— Some Interesting Facts (or not) and a bit of technicality and humor
Various emails are always circulating; some better written than others. Here is one I received and to which I added my comments (technical, imaginary, humorous, snide, etc.) [inserted in brackets]. For those who enjoy my sense of humor and insight, I hope you garner a few things to think about or a few chuckles. For those who do not, we now return you to your previously scheduled program...
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Glass takes one million years to decompose, which means it never wears out and can be recycled an infinite amount of times!
[Well, no, if glass takes a million years to decompose then it wears out in a million years. Who writes these things? I also doubt it could be recycled an infinite amount of times to any greater degree than other things could be recycled an infinite amount of times. Also, I question whether infinite is an amount. I would think it would be a potential amount; but not an actual amount: for it does not exist since it can never be reached (but I am not an theoretical physicist). The proper statement would be: “It is possibly that glass may be able to be recycled indefinitely—or at least to the point that it decomposes, which has been theorized to be about a million years.”]
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Gold is the only metal that doesn’t rust, even if it’s buried in the ground for thousands of years.
[I believe the terms meant are “oxidize” and “corrode”. Aluminum, copper, and silver don’t “rust” either; but they do oxidize and corrode. I do not believe stainless steel "rusts" either; at least, only very minimally, though once the nickle-magnesium coating (which self-heals after cuts) broke down, then I imagine the stainless steel, or what is left of what was once stainless steel, would then rust. However, I am not a metallurgist, so maybe I am the one confused.]
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Your tongue is the only muscle in your body that is attached at only one end.
[So many people are poor conceptualizers (thinkers) and communicators. I am not sure what this really means. Maybe I am a freak of nature; I don't know about anyone else, but when I look at my fingers, they end and there is nothing beyond them (funny thing, same thing about my toes). Ears and nose are cartilage, so they are not muscles. I can flex my fingers and toes. I am not a anatomist, but I do believe that means there is muscle tissue doing it, and since there is nothing where my fingers and toes end, it would seem that there is muscle attached to only one end. So I have no idea what this means. Males also have an appendage that can stiffen and flex, and that seems to indicate muscle tissue.]
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If you stop getting thirsty, you need to drink more water. When a human body is dehydrated, its thirst mechanism shuts off.
[Humans are not “its”. In the innane, anti-intellectual perversity of gender erosion, people talk and write incorrectly, thinking that error is truth. Most often people change the gender-specific pronounce “his” to “their”, dishonestly and irrationally rendering it a plural. In this case, the writer of this tidbit of information renders a human an “it”. The correct way to say it is: “When human bodies are dehydrated their thirst mechanisms shut off”; or, if one is not gender terrorized, “When a human body is dehydrated his thirst mechanism shuts off”.
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Zero is the only number that cannot be represented by Roman numerals.
[Actually, zero is not a number. It is the lack of number. At least, that is how I see it. Most people may consider it a number; but as Anatole France said, “If fifty million people say a stupid thing, it is still a stupid thing”. But nothing is not a number. It is anti-number. It may possible be a digit though, in binary, or the lack thereof. However, fingers are also referred to as “digits”. Normal people have five on each hand. I have never heard of someone who lost a finger, still having 5 digits on the hand that lost the finger: 4 of them being “1” and 1 (which does not exist except in memory) somehow being “0”. But I am not a mathematician either. Just because a board of self-appointed number officials voted on whether zero is a number does not make it so; it only means it is officially recognized by that official body as a number and in many cases—such as evolution—it is merely totalitarian make believe).]
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Kites were used in the American Civil War to deliver letters and newspapers.
[They might have been used to deliver checks too, but that is a crime now.]
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The song, Auld Lang Syne, is sung at the stroke of midnight in almost every English-speaking country in the world to bring in the new year.
[Soon it will be sung in another or other languages, as English speakers become the minority, then the song will be scrapped altogether in favor of some hideous wailing.]
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Drinking water after eating reduces the acid in your mouth by 61 percent.
[Conversely, presumably drinking acid will also reduce the water in your mouth by 61%; but I don’t recommend it.
However, this is a good point. After eating anything with vinegar, lemon juice—anything acidic (alcohol, coffee, tea, meat, all sugars [other than xylitol], soft drinks—and the latter should be avoided 99% of the time) you should rinse your mouth with water, drink water, brush your teeth or eat (letting it slowly dissolve in your mouth) a 1/4 teaspoon of xylitol (which is alkaline as well as anti-bacterial) which will prevent the acid from eating off the enamel off your teeth and even remineralize and recalcify your bones and teeth.]
