicz.
- Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants.
- Androphobia is a fear of men.
- Caligynephobia is a fear of beautiful women.
- Pentheraphobia is a fear of a mother-in-law.
- Scopophobia is a fear of being looked at.
- Phobophobia is a fear of fearing.
- A "sysygy" occurs when all the planets of our Solar System line up.
- Calvin and Hobbes: Hobbes originally had pads on his hands and feet but Bill Waterson (the creator) found them too distracting and removed them.
- On average, there are 333 squares of toilet paper on a roll.
- The numbers on opposite sides of a die always add up to 7
Paul Gravatt |
