Hey there!
Look around – you ever get to wondering?
Why’s that ostrich hiding its head underground?
Why are rainbows so rare?
Why’s my dog eating grass???
Hey, I’ve got all the little-known facts you’ll ever need!
1.
Like the fact that mosquitos have teeth!
Well, not pearly whites like you or me, but 47 sharp teeth-like edges on the tips of their
proboscises.
That’s the straw-like mouth they stick into your skin!
These so-called "teeth" are needed to cut through all those tissues to get to their
lunch!
Um boy!
2.
When opossums "play possum," they’re not playing at all – they DO pass out from extreme
fear.
3.
It's impossible to sneeze in your sleep.
Your brain simply shuts down this reflex.
That's why your sweet dreams are never interrupted by a powerful "achoo!"
4.
Old mattresses are notably heavier than new ones because of the stuff they collect during
their lifetime.
This debris is flaked-off skin, dust mites, human and animal hair, sand, soil, pollen,
and many more things you probably don’t want to hear about.
5.
6.
Seahorses pair up for life and often travel around together holding each other's tails.
By the way, it's the male that carries the couple’s eggs!
7.
You know about albinism, but what about its opposite - melanism.
Melanistic animals have too much dark pigment in their skin, feathers, or hair, and unlike
their light-colored counterparts, they look almost black.
8.
The word "facetious" has 5 vowels in alphabetical order.
If you consider "y" a vowel, then the word "facetiously" has all 6!
And in case you’re wondering, "almost" is the longest English word with all its letters
in alphabetical order.
9.
The cougar is a Guinness record-holder because it has more names than any other animal.
It's known as the panther, mountain lion, puma, and 40 other English, 25 native North
American, and 18 native South American names!
Here kitty!
10.
Niagara Falls has moved back about 7 miles in the past 12,000 years due to erosion at
the base.
Luckily, the rate of this process has reduced over the past few decades, and the waterfall
might eventually stop moving and stay where it is now.
11.
The first watermelons were extremely bitter or simply bland.
They were originally cultivated in Africa just for their water content.
12.
If you recycle a single glass jar, you'll have enough energy to keep your TV running
for 4 hours.
13.
Astronauts claim that space smells like searing steak or BBQ.
Exactly this odor hangs around after someone finishes a spacewalk.
Other astronauts say space smells like heated metal.
14.
A "jiffy" isn't just a figure of speech.
It's a real time unit used in physics!
If we talk about the alternating current cycle in electric, one jiffy equals one-fiftieth
or one-sixtieth of a second.
But jiffy can also be used to speak about the time light needs to travel a distance
the size of a neutron.
Then one second is 300,000 billion billion (yes, 2 “billions”) jiffies.
15.
You can see rainbows mostly in the morning or late afternoon.
They occur only when there are water droplets in the air, and the sun is shining from behind
your back.
The sun also has to be less than 40° above the horizon.
16.
Wanna save money on a wedding ring?
Go to Jupiter or Saturn - it rains diamonds there!
During a storm, a bolt of lightning makes the methane in the planets' atmospheres decompose.
This process creates elemental carbon and hydrogen.
While the carbon is falling from the sky, it often bonds together and forms graphite.
Then, closer to the planet's core, the pressure builds up, and the graphite gets compressed
into diamonds!
17.
The Kea – a large New Zealand birdie from the parrot family – likes prying apart rubber
strips from around car windows.
Hey, everyone needs a hobby!
18.
Your dog keeps eating grass even though you feed it plenty of food, so whyyy?
No worries – it’s normal canine behavior!
Your pooch either doesn't have enough fiber in its diet or simply likes the taste of grass!
Some dogs munch on grass when they have an upset stomach.
In this case, they swallow it quickly, barely chewing it.
Long unchewed stems tickle their throat and help them barf up whatever’s upsetting their
belly!
19.
If you ever travel to Mars, you'll be pleasantly surprised by the sunsets!
The Red Planet's atmosphere is full of fine dust.
This dust scatters red light and lets blue light through.
The result: cool-toned blueish sunsets!
20.
There are cat breeds called "puppy cats."
And it’s exactly what it sounds like: they behave more like young rambunctious dogs than
the more usual “dignified” felines.
21.
There are way more living organisms on your skin than there are people in the whole world.
Good luck forgetting about that!
22.
The length of all the blood vessels in your body, including all the arteries, capillaries,
and veins, is over 60,000 miles.
That's more than twice the distance around the Earth!
Even more amazing, capillaries - the tiniest of all the vessels – make up almost 80%
of that length!
23.
The top of the Eiffel Tower tries to get out of the sun on hot days!
The metal construction gets heated by the sun and expands.
It can make the tower lean away by as much as 7 inches!
24.
When watermelons are baked or grilled, they lose their watery, granular texture and become
rather tough.
There's even a recipe called "watermelon steak," where watermelon does taste a bit like meat.
25.
Just like people, dogs and cats can be right- or left-handed (or should I say right- and
left-pawed?).
Several studies claim that these animals usually favor one of their paws over the other.
They can also be ambidextrous.
If they pitch for a baseball team, a left hander becomes a south paw.
26.
Although penguins can't fly, they're awesome jumpers!
Depending on the species, some penguins can jump up to 6 ft in the air.
These birds need such a skill to leap from the water up onto the ice.
27.
Ostriches do NOT hide their heads in the sand.
Come to think of it, they wouldn't be able to breathe!
One study observed 200,000 ostriches for over 80 years, and not a single one was seen burying
its head in the sand!
Why this myth appeared in the first place is because ostriches dig holes in the ground
and use them as nests.
After laying eggs, a bird regularly sticks its head in the hole and turns the eggs.
Admittedly, it DOES look like it's hiding in the sand!
28.
Nearly 1,000 feet underground, in Mexico’s Giant Crystal Cave, you can see exactly what
the name promises: Ostrich heads coming out of holes in the ceiling --- no no no -- enormous
crystals!
The biggest ones can weigh 55 tons, about 8 times more than an elephant!
And the champion in length is 39 ft long - just a bit taller than a telephone pole!
29.
Indiana University's main library sinks into the ground at a rate of 1 inch per year.
When it was constructed, the engineers forgot to take into consideration the weight of all
the books inside the building.
Oops…That’s some heavy reading!
30.
There are only two seasons on Uranus, and they repeat twice a year.
It means the planet has two summers and two winters.
What's more, each of these seasons lasts 21 earthly years, and one full year on Uranus
equals 84 here on Earth!
31.
Some people have a mysterious extra bone in their knees.
It’s called the fabella, and no one knows its purpose.
Just one century ago, it was fading away.
But nowadays, the bone's become surprisingly common again, with 39% of people having a
fabella.
32.
Hot and cold water make different sounds when you pour each into a cup.
Heat makes water less thick, which lowers its pitch.
Cold water is thicker and sounds more high-pitched.
33.
The Bee Hummingbird is the world's smallest bird that's often mistaken for an insect.
Female birds are a bit bigger than males, but even they don't weigh more than a dime
and aren't much longer than 2 inches.
34.
Newborn babies are pretty amazing: their heads make up a quarter of their entire body weight,
they have around 300 bones, and their mouths are full of almost 10,000 taste buds.
As they grow, those 300 bones will fuse into 206, and the taste buds that aren't on the
tongue itself eventually disappear.
Hey bud, where’re ya goin’?
35.
Gorillas, chimpanzees, and koalas all have fingerprints, but a koala’s look very similar
to human ones.
So now you know!
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remember: stay on the Bright Side of life!