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Peanut oil is used for cooking in submarines because it doesn’t smoke unless it’s heated above 450F.
[Many other oils are better for you (whether you are in a submarine or not, and they are even better on a submarine sandwich). Olive oil is not for cooking at a high heat (and you have to be very careful, because the olive oil industry is corrupt and it is reported that most olive oil from the Mediterranean is now cut with canola and other oils, adulterating it, and also rancid oils are often used, with chemicals added to mask the rancid smell / flavor. See Health Bulletin Board at my webpage, for a vast array of information about many oils, their heat point, health properties, etc. However, any vegetable oil can be used on a submarine sandwich and no cooking is necessary.]
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The roar that we hear when we place a seashell next to our ear is not the ocean, but rather the sound of blood surging through the veins in the ear.
[Really, and ever since my days as a cave man, I thought it was the ocean. Does anyone above the age of 5 or 7 really believe it is the ocean? Well, I should rephrase: does anyone educated in the public schools above grade 5 (which in reality now is grade 12) really believe it is the ocean...?]
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Nine out of every 10 living things live in the ocean.
[Therefore, I imagine 9 out of 10 dead or dying things or living things that are being killed are also in the ocean. Moral of this story: Stay out of the ocean.]
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The banana cannot reproduce itself. It can be propagated only by the hand of man.
[If this is true, how has it ever survived...? —especially in light of the modern foolish, unscientific notion of evolution in which man is a rather Johnny-come-lately. How did the banana plant (which is actually a grass, I believe, but I am not a botanist) survive for millions of years before monkeys crawled out of the ocean from ooze, learned to climb trees and grow tails, then fell out of the tree and decided they again liked the ground better and didn’t need tails so they “lost” them (why they didn’t decide to crawl back into the ocean and grow fins is a mystery), and then some considerable more time passed before the ape-men turned human and became horticulturalists to help out the poor banana plant. That’s a long time for a banana plant to hold its breath (bananas must have originally been blue). I guess the banana plant joined a monestary and took a vow of chastidy/celibacy until it could have man help it to reproduce. And if plants just evolved... the banana was not slated to survive due to the survival of the fittest since it was so poorly “evolved” that it cannot even reproduce itself. Or is the modern banana a cross-species hybrid freak of nature (hybrids often being sterile) and the original parent stock unknown...? (maybe a cross between a kiwi and a breadfruit?, but that can't be the case, because neither of those is a grass). Thus, the elaborate theory of evolution has been toppled by the humble banana. Similarly, the tiny fruit fly is the straw of reality that broke the evolutionary camel’s back. Billions of years of “evolution” and “natural selection” and “survival of the fittest” and fruit flies / gnats still commit kamakaze in my eye, and the eyes of most humans and animals. How many times has a fruit fly flown into a cow’s eye and come out with a good meal? It’s not like the fly has rational powers, like a Japenese who eats Fugu (poison blowfish, which, if not prepared properly by a trained professional, which professionals are human and sometimes goof up, the person who eats it could die). Fruit flies cannot reason, “I know it is risky, but it is just so tasty I can’t resist”. Fruit flies, according to evolution, should all either be extinct, or should have graduated Fruit Fly University and be far more intelligent and not fly into eyeballs, which is fatal nearly 100% of the time.]
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Airports at higher altitudes require a longer airstrip due to lower air density.
[—unless Obama is on board, then the air is pretty dense.]
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The University of Alaska spans four time zones.
[How do they deal with the excuses when students are late to class? Do all or none of them observe day-light savings?]
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The tooth is the only part of the human body that cannot heal itself.
[Untrue and poorly conceptualized on several counts. Nothing in the body heals itself; nothing in the body is autonomous from the rest of the body. The liver is the only known organ that can regenerate, but even the liver does not do it all by itself. I don’t believe there is any scientific study documenting a liver in a glass jar ever regenerating all by its lonesome. Everything else in the body, I believe, can heal; but nothing in the body can heal itself. While a finger cut off does not regrow, skin does, and skin is considered the body’s largest organ, so yes, another organ can regenerate. However, the liver may be the only internal organ than can regenerate. But nothing in the body is an island unto itself. The body is a cooperative flowing organism and cells and organs and chemicals and hormones and nutrients and processes from many parts of the body collaborate to help any other part of the body heal. Xylitol (the only man-made sugar that is not only not harmful, but healthy for you, in many respects, and now a newer sister sugar, Erythritol, is also similarly healthy and beneficial), helps to remineralize and recalcify the bones and teeth. Small cavities can and do heal. I believe this claim that teeth cannot heal was a lie concocted by the tooth fairy in conspiracy with the American Dental Association.]
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In ancient Greece, tossing an apple to a girl was a traditional proposal of marriage. Catching it meant she accepted.
[—or she wasn’t too bright and was really really hungry.... or there was a bee on the apple and he was just getting rid of the bee on some unfortunate bystander; like if you have ever been at a fair and a bee is chasing you, you quickly run into a crowd. What happened if the guy was a bad aim and the girl for whom it was intended either missed it, or purposely ignored it, and some hag caught it? —or some other guy? What if some guy threw a red plum or small pommegranate and then then after a girl caught it, if the guy yelled, “April Fool!” ...? These Greeks (if they were actually Greeks) really should have thought this one through. I don’t think they could claim “ignorance” and say, “Hey, it’s all Greek to me”.]
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Warner Communications paid $28 million for the copyright to the song Happy Birthday.
[That’s pretty stupid. In what year? If half a century ago, that would be nearly $2 billion in today’s money. I guess they needed a tax write off or they were laundering money. Or did they really expect that after every time someone sung “Happy Birthday” that all those persons who participated in the singing of it were then required to mail Warner $1 in the mail...? Or did they really expect it to become a hit single by Elvis or Perry Como or Bing Crosby or Sinatra—or Jerry Lewis?]
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Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.
[Intelligent people probably eat healthier food and take vitamin / mineral supplements. Or, it could be there are genetic factors. I wonder why they did not break down this scientific analysis by demographics...? What types of hair have more zinc and copper, would be the next obvious question.]
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A comet’s tail always points away from the sun.
[Technically, the tail does not point. It is not a living, thinking, reactive organism. The tail of the comet is always positioned or directed away from the sun because the solar wind blows the tail behind the comet as the comet travels in its orbit.]
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The Swine Flu vaccine in 1976 caused more death and illness than the disease it was intended to prevent.
[Yes, and the same with all other vaccinations / flu shots, as well as a huge percentage of all “approved” drugs on the market (more people die from modern medicine / doctors / hospitals each year in the U.S. than the total number of persons who died in the U.S. so-called Civil war); but this data is kept from public knowledge.]
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Caffeine increases the power of aspirin and other painkillers, that is why it is found in some medicines.
[I don't believe it “increases the power”; I believe what is meant that it synergistically augments the effectiveness of aspirin. If it “increased the power” of aspirin, aspirin bottles would say, “normal dose: 2 tablets—unless you have just drunk a cup of coffee or tea or soda, in which case only take 1 or you will overdose.”
Anything that will increase circulation will increase the effectiveness of most medications or supplements because it speeds up the time that it takes to get for the medicines or nutrients to enter the bloodstream where they are distributed by the blood throughout the body. Caffeine is a stimulant and increases circulation. Cayenne (or any hot) pepper does the same thing (and black pepper, to a lesser extent); as does ginger.]
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The military salute is a motion that evolved from medieval times, when knights in armor raised their visors to reveal their identity.
[Again, poorly worded. The military salute of the hand to the temple has this origin; not all military salutes. The Romans, Nazis, etc. had different types of salutes that do not involve the hand to the temple and thus do not have this origin. Further, knights did not generally go to masquerade balls in full uniform asking people to guess who they were. The issue was not to reveal identity. Knights did not wear armor to hide their identity but hide their vital organs from the enemy’s blows. Knights raised their visors to better see, and only had the visors down when in combat (or maybe when trying to take a nap). The visor was raised, of course, to a superior, as a sign of respect and a sign of submission, even as taking off a hat or rising from being seated. Thus, the raising of the visor to a superior (whence derives the military salute to the temple) was an act of submission and respect, not a game of “peek-a-boo”.]
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If you get into the bottom of a well or a tall chimney and look up, you can see stars, even in the middle of the day.
