Uncle John’s Did You Know?

by Bathroom Readers' Institute

  • Corn syrup prevents lollipops from dripping.

  • There’s corn in chalk and crayons: Cornstarch is used as a binder to keep them from falling apart in your hands.

  • Every tiny ridge in a corrugated cardboard box is glued down with cornstarch. (No wonder cockroaches like to eat cardboard.)

  • 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.)

  ANIMAL

  GEOGRAPHY

  • 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.

  TONGUE

  TWISTERS

  • 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.

  ODDS & ENDS

  • 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.

  TEMPERATURES

  • 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.

  HELPFUL HINTS

  • 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.

  ACTING HUMAN

  • Here’s something to think about: The human brain produces about 70,000 thoughts a day.

  • Ha! The average person laughs 15 times a day.

  • How many senses do humans have? Your basic five senses are touch, taste, sight, smell, and hearing. But some scientists say we actually have nine senses: the basic five, plus balance, heat, pain, and body awareness. What do you think?

  • On average, men blink about 6.2 million times per year. Women blink about 12 million times.

  • There are six facial expressions that are universal: happiness, sadness, disgust, fear, anger, and surprise.

  • The most frequently used facial movement? A smile.

  • Women smile more than men, but children smile more than adults.

  • Remember this the next time you stub your toe: Scientists say that laughter reduces pain.

  • Do you sneeze when you step out into a bright sunny day? It’s called a “photic sneeze,” and about one out of three people do it.

  • In times of extreme stress, humans can sometimes perform amazing feats of strength. For example, in 1982, Angela Cavallo lifted a Chevy Impala to free her teenage son, who was trapped underneath it.

  YOU BUG ME

  • There are more than 1,800 species of fleas.

  • The average butterfly cocoon contains more than 1,000 feet of silk.

  • The practice of eating insects has a name: entomophagy. People in many cultures have been eating insects for centuries (and plenty still do).

  • Most lipsticks—and even some fruit drinks—are colored red with a dye from an insect known as the cochineal.

  • It’s a bird! It’s a bat! It’s…an atlas moth. Atlas moths are so big, they’re sometimes mistaken for medium-sized bats.

  • If you lined them up end to end, all the earthworms under a typical football field would stretch for 94 miles.

  • Some fleas freeze at night and thaw out—still alive—the next morning.

  • Bees have to fly a total of 72,000 miles to gather enough honey for one jar.

  • A tiny fly called a “midge” beats its wings 62,000 times a minute.

  • There are 45 species of ladybug in Great Britain and 450 in North America.

  MORE WACKY

  TOWN NAMES

  • Tarzana, California, is where Edgar Rice Burroughs lived when he wrote jungle adventure stories featuring a main character called…Tarzan.

  • Ding Dong, Texas, is in Bell County.

  • Peculiar, Missouri, was named by the postmaster after the town fathers told him, “We don’t care what you name it as long as it’s sort of peculiar.”

  • Lake Webster in Massachusetts is called “Webster” because no one can pronounce its real name: Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg.

  • Halfway between Pine, Oregon, and Cornucopia, Oregon, is the town of…Halfway.

  • People in Gnaw Bone, Indiana, tell colorful stories of how the town got its name, but the truth is that it’s named after the French city of Narbonne.

  • The town of Chicken, Alaska, was going to be named “Ptarmigan” in honor of the state bird…but the townspeople didn’t know how to spell it.

  • Towns named for parts of the body, from the head down: Sweet Lips, Tennessee; Left Hand, West Virginia; Shoulderblade, Kentucky; Bowlegs, Oklahoma; and Bigfoot, Texas.

  OUTER SPACE

  • “Outer space” officially begins 50 miles above the surface of the Earth.

  • If you were in a car traveling at 100 miles per hour, it would take you 29 million years to reach the nearest star.

  • You may not be able to feel it, but our galaxy—the Milky Way—revolves a million miles per day, or 40,000 miles per hour.

  • If the universe were the size of a building 20 miles long, 20 miles wide, and 20 miles high, all the matter it contains would add up to a single grain of sand.

  • What are your chances of being hit by a meteorite? Slim. The mathematical probability is that only one person will get bonked every 180 years.

  • Start counting! There are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on Earth.

  • A comet’s tail always points away from the Sun.

  • Because of the speed of the Earth’s rotation, it’s impossible for a solar eclipse to last more than 7 minutes and 58 seconds.

