Read Uncle John’s Did You Know? Online
Authors: Bathroom Readers’ Institute
Uncle John’s Did You Know? (25 page)
• Some blankets are woven with corn fibers, and some pillows and comforters are stuffed with corn fill.
• There are biodegradable plastic bags made from cornstarch.
• Some disposable diapers contain cornstarch. (It helps the plastic break down.)
• More than a million caribou live in Alaska…out-numbering the state’s humans by nearly two to one.
• Belize is the only country in the world that has a jaguar preserve.
• Anacondas live in the swamps and rivers of the dense forests of South America, but they also live on the island of Trinidad.
• The sandgrouse is a bird native to Africa’s Kalahari Desert. When a pair nests, every day the male flies up to 50 miles away to soak himself in water, so that on his return his chicks can drink from his feathers.
• The largest congregation of vertebrates (animals with backbones) ever recorded was a colony of Brazilian free-tailed bats that numbered over 20 million individuals.
• In Africa, droughts are common. Luckily for elephants, the oldest dominant female of the herd is likely to remember where water could be found during the last drought—and how to get there.
• Every Spring, thousands of European starlings (a kind of bird) gather at sunset over the marshes of western Denmark and fly together in a massive circular formation known as a “Black Sun.”
• Prairie dogs are native to North America west of the Mississippi. But they aren’t dogs at all—they’re rodents.
• The Florida Everglades is the only place in the world where both alligators and crocodiles live in the same environment.
• Half of the world’s chameleon species live in Madagascar.
• The pronghorn, which is
not
an antelope, is the last surviving member of the family
Antilocapridae
, antelope-like mammals that lived exclusively in North America.
• She stood on the balcony, inexplicably mimicking him hiccupping, and amicably welcoming him home.
• Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.
• While we were walking, we were watching window washers wash Washington’s windows with warm washing water.
• A big black bug bit a big black bear, made the big black bear bleed blood.
• On mules we find two legs behind and two we find before. We stand behind before we find what those behind be for.
• Suddenly swerving, seven small swans swam silently southward, seeing six swift sailboats sailing sedately seaward.
• A tutor who tooted the flute, tried to tutor two tooters to toot. Said the two to the tutor, “Is it harder to toot or to tutor two tooters to toot?”
• I’m not a smart feller, I’m a smart feller’s son and I’ll keep feeling smart till the smart feller comes.
• Silly Sally swiftly shooed seven silly sheep; the seven silly sheep Silly Sally shooed shilly-shallied south.
• If Wal-Mart were a country, it would rank about 20th on a list of the most productive countries in the world.
• Ireland’s official national emblem isn’t the shamrock—it’s the harp.
• The leading cause of poisoning for children under the age of six is liquid dish soap.
• Shore thing! Four out of five Californians live within 30 miles of the coast.
• Researchers have calculated the ideal number of people needed to create a colony in space: 160—about the size of a small village.
• 18% of the people who died in 2000 did so as a result of smoking and tobacco; 16% died because of poor diet and lack of exercise.
• The world’s first theme park was Santa Claus Land, which opened in 1946 in Santa Claus, Indiana—nine years before Disneyland opened in California.
• Clean fact: One end of a soap molecule attracts water, the other attracts oil (a.k.a. greasy dirt).
• Because there’s no R, Y, C, S, or T in Hawaiian, “Merry Christmas” is “Mele Kalikimaka.”
• The name “Illinois” comes from a Native American word meaning “tribe of superior men.”
• In 2004 an Alaskan chicken farmer injected eggs with dye. Result: orange, red, green, purple, pink, and blue chicks.
• Eco-fact: A dishwasher uses 25 gallons of water per load; a washing machine uses 30 gallons per load.
• Blast off! It takes eight minutes for the Space Shuttle to accelerate to its top speed—more than 17,000 mph.
• The biggest bottle of wine may be bigger than you: The 4 ½-foot tall “Maximus,” produced by Beringer Vineyards in California, holds 173 bottles of red wine.
• The number 2,520 can be divided by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, with no fractional leftover.
• Flower power: During Japan’s War of Dynasty in 1357, warriors wore yellow chrysanthemums as a pledge of courage.
• There are 63 patterns of dots in the braille writing system.
• Barney (the purple dinosaur) is from Dallas, Texas.
• There are 2,500,000 rivets in the Eiffel Tower.
• Paper or plastic? It turns out that making plastic bags uses less energy and produces less waste than making paper bags. (But plastic doesn’t decompose.)
• Only 42% of London’s transit system—called the London Underground—is actually underground.
• Ever heard an elephant joke? Here are two:
Q:
How do you fit four elephants into a Volkswagen?
A:
Two in the front and two in the back.
Q:
How do you fit five elephants into a Volkswagen?
A:
Two in the front, two in the back, and one in the glove compartment.
• The bestselling Crayola crayon box is the set of 24 colors.
• Arrrgh! The nursery rhyme “Sing a Song of Sixpence” originated as a coded message used by pirates; Blackbeard, for example, paid his sailors sixpence a day plus a serving of rye whiskey.
• What is “room temperature” exactly? There’s nothing exact about it—it’s somewhere between 68°F and 73°F.
• The freezing point of water is 32°F (0°C), and the boiling point is 212°F (100°C).
• –40° Fahrenheit is the same temperature as –40° Celsius, and vice versa. But that’s the only temperature that the two scales have in common.
• 98.6°F is the normal core body temperature of a healthy, resting adult.
• The Sun’s outer visible layer has a temperature of about 10,000°F. Its core can get as hot as 22.5 million degrees Fahrenheit.
• Butter melts at 88°F.
• Hypothermia begins when body temperature goes below 95°F. The condition becomes critical at 90°F.
• Hyperthermia—when the body produces or absorbs more heat than it can deal with naturally—occurs above 104°F.
• Paper burns at 451°F.
• The temperature of molten lava is about 2,000°F.
• Refrigerators should be kept below 41°F—but above 32°F so the food doesn’t freeze.
• The temperature on the Moon varies from –387°F at night to 253°F during the day.
• If you encounter a shark, remember that its top speed is 42 mph, so don’t try to outswim it. Just swim as calmly as you can toward shore.
• If you’re sending flowers to someone in Russia, make sure there’s an odd number of blossoms in the bunch. Bouquets with an even number of flowers are for funerals only.
• Should you happen to find yourself in the grip of a crocodile’s jaws, push your thumbs into the croc’s eyeballs—it will let you go instantly.
• Apples are a natural remedy for diarrhea.
• Do not smile at any dog that you feel may be dangerous. To the dog you’ll appear to be baring your teeth—a sign of aggression.
• When you’ve moved to a new location, unpack your computer and let it come to room temperature before you start hitting those keys.
• Freckle tip: According to some sources, you can lighten freckles by rubbing them with fresh-cut eggplant every day. You should see a difference in a week or so.
• Do you have dry hair? Try this natural and easy recipe for a moisturizing shampoo: Add two tablespoons of olive oil or one egg to a cup of baby shampoo.
• Here’s something to think about: The human brain produces about 70,000 thoughts a day.