It’s a great big world out there with all kinds of wonders and surprises. So here are
some cool little tidbits to fill your plate with food for thought. Bon appétit!
As you’re sitting there watching this video, you might think you’re totally still. Relatively
speaking. But, in fact, you, (along with the entire solar system) are moving. Really fast,
at that! Our Milky Way Galaxy is rotating at about 145 miles per second! Sorry officer
I really realize I was speeding!
In Switzerland, you’re not allowed to have just one guinea pig. The reason is that they’re
social creatures, and, therefore, must have a buddy. Everybody needs somebody, right?
A small village in India has a very interesting tradition: every time a baby girl is born,
people there plant 111 trees in her honor.
The bat is the only mammal that can fly. No, flying squirrels don’t count! Sorry, little
fellas, but you’re just falling in style!
Scientists believe that diamonds as big as jewels rain down on Saturn and Jupiter. The
lightning burns up methane into a kind of carbon. They clump together and form graphite,
which turns into diamonds that fall from the sky. Wait, Don’t I see Lucy up there?
There’s no sound in space. Yes, if you shout, nobody’s gonna hear you! And that’s because
there are no molecules in the vacuum of space for the soundwaves to travel through.
Astronauts in space can lose about 1% of their muscle mass each month if they don’t stick
to an exercise regimen lasting 2 hours every single day. Well, that’ll motivate ya!
In Alaska, it’s prohibited to whisper in someone’s ear when they’re moose-hunting.
Save your secrets for another time!
It’s estimated that for every human being on Earth, there are one million ants. I’ll
let you do the math while I scratch the sudden itchy feeling all over my body. Ugh!
The highest peak in our Solar System is on Mars. At 15 miles high, Olympus Mons squashes
our great Everest like a bug! Or an ant? Heh-heh!
Forget about Roy G. Biv – there’s no set number of colors in a rainbow. The reason
is that each hue mixes seamlessly with the next one without a concrete boundary. Next
time you see a rainbow in the sky, try counting how many colors you see!
The average person spends about 1/3 of their life sleeping. Think about that next time
you wanna sleep in on the weekends!
The size of your eyes never changes. It remains the same from birth, while your nose and ears
keep growing!
About 85% of people breathe out of just one nostril at a time. And depending on which
nostril you’re breathing out of at any given moment, it affects your whole body and particularly
your brain!
The average person’s nose produces about 3 pints of mucus a day. Most of it goes back
into your throat and gets swallowed. Yum yum!
And for your final nose fact for the day: rhino-till-exo-mania is an obsessive-compulsive
disorder of picking your nose uncontrollably.
Don’t ever keep a goldfish in a dark room – it’ll become pale! Then it’ll be asking
you for a spray tan. Oh, brother!
There’s a disease called Werewolf Syndrome. It’s characterized by abnormal hair growth
all over the body. Ow-woow.
Female lions do about 90% of the hunting. So, yeah, next time you imagine a lion on
the prow, you should really be thinking of a lioness!
Footprints left on the Moon won’t disappear anywhere because there’s no wind. So, that
small step for man is still up there!
Venus is a champ when it comes to volcanoes - it has about 1,600 major ones on its surface.
However, none of them is known to erupt.
There are more stars in the night sky than there are grains of sand on this planet. You
might doubt that, but only because just a small portion of stars is visible in the sky!
At any given moment, there are about 2,000 thunderstorms happening on Earth. Trust me,
I counted! Ok, maybe I didn’t, but still…
Coca-Cola was the first commercial drink to be consumed in space. So that’s one giant
glug for the Atlanta-based soda manufacturer!
Speaking of cola, the average American drinks about 45 gallons of soda a year. Oof, our
poor stomachs!
Actually, our stomachs do ok with all that soda pop. I mean, the hydrochloric acid in
your stomach can dissolve metal, after all!
Cows can sleep while standing... but they can only dream lying down. What they’re
all dreaming about, though, is beyond me!
About 40% of women apply body or hand cream at least 3 times a day. So, now ya know!
