September 16, 2012

got a lot of interesting stuff this week, I hope you all learn something new!

-Mice never stop peeing.

-In 2011, there were 16 cases of Americans dying in terrorist attacks (including soldiers). The same amount as Americans dying of falling televisions.

-You can't hear your own real voice when you talk or sing. Your mouth and ears cause an echo in your head that changes the sound. That's why your voice always sounds weird on answering machines, videos, P.A. systems, etc.

-Escargot, was created by the French in a time of poverty.

-Sunflowers follow the sun across the sky.

-There's a parasite in cats brains that make people (mostly owners or other people who spend lots of time with them) like them more than they really do.

-There were 2 creation myths in Genesis when the Bible was first written. There was the whole "let there be light" deal and a second where Adam threw clods of dirt over his shoulder to create first Eve and later all the other people of the world that don't believe in God, i.e. Pagans. The church later removed this once all the Pagans had been either converted or exterminated.

-Adam had a wife before Eve named Lillith who was a succubus and didn't want to go along with Christianity, so she was replaced by Eve.

-There's a parasite that infects snails and creates these pulsing worm-like growths in the head and controls their minds to go out into the sun to attract birds. The birds go after the growths because they look like worms, bite them off and get infected by the parasite themselves.

-Most fruit juices are sweetened with grape juice.

-There's a type of female wasp that injects roaches with a paralyzing venom into the legs and then another injection into the head to block the "fight or flight" response in the roach. After the roach becomes docile, the wasp uses the roach's antennae to essentially ride it back to the wasp's burrow like a horse. Once the roach is in the burrow, the wasp lays an egg on the roach's abdomen then leaves and blocks the entrance with rocks. The egg hatches and the larva feeds on the roach then eats into its body, devouring its organs in a way to keep it alive until it is big enough to form a cocoon inside the roach's body to grow to its full size.

-The East India Company was the first international corporation and they created essentially a monopoly in India to control the country. They only sold their crappy products to the Indian people, not allowing any other products to be sold, then used the massive profits to better the products they sold to the British.

back to school

So, as you may have noticed, I haven't posted in a little over a month. And I'll be honest, I gave myself a summer vacation from posting, mostly because I didn't really learn shit. There were a few things I did learn, and I'll try to include them in this post if I can remember any of them. Now that I'm back in school and actually supposed to be learning things, I figured it was a good enough time to get back into the blog before I forget about it completely again. Without further ado, let's get started!
-Tomatoes grow bigger if exposed to more direct sunlight.

-As humans evolved to a more upright posture, our larynx dropped in our throats, creating a second higher cavity called the pharynx that gives us more vocal power through a wider range and clarity of sounds coming out of our vocal chords (in the larynx). This pharynx also makes it more likely for humans to choke on our food. Primates don't have the same vocal power we do, but they don't have to worry about choking.

-Humans are the only species capable of thinking or talking about language.

-When honeybees find a new source of nectar, they communicate its location to other bees by performing a complex dance routine. (round dance for nearby and tail-wagging dance, with variable tempo, for further away and how far). But it can only be about the most recent source, they are unable to communicate past or future sources.

-Bees don't have a "word" for up in their language, and cannot create a new one because their language has a fixed number of "words" that they can use.

-In the mid 1980s, a man named Terrence Deacon discovered a seal in the Boston Aquarium that was able to "speak"-or rather, imitate human sounds like "Hey! Hey you! Get outa there!".

-Charles Darwin believed that humans developed musical ability before speech as a means of "charming" each other.

-Written language started about 5,000 years ago.

-Human lips have more intricate muscle interlacing than other primates which makes them more flexible and easier for us to make p or b sounds.

-Human tongues are smaller, thicker and more muscular than those of other primates.

-Human babies and chimpanzees have the ability to drink and breathe at the same time.

-The clitoris never stops growing.

-The largest penis in the world is 9 inches flaccid, 13.5 erect, and belongs to a man in New York.

-The average speed of male ejaculation is 28mph.

-The scent of a man's sweat can reduce tension in women.

-Rosemary can increase memory.

-Rubbing the inside of a banana peel on a bug bite will stop the itch and speed up the healing process.