[Yes, this is on the same principle as that of aperture, I believe (though I am not a photographer); the same thing is experienced, to a lesser degree (I think), when you are inside a large building, looking out from the back of the well-lit store through limited window space in the front of the store... like when doing last minute shopping before going home as the day is ending. From inside the store (especially when you are toward the back of the store) it looks very dark outside... but once you get outside you realize that it was not nearly as dark as you thought that it was.]
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When a person dies, hearing is the last sense to go. The first sense lost is sight.
[Not sure how they can really tell this, since the person is dead and cannot respond. Of course, those who are already blind or deaf before they die, that sort of throws a kink into this data. But when a person is dead he is dead. If the brain is dead, there is no sense of sight because there is no activity in the brain; likewise with the other senses. Maybe the muscles in the eye lose their residual electrical impulses first, but that is different than the sense of sight itself; because if the brain is dead, nothing registers, so there is no sight, though muscles in the eye may twitch on. Possibly what is meant is-- “as a person is slowly dying...” not, when a person dies. Someone who dies instantly in a car accident or such, I doubt there is any measurable difference between the time span of when each of the senses depart (or specific muscular twitching). Further, I doubt it is a hard and fast rule that is universal, so I would suggest the possible intention is, “as a person is slowly dying, generally...” Who knows, maybe they hooked electrodes up to dying mice or humans to monitor electrical activity. However, did they do a control study and also put cayenne pepper in the mouth (or nostrils) of mice before they killed them, to determine whether the taste buds or olfactory nerves continued to show electrical activity? Is electrical activity the only factor? What about bio-chemical / hormone activity? Such things really need to be stated coherently, not generally.]
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In ancient times strangers shook hands to show that they were unarmed.
[Unless they shook with both hands at the same time, saying, “Okay, on the count of three, “1, 2, 3—shake!” then it was pretty stupid, because an unsuspecting person would be most vulnerable while another man is that close and holding his one hand firmly, and he could easily pull out a weapon with the other hand and the intended victim would have little chance.]
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Strawberries are the only fruits whose seeds grow on the outside.
[Strawberries are the only known fruit, whose seeds grow on the outside; but, whether strawberries are actually fruit or a class by themselves is another matter; as most berries grow on trees, bushes, shrubs, vines, canes, or brambles, whereas strawberries grow creeping along the ground sort of like how spreading crab grass grows.]
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Avocados have the highest calories of any fruit at 167 calories per hundred grams.
[That is because they have the highest fat content. Fat is dense, high-calorie food / potential energy. This is an interesting site: http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-blog/fruit-vegetable-difference/bgp-20056141 — technically, a fruit is anything that forms from the flower of a plant. Vegetables or herbs are actually the flowers, leaves, roots, stems, or tubers themselves. I also see there that there is an advertisement for the “Mayo-clinic diet”—but I thought mayo was fattening since it is mostly oil...? I’m confused. Regardless, what differentiates between a nut and a fruit? Almonds are nuts of a particular species of peaches or apricots. Peanuts are not actually nuts, but are beans (legumes) that grow underground in clumps like potatoes do. This site is also very helpful, complete analysis of most major foods: http://nutritiondata.self.com/ According to the data there, olives (which are likewise a fruit) contain 3.6 calories per olive (2 grams); therefore, 3.6 x 50 = 180 calories per 100 grams. Olives beat out avocados.]
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The moon moves about two inches away from the Earth each year.
[This means that the tides are diminishing? Would this also make the duration of the visibility of the light the moon reflects a longer period of time in any given spot on earth since being farther from earth more light of the sun can reach it, even though the proportional size of the moon would diminish, giving a smaller reflective surface, but for a longer period of time?]
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The Earth gets 100 tons heavier every day due to falling space dust.
[And I thought I had hay fever from ragweed; now it seems I have “space fever”....? If earth gets heavier each year, it increases its mass, if it increases its mass it grows larger; if it grows larger it expands outward in dimension; if it expands outward in dimension it moves closer to the moon. However 100 tons over the circumference of the whole earth is negligible. But give earth an “A” for effort in trying to catch back up to that rebellious moon trying to run away.]
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Due to earth’s gravity it is impossible for mountains to be higher than 15,000 meters.
[In theory. But in theory, the bumblebee should be incapable of flight. However, on a side note: This morning while reading in the Scriptures I read the passage in Matthew 4 where Satan took Christ “to an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth Him all the kingdoms of the world.” I wonder if he took Him to Everest? If so, then it was not the German Baron Alexander von Humbuldt who had ascended highest into earth’s atmosphere (1802) when he he climbed nearly to the top of Mount Chimborazo in Equador, attaining an altitude of 19,286 feet above sea level (only 1,300 feet short of the summit) without any oxygen or modern mountain climbing devices; and the Kiwi, Sir Edmund Hillary in 1953 broke that record soundly when he was the first to conquer Everest (it taking 7 weeks). Of course, if Christ was on top of Everest, the view was not new to Him; although Humboldt’s and Hillary’s achievements were not by super-human means. But it is an interesting concept. I guess if Christ did view he world’s Kingdoms from there, He did not stay there looking too long, since if you are not wearing special glacier glasses at the top of Everest, you will go blind in 15-20 minutes from frying your retinas due to the intensity of the suns rays and the thin atmosphere.]
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Mickey Mouse is known as “Topolino” in Italy.
[That truly is fascinating and has changed my perspective on life and I will never be the same again.]
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Soldiers do not march in step when going across bridges because they could set up a vibration which could be sufficient to knock the bridge down.
[Soldiers are ordered to not march in step / unison when crossing a bridge (soldiers, if they are good soldiers, do not do anything on their own, but only when so ordered). Yes, vibrations can do very strange things, like a singer hitting the right pitch and sustaining it and breaking glass with his voice. Suspension bridges have been known to look like they turned to rubber and collapse or nearly collapse from the wind, not from any high wind, but from an odd wind that produces a certain frequency / vibration over a sustained period of time, at the right temperature, with the right (or wrong) shape of the bridge to cause the wind flow to help produce that pitch / vibration. I am sure you can find a video clip of such phenomena; maybe of the Golden Gate bridge. However, I would also imagine that the staff seargant would not bark, “fall out” before crossing a bridge; as that may be interpreted in the wrong way by those lesser I.Q.-ed infantry.]
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Everything weighs one percent less at the equator.
[Does everything sold at the equator then sell for 1% less per kilo...?]
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For every extra kilogram carried on a space flight, 530 kg. of excess fuel are needed at lift-off.
[Well, then clearly all lift offs into space should be undertaken at the equator where everything weighs 1% less. There, I just saved the governments of the world a trillion dollars. I would like 10% of that 1% that I saved them as a consultant fee. They may send it to my paypal account at this email address.]
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The letter J does not appear anywhere on the periodic table of the elements.
[Give them time, they will discover something (or think they have; then maybe downgrade it like the planet Pluto, now the victim of a hate crime and discrimination, being downgraded to “space debris” after having enjoyed nearly 3/4 of a century of pride in being recognized as a planet (again, after a bunch of self-appointed “experts” in suits and lab coats “voted” on what would be “officially recognized” as “reality”). There are currently 118 elements (that is, specific substances not reducible to anything else; its identity exists in its singular atom). My dad (a chemistry major, M.D., psychiatrist) one time told me that when he went to college there were far fewer elements on the periodic chart and it was not as hard to memorize as it is today. I said, “Yeah— ‘earth, wind, fire, and water’.” I think he slugged me (with a grin). Again, technically, the letters J, I, and Y are all the same, that were later specialized, so J is actually represented in Yttrium (Y) and Iodine (I); so J should not feel completely neglected. Though if J were to turn gay or transgender I am certain a whole bevvy of special interest groups would lobby for J being treated special and get it’s own element—even if it has to be made up... how about Jayfagbananium...? a substance that cannot form by normal copulation (like the banana plant) and will cease to exist (according to the laws of natural selection and survival of the fittest) unless special laws are passed to protect its unnatural, unlawful promiscuity and inferiority and unfitness for survival which is proved by the fact that it needs special laws to protect it. Amazing how the evolutionists ignore their basic pseudo-laws and theories when it suits them. The evolutionists say not to feed the wild animals because they will become dependent on man. “What is welfare...?”, I ask. The same evolutionists violate their own principles. On a lighter note: decades ago, one day I accompanied a friend of mine to the Bronx Zoo. I was shocked that we were no longer in America, but what seemed to be Nigeria. The animals’ cages had signs on them saying, “Don’t feed the animals.” I said to my friend, “Those signs should be on the inside of the cages!”]