You might’ve heard that dust is 80% dead skin cells, but that’s a misconception.
Two-thirds of dust comes from outside in the form of pollen and soot. The rest of it is
either pet dander or just carpet or clothing fibers.
That’s not to say you don’t lose plenty of dead skin cells, some of which become part
of the dust in your house. But that’s just an insignificant fraction of the 9 pounds
of dead skin you lose each year!
The diameter of an aorta, which is the largest artery in the human body, is about the same
as a garden hose.
In New Zealand, babies often sleep on sheepskins. This is thought to help them gain weight faster
and keep their body heat.
The average cumulus cloud (that’s the big poofy kind) weighs just over 1 million pounds.
That’s the weight of about 100 fully-grown elephants floating above your head on a cloudy
day!
Most lipsticks contain fish scales. Actually, the substance is called pearl essence, and
many brands today prefer to use an artificial version of it.
Beware of the danger of ballpoint pens. Well, their caps to be specific. Each year, about
100 people choke on them! Keep the pen out of your mouth, dummy!
Next time you’re planning to lick a stamp, think twice. Every time you lick one, you’re
consuming 1/10 of a calorie! Yeah, we can measure that.
A snail can sleep for 3 years. So, now I guess you can feel better about sleeping 1/3 of
your life away…
Dolphins sleep with one eye open. If I shared a house with sharks and barracuda, I probably
would too!
The youngest monarch in history was Alfonso XIII of Spain. He became king on May 17, 1886…
that is, the day he was born!
The electric chair was invented by dentist Dr. Alfred Southwick. See? I always knew there
was a reason for my fear!
"Stewardesses" is the longest word that can be typed using only the left hand. Go ahead,
try it out!
Now, "typewriter" is the longest word that can be made using the keys on only one row
of the keyboard.
There are only 4 words in the English language that end in -dous: tremendous, horrendous,
stupendous, and hazardous. Can you think of any more? How about making up a new one? Hey,
maybe a really big duck with a green head could be called “Mallardous”. Or not.
One in every 4 Americans has been on TV. I guess Andy Warhol was right when he predicted
that everyone in the future will be famous for 15 minutes!
Almonds are members of the peach family. Yeah, useful stuff!
You might’ve heard of déjà vu (the feeling that you’ve experienced something before),
but what about déjà rêvé? That’s when you feel like you’ve already dreamed a situation
you might be in at the moment!
Speaking of dreams, the average person has about 3 to 5 each night. It’s just that
you forget most of them as soon as you wake up.
Sharks are the only fish that can blink with both eyes. But it’s not to clean or hydrate
them – they blink to protect their eyes while biting into their prey!
In one recent study, most Americans who were asked what their favorite smell was answered
“banana”. What about you? Do you love the smell of it?
In 18 months, two rats can have a million descendants.
And seahorses can have up to 2,000 babies in one litter!
Here’s one that’ll annoy you: mosquitos can live perfectly fine on flower nectar instead
of sucking your blood. In fact, it’s only the females that bite humans, and they do
it because they need blood to produce eggs.
The largest flower in the world also happens to be the stinkiest. With a bloom about 3
feet across and weighing roughly 15 pounds, the Corpse Lily is said to smell just like,
well, the name says it all…
Over half of the world’s population have never made or received a telephone call. Ah,
a life without telemarketers, imagine!
One million Earths could fit inside the Sun. By the way, the size of our Sun is quite average
in comparison with other stars in the universe.
If someone could fly a plane to Pluto, it’d take them about 800 years. An 800-year-long
flight, that sounds like my worst nightmare…
Approximately once a year, an asteroid the size of a car enters the Earth’s atmosphere.
But don’t worry – they always burn up before reaching the surface!
Every year, the Earth’s rotation slows down by about 1.4 milliseconds. So if you’ve
always wanted more hours in the day, just be patient! Very, very patient…
Do you have any more interesting tidbits to add to the list? Let’s keep it going down
in the comments! And if you learned something new today, then give this video a like and
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