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INTERESTING - JANUARY

1/16/25
Some Animal Facts

A cricket must be full grown before it can chirp. Only then are its wings large enough and thick enough to produce a chirping sound when rubbed together.

Two of the spiders that are most poisonous to humans are the black widow and the brown recluse. You can recognize the black widow by the red hourglass marking on its side. The brown recluse spider is somewhat smaller (it's body and legs cover the size of a large coin), and it has a fiddle or violin marking on its back.

The poison of a female black widow spider is more potent than that of a rattlesnake.

The daddy longlegs spider releases a foul-smelling chemical from the front of its body as a defense against predators. This chemical can cause serious allergic reactions in susceptible individuals.

1/15/20
Let's Talk Planets Facts about Jupiter

Astronomers think there might be an Earth-size solid core in the center of Jupiter.

So how can there be a solid core the size of our own planet and no surface for a spacecraft to land on? Easy.

For one thing, if Jupiter were hollow, it could hold 1,400 Earths. So, one Earth sized object inside the gigantic planet really isn't such a big deal.

For another thing, any spacecraft trying to reach this solid core would have to plunge through more than 40,000 miles (65,000 km) of super dense gas to get to it.

The Galileo probe, which plunged into Jupiter on December 7, 1995, made it only 120 miles (200 km) into the clouds before it was destroyed by the incredible pressure. If it were to continue on to the core, the probe would have had to travel another 39,880 miles (64,800 km).

    Note: just because this core is Earth size doesn't mean it is anything like our planet.

Located in the center of Jupiter, where the pressure is millions of times greater than what we find on earth and the temperature is several thousand degrees, this core would be a super dense, superhot mass.

 

1/13/25
Why An Animal?

Why do we call a predictable trial a "kangaroo court"?

The expression "kangaroo court" came out of Texas in the 1850s. It meant that the accused’s guilt was predetermined and that the trial was a mere formality before punishment. Kangaroo was a Texas reference to Australia, a former British penal colony where everyone had been guilty of something, and so if a convict were accused of a new crime, there would be no doubt of his guilt.

 

When a person is upset why do we say someone's "got his goat"?

When someone "gets your goat," it usually means you've lost your temper or become angry enough to be distracted. It's a term that came from a horse trainer's practice of putting a goat in a stall with a skittish racehorse to keep him calm before a big race. An opponent or gambler might arrange for the goat to be removed by a stable boy, which would upset the horse and its owner and so reduce their chances of winning.

 

Why is something useless and expensive called a "white elephant"?

The term white elephant comes from ancient Siam, where no one but the king could own a rare and sacred albino, or white, elephant without royal consent. The cost of keeping any elephant, white or otherwise, was tremendous, and so when the king found displeasure with someone, he would make him a gift of a white elephant, and because the animal was sacred and couldn't be put to work, the cost of its upkeep would ruin its new owner.

 

Why do we call a leg injury a "charley horse"?

The phrase charley horse has its roots in baseball. At the beginning of the twentieth century, groundskeepers often used old and lame horses to pull the equipment used to keep the playing field in top condition. The Baltimore Orioles had a player named Charlie Esper, who, after years of injuries, walked with pain. Because his limp reminded his teammates of the groundskeeper’s lame horse, they called Esper "Charley Horse."

 

1/9/25
More Stuff

In Superman comics, one of the few things that can defeat our hero is a strange metal called kryptonite that comes from the planet Krypton. Although the gas krypton exists, kryptonite does not.

 Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who created, wrote, and drew the original Superman, sold the rights to the character to DC Comics for $130 in 1938. Several years later, after the company had reaped millions from the Superman franchise, Siegel and Shuster tried to claim a share of the profits. Instead they were fired.

            It took until 2009 for the Siegel and Shuster families to win a court case allowing them to reclaim the rights to Superman.

1/8/25
Just Stuff Q&A

Q: Where did the MoonPie first see the light of day?

A: The original marshmallow sandwich was first served in 1917 at a bakery in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It is said that the inventor, Earl Mitchell, Sr., named the MoonPie because of a conversation with miners: When asked about how big this lunch-pail treat should be, the workers pointed at the huge, full moon.

 

Q: Which candy bar is the oldest: Snickers, Oh Henry!, Mr. Goodbar, or Three Musketeers?

A: Oh Henry!, Which first hit candy stands in1921, is the oldest of these three candy bars. Mr. Goodbar (1925), Snickers (1930), and Three Musketeers (1932) all came later.

 

Q: When did Mickey Mouse club first appear on TV?

A: The Mickey Mouse Club TV series premiered on October 3, 1955, but the Mouseketeers made their first television appearance a few months earlier; on July 17, 1955, on the ABC broadcast special celebrating the opening of Disneyland.

 

Q: The following public figures have one thing in common: Fred Astaire, Dick Cheney, Warren Buffet, Sandy Dennis, and Malcolm X. What is it?

A: All five celebrities were born in Nebraska.

1/6/25
Interesting/Odd Facts About the Human Body

Your brain weighs about three times as much as your heart.

The pupil of the eye only appears to be black; it is actually a hole in the middle of the iris. The pupil looks black because the retina, which lies behind it, is dark in color, and because the amount of light inside the eye is small compared to the amount of light outside.

For the first forty days of the growth of a fetus within the womb, it has no fingers or toes – only flippers. The fingers separate around the fiftieth day, and the toes form a week later.

Did you know that your brain has two halves, called hemispheres? The right one controls the left side of your body, and the left one controls the right side of your body.

 

1/2/25
Some Animal Facts

When you disturb an ant, it secretes a chemical signal called a pheromone that rapidly defuses through the air. Within a certain radius of the ant, the pheromone conveys the message "Flee!" to other ants. Outside the radius, the message changes to "Close in and attack!"

An ordinary black ant can lift fifty times its own weight and pull thirty times its own weight.

An ant always falls over on its right side when poisoned with an insecticide.

Ants never sleep.

 

1/1/25
Let's Talk Planets Facts about Jupiter

Jupiter is made up almost entirely of gas – hydrogen and helium gases, that is. Not the kind we use in our cars. :-)

Hydrogen makes up about 86% of Jupiter, while helium makes up another 13% of the giant planet – which leaves little room for anything solid.

A spacecraft trying to land on the planet would simply plunge deeper and deeper into the clouds.

The deeper it fell, the thicker the clouds and the greater the pressure. Eventually, the pressure from all that gas pushing in on it would completely destroy the spacecraft. The crushed wreckage would remain floating within Jupiter's clouds, which is exactly what happened to the Galileo probe in 1995.