From the Editor's Computer
Since it has been too hot of late for me to be profound or witty, or even mundane for that matter, I will share with you some pieces of trivia. Did you know…
- Anthropologists believe that people have been making and wearing shoes for more than 10,000 years. The Egyptians wore sandals woven from papyrus leaves.
- Horned lizards eat ants. They wait in areas where ants are working and when one passes by, they flick out their tongue, catch their prey, and swallow without chewing. Apparently their digestive tract is immune to bites and stings.
- Scientists believe that hydrogen comprises approximately 90 to 99 percent of all matter in the universe.
- The brilliant colors in a hummingbird's feather are created by tiny platelets that resemble a pancake filled with air bubbles. They are called "interference colors," and are much like the shimmering colors seen in a soap bubble or in a drop of oil.
- The adjective "sesquipedalian" defines itself: it is used to describe the use of very long, or multi-syllabic, words.
- The most famous natural landmark in Northern Ireland is the Giant’s Causeway. Comprised of approximately 37,000 dark basalt columns packed together, they were formed when a volcanic eruption spewed molten basalt out 55 million years ago. As the basalt cooled, these unique polygonal structures were formed. Most of the columns of the Giant's Causeway form a six-sided honeycomb pattern. Some have as many as ten sides and measure about 12 inches across and up to forty feet in length.
- The Eiffel Tower is painted approximately once every 7 years and requires nearly 50 tons of paint each time. It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Paris, visited by more than six million people per year.
- The standard single oar used by gondoliers in Venice is 14 feet long.
- In England a quarter penny was originally known as a fourthing - when coins were cut into pieces to make change - farthing is a corruption of fourthing.
- "Mageiricophobia" is the intense fear of having to cook.
- When a school of baby catfish are threatened, their father opens his huge mouth and the youngsters swim inside to hide. When danger has passed, he reopens his mouth and lets the fry out.
- Of the twenty-five highest mountains on Earth, nineteen are in the Himalayas.
- The star known as LP 327-186, a so-called white dwarf, is smaller than the state of Texas, yet so dense, that if a cubic inch of it were brought to Earth, it would weigh more than 1.5 million tons.
These trivial facts, and more, can be found at www.uselessknowledge.com.
Beth
Read the complete issue of The Chautauqua here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11qNTs5vjz56n-Rc4IlZhidtxZp-M_S28/view?usp=sharing
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