Weird Facts

some facts are strange - but these are beyond bizarre - bordering on insane!

A mole can dig a tunnel 300 feet long in just one night!
A cockroach can live several weeks with its head cut off - it dies from starvation!
A crocodile always grows new teeth to replace the old teeth!
A group of geese on the ground is a gaggle, a group of geese in the air is a skein!
A hard working adult sweats up to 4 gallons per day. Most of the sweat evaporates before a person realizes it's there, though!
A hedgehog's heart beats 300 times a minute on average!
A hippo can open its mouth wide enough to fit a 4 foot tall child inside!
A hummingbird weighs less than a penny!
A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second!
A lump of pure gold the size of a matchbox can be flattened into a sheet the size of a tennis court!
A quarter has 119 grooves on its edge, a dime has one less groove!
After eating, a housefly regurgitates its food and then eats it again!
Apples are more efficient than caffeine in keeping people awake in the mornings!
Bulls are colorblind, therefore will usually charge at a matador's waving cape no matter what color it is -- be it red or neon yellow!
Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand!
Cat urine glows under a black-light!>>>

Interesting Facts about Food Chains

This section contains a brief description of the food chains and food webs in an ecosystem.

Introduction

In an ecosystem, plants capture the sun's energy and use it to convert inorganic compounds into energy-rich organic compounds¹. This process of using the sun's energy to convert minerals (such as magnesium or nitrogen) in the soil into green leaves, or carrots, or strawberries, is called photosynthesis.

Photosynthesis is only the beginning of a chain of energy conversions. There are many types of animals that will eat the products of the photosynthesis process. Examples are deer eating shrub leaves, rabbits eating carrots, or worms eating grass. When these animals eat these plant products, food energy and organic compounds are transferred from the plants to the animals. These animals are in turn eaten by other animals, again transferring energy and organic compounds from one animal to another. Examples would be lions eating deer, foxes eating rabbits, or birds eating worms.

This chain of energy transferring from one species to another can continue several more times, but it eventually ends. It ends with the dead animals that are broken down and used as food or nutrition by bacteria and fungi. As these organisms, referred to as decomposers, feed from the dead animals, they break down the complex organic compounds into simple nutrients. Decomposers play a very important role in this world because they take care of breaking down (cleaning) many dead material. There are more than 100,000 different types of decomposer organisms! These simpler nutrients are returned to the soil and can be used again by the plants. The energy transformation chain starts all over again.

Here is a figure showing one such food and energy chain:>>>

Interesting Facts

For Your Warehouse of Useless Knowledge

1. 1,525,000,000 miles of telephone wire a strung across the U.S.
2. 101 Dalmatians and Peter Pan (Wendy) are the only two Disney cartoon features with both parents that are present and don't die throughout the movie.
3. 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
4. 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.
5. 123,000,000 cars are being driven down the U.S's highways.
6. 160 cars can drive side by side on the Monumental Axis in Brazil, the world's widest road.
7. 166,875,000,000 pieces of mail are delivered each year in the U.S.
8. 27% of U.S. male college students believe life is "A meaningless existential hell."
9. 315 entries in Webster's Dictionary will be misspelled.
10. 5% of Canadians don't know the first 7 words of the Canadian anthem, but know the first 9 of the American anthem.
11. 56,000,000 people go to Major League baseball each year.
12. 7% of Americans don't know the first 9 words of the American anthem, but know the first 7 of the Canadian anthem.
13. 85,000,000 tons of paper are used each year in the U.S.>>>

50 Interesting Facts

1. If you are right handed, you will tend to chew your food on your right side. If you are left handed, you will tend to chew your food on your left side.

2. If you stop getting thirsty, you need to drink more water. For when a human body is dehydrated, its thirst mechanism shuts off.

3. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.

4. Your tongue is germ free only if it is pink. If it is white there is a thin film of bacteria on it.

5. The Mercedes-Benz motto is “Das Beste oder Nichts” meaning “the best or nothing”.

6. The Titanic was the first ship to use the SOS signal.

7. The pupil of the eye expands as much as 45 percent when a person looks at something pleasing.

8. The average person who stops smoking requires one hour less sleep a night.

9. Laughing lowers levels of stress hormones and strengthens the immune system. Six-year-olds laugh an average of 300 times a day. Adults only laugh 15 to 100 times a day.

10. The roar that we hear when we place>>>

The Daily Maine Fact

The Daily Maine Fact from Around Maine: Dubious Distinctions Department: A Maine man may be the only umpire in history to eject the entire infield of a major league team from a game. In 1903, Portlander Jim Hassett threw out the Boston Red Sox infield for giving him too much grief over a controversial call. Sox fans were furious, but the American League backed Hassett. (Source: Yours in Sports, by Don MacWilliams. Monmouth: The Monmouth Press, 1969.)

The Daily Maine Fact

The Daily Maine Fact from Around Maine: Early European construction techniques in Maine reflected the aspirations of the builders. The French, who avowed a long-term commitment to Maine, used stone to construct their important buildings. The English, many of whom planned to make a quick bundle and return home, used wood and often set structural uprights directly in the earth - an invitation to decay. (Source: Maine: The Pine Tree State from Prehistory to the Present, Richard W. Judd, Edwin A. Churchill and Joel W. Eastman, eds. Orono: University of Maine Press, 1995.)

The Daily Maine Fact

The Daily Maine Fact from Around Maine: The sale of 3.2 percent beer became legal again on this date in 1933. Maine newspapers heralded the occasion with numerous lucrative beer ads: 36 in the Waterville Morning Sentinel, 29 in the Portland Press Herald and 23 in both the Lewiston Daily Sun and the Bangor Daily News. (Source: The Great State of Maine Beer Book, by Will Anderson. Portland: published by Will Anderson, 1996.)