Tuesday, January 22, 2008

More Trivia!

Trivia for blog

If large blocks of ice are stored in well-insulated buildings and covered with sawