The Australopithecus afarensi hominid skeleton found in Ethiopia in 1974 was nicknamed Lucy in honor of the Beatles song, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”
Norwegian cross country skier Odd-Bjørn Hjelmeset attributed his disappointing silver medal in the 4×10-kilometer relay at the 2010 Winter Olympics to less-than-focused preparation. “I think I have seen too much porn in the last 14 days,” he said to a reporter
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| The Olympic skier tumbles in a downhill run |
A yellow baseball (thought to be more visible to batters, fielders and spectators) was tested in a 1938 college game in New York City, between Fordham and Columbia. Fans and players did not like the change, nor did it seem to actually help with sighting the ball
Ancient Greeks believed that wearing amethysts would help prevent a person from getting drunk
When you pick up a common “pine cone,” you’d be correct to refer to it as “she,” since these brown, seeded cones are all female
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| A mature female cone lies on the ground |
Some fish can taste with their fins and tail as well as their mouth
The Southern Ocean lies from the Antarctic coast to 60° South latitude, meaning that its outline is almost completely circular in shape
Japan is commonly thought of as a tiny island nation, but it’s actually about the size of California. In fact, it’s larger than many European countries
When the American Civil War broke out, the seceding Confederate states snatched up a good bit of government property. This included everything from forts to arsenals to thousands of post offices stocked full of stamps. Not wanting the enemy to profit off their goods, the Union recalled every U.S. stamp ever issued and declared them invalid for postage. Instead, people were allowed to exchange their old stamps for replacements, which the government had quickly printed with new designs
Horses cannot breathe through their mouth. If their nostrils become obstructed, they could suffocate
The first lotions and moisturizers date back to 3000 BCE, when people in the Near East used whipped ostrich eggs and crocodile dung to keep their skin looking fresh - Today, some skin creams and moisturizers still include ingredients such as dung from various species of animal
There is no evidence that Vikings wore horns on their helmets
Humans have more than five senses. Although definitions vary, the actual number ranges from 9 to more than 20. In addition to sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing, which were the senses identified by Aristotle, humans can sense balance and acceleration (equilibrioception), pain (nociception), body and limb position (proprioception or kinesthetic sense), and relative temperature (thermoception). Other senses sometimes identified are the sense of time, itching, pressure, hunger, thirst, fullness of the stomach, need to urinate, need to defecate, and blood carbon dioxide levels
Honey Bees share out jobs based on their age. For instance, worker bees that are 1-2 days old spend their time cleaning cells, starting with the one they were born in, as well as keeping the brood warm; from 3-5 days old, they feed older larvae; from 6-11 days old, they feed the youngest larvae; from 12-17 days old, they produce wax, build combs, carry food, and perform undertaker duties; from 18-21 days old, they get guard duty, protecting the hive entrance; from 22 days on until their death at around 40-45 days, they get to fly from the hive collecting pollen, nectar, water, pollinating plants, and things of this nature
There is great variation in the number of sounds used in the world's languages. In any given language, the number of consonants range from 6 to 95, and the number of vowels range between 3 and 46. On average, a langauge uses 23 consonants and 9 vowels
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melitta_Bentz
Tea was discovered in China more than 5,000 years ago. Tea is the most popular drink beverage in the world – next to water. The tea that graces tables in virtually every country around the globe comes from the same plant: Camellia sinensis, a member of the evergreen family. From the leaves of this one plant spring three basic types of tea: black, green, and oolong, and more than 3,000 varieties
NEWS FEED:
Everyone washes hair, but those who want a license to apply shampoo in Texas need 150 hours of training, with 100 hours in "theory and practice of shampooing," including a study of "neck anatomy." A February 2011 Wall Street Journal report on excessiveness of state regulation highlighted California's year-long training to be a barber, Alabama's 750-hour schooling standard for a manicurist's license, and Michigan's 500 practice hours for performing massages. (By contrast, many less-tightly regulated states seem not to suffer. Connecticut, without licensing, fielded only six complaints last year against manicurists--four of which involved disputes over gift cards.)
The City Commission of San Antonio, Florida (population 1,052), passed an ordinance in January 2011 restricting, to a tiny portion of town, where registered sex offenders could live. However, San Antonio has only one sex offender, and that man is exempt from the law because he already lives there
Ripley's Believe It or Not! museum is already home to an artist's rendition of da Vinci's "The Last Supper" made from burned toast, and now comes a recent version by Laura Bell of Roscommon, Michigan da Vinci's masterpiece made with clothes-dryer lint. Bell said she did about 800 hours of laundry of various-colored towels to obtain lint of the proper hues, and then worked 200 more hours to construct the 14-foot-long, 4-foot-high mural
