##EMBED## Click Here for Sources and to Read More Fascinating Banana Facts Text Version A cluster of bananas is formally called a “hand”. Along that theme, a single banana is called a “finger”.
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##EMBED## Click Here to Read More Interesting “40” Facts Text Version WD-40 got its name from the fact that it was the 40th try at creating a water displacement substance.
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##EMBED## Iodine and an anti-caking agent, typically calcium silicate, are typically added to table salt. The former is added to help prevent thyroid disease, such as enlargement of the goiter, and the latter so that the salt won’t get lumpy in humid areas. This anti-caking agent won’t dissolve in water though, so salt containing an anti-caking agent makes a poor […]
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##EMBED## Capsaicin, the thing that makes peppers hot, is fat soluble and thus water will be of no use in countering the burning sensation, other than the fact that if it is cold water it will temporarily overpower the capsaicin’s effect on the nerve receptors and tell your brain you are feeling a cold sensation. But once the cold water […]
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##EMBED## Common foods that are naturally radioactive include potatoes, bananas, sunflower seeds, many nuts, and kidney beans, among others. Among these, Brazil nuts are the most radioactive by far at 6600 picocuries per kg or about 1.875 BED (banana equivalent dose). The radium in Brazil nuts does not come from especially high levels of radium in the soil where the […]
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##EMBED## Before devoting himself more or less exclusively to music, Phil Collins was a child actor, appearing in various rolls, including: playing The Artful Dodger in the London production of Oliver!; an extra in the Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night; one of the extras in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang; and various other minor roles. Click here for sources and to […]
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##EMBED## Bird poop is white due to their kidney’s extracting nitrogenous wastes from their bloodstream and subsequently excreting it in the form of uric acid, which has a very low solubility in water and emerges as a white paste-like substance. Click here for sources and to find out why human poop is brown.
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##EMBED## Graham crackers were invented by Sylvester Graham in 1829. Graham was farm-hand and a teacher who turned Presbyterian minister due to poor health. During his time as a minister, Graham developed a unique system for maintaining health. He recommended hard mattresses for sleeping; keeping your bedroom windows open at all times for fresh air; cold showers; loose clothing; consuming […]
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##EMBED## A woodpecker’s brain is protected by a spongy elastic material between their bill and their skull that holds their brain snugly and provides a cushion. This keeps their brains from getting injured while they bang away at at tree at a remarkable rate and force. For instance, the pileated woodpecker can strike a tree trunk at around 20 times […]
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##EMBED## How the cores are placed into wood pencils is as follows: An Incense Cedar plank is cut with several long parallel grooves. The core is then inserted into the grooves. A separate Incense Cedar plank is then glued to the top of this first plank. The combined planks with the core inside are then cut into pencil size, varnished, […]
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##EMBED## In March 2007, an honor student in Pennsylvania was accused of threatening his school with a bomb. It was later found he had actually called an automated school phone line to get information about class schedules; someone else made the bomb threat exactly an hour later, but, due to Daylight Saving Time, the time seemed to match up to […]
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##EMBED## Joshua L. Chamberlain was the last Civil War soldier to die of wounds incurred in the Civil War. He also has the distinction of being the only soldier to be battlefield promoted to General. Click Here for Sources and to Learn Why No One Knows Why Maine is Called Maine
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##EMBED## The term “toilet” itself comes from the French “toilette”, which meant “dressing room”. This “toilette” in turn derived from the French “toile”, meaning “cloth”; specifically, referring to the cloth draped over someone’s shoulders while their hair was being groomed. During the 17th century, the toilet was simply the process of getting dressed, fixing your hair, and applying make-up and […]
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##EMBED## Many avian life forms posses a region of their bodies that contain a biological magnetite, generally in their beaks. It is believed this gives them a strong magnetoception and thus allows them to sense direction accurately. More recently, it has been shown that certain birds have the ability to see magnetic fields. How this works is the Earth’s magnetic […]
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##EMBED## Most web addresses begin with “www” because of the traditional practice of naming a server according to the service it provides, in this case “World Wide Web”. So outside of this practice, there is no real reason for any website URL to need to be preceded by “www”; the administrators of whatever website can set it up so that […]
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##EMBED## The word blond derives from the Old French word “blund”, meaning literally “a color midway between golden and light chestnut”. “Blund” then is typically thought to have come from the Latin word “blundus”, which was a vulgar pronunciation of the Latin “flavus”, which means “yellow”. The French origin of the word “blond” is how we get the added “e” […]
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##EMBED## Wil Wheaton did the voices for many of the Romulans in the 2009 movie, Star Trek. This was at the urging of Greg Grunberg, who, among other things, starred in director J.J. Abrams’ Alias TV show and briefly in Lost. Grunberg was originally also supposed to play an on-screen role in Star Trek, but was unable to do so […]
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##EMBED## The tallest man in history was Robert Pershing Wadlow, who was 8 feet 11.1 inches (2.72 m) tall and 485 pounds at the time of his death. By the age of 4 years old, he was already 5 ft 4 inches tall (1.63m). At the age of 13, he became the tallest boy scout in history at 7 ft […]
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