  • A galaxy is a huge system of stars, typically containing between 10 million and 1 trillion stars each. Our galaxy is called the Milky Way. Astronomers estimate that the universe contains 100 billion galaxies besides ours.

  AT THE MOVIES

  • The first movie theater in the United States was the Vitascope Hall, built in 1896. Where was it? Hollywood? Nope. New Orleans.

  • China has about 1,000 movie theaters. That’s one movie theater for every million people.

  • Almost three billion movie tickets are sold every year in India—an average of three tickets per person. (Americans buy about five tickets per person.)

  • The weather is so nice in Greece that many movie theaters don’t have roofs.

  • John Ratzenberger, the actor who played the mailman Cliff Clavin on Cheers, is Pixar’s “good-luck charm.” Ratzenberger has been in every film Pixar’s made. He was the voice of Hamm in Toy Story, the Abominable Snowman in Monsters, Inc., P.T. Flea in A Bug’s Life, a school of fish in Finding Nemo, the Underminer in The lncredibles, and Mack in Cars.

  • Some scientists say that Jurassic Park portrayed velociraptors inaccurately. In real life, they probably weren’t as vicious as they were on-screen.

  • Phone numbers used in movies and TV shows always begin with “555.” Why? No real phone number starts with 555, so viewers can’t dial the number from the movie and bother the poor person who happens to have that number.

  CONDIMENTS

  • What does salsa mean? It’s Spanish for “sauce.”

  • Ketchup was once sold as medicine. The miracle sauce was advertised as a cure for all sorts of illnesses and maladies, including baldness and athlete’s foot.

  • What’s the difference between mayonnaise and Miracle Whip? Miracle Whip is mayonnaise with corn syrup and sugar added.

  • A1 steak sauce contains raisins.

  • The earliest known recipe for mustard appeared in 42 A.D.

  • Pour it on: Half a cup of ketchup contains as much nutrition as a large tomato.

  • After astronauts complained about the bland food they had to eat during spaceflights, NASA chefs included Tabasco Sauce in the kitchens of the Space Shuttles and the International Space Station.

  • The ancient Chinese were the first to make ketchup. Called kachiap, it was made with pickled fish and spices—not tomatoes.

  • U.S. troops have used miniature Tabasco bottles to make chess sets and Christmas tree decorations.

  • Tartar sauce is typically used on fried seafood dishes, but in Seattle, Washington, it’s more popular on French fries than ketchup.

  PLANET OF

  THE APES

  • A group of citizens in Mesa, Arizona, are circulating a petition against the police department’s intention to train a tiny monkey that they can dress in a bulletproof vest and send into dangerous situations.

  • Scientists say that young female chimps are smarter than young males.

  • A species of monk
ey recently discovered in Tanzania communicates in honking barks. Scientists think it’s different enough to have its own new genus: Rungwecebus.

  • After a young colobus monkey escaped from Ireland’s Belfast Zoo, zookeepers told the press that the monkey had recently had an argument with his dad.

  • In 2003 Los Angeles customs officials arrested a man for trying to smuggle two pygmy monkeys into the United States. Where’d he hide them? In his pants.

  • Apes have blood types similar to humans, but chimpanzees mostly have blood type A, almost no blood type O, and never blood type B. On the other hand, gorillas have blood type B, almost no blood type O, and never blood type A.

  • The Vegetarian Banquet for Monkeys is an annual tradition at a Buddhist shrine in Thailand. The guest list in 2004 included more than 3,000 macaques.

  THE END

  All Good Things Must Come to an End

  • In 2005, the top three deadliest jobs in the United States were logger, airline pilot, and deep-sea fisherman.

  • At high levels, carbon monoxide gas can kill a person in under three minutes.

  • In Hong Kong, about 12 people are killed every year by trash that’s thrown out of windows.

  • Smoking is the number-one leading cause of death in the United States. The second leading cause of death? Poor diet.

  • Of the 2,245 people onboard the Titanic, 1,513 perished and 732 survived.

  • Henry Ford owned a bottle containing the last breath of his friend Thomas Edison. It was caught and sealed in the bottle on October 18, 1931.

  • Ferocious warrior Attila the Hun died of a nosebleed.

  • In 65 B.C., the Greek playwright Aeschylus was killed when an eagle dropped a tortoise on his head.

  • The creator of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry, died in 1991. Six years later, a cylinder containing his ashes was shot into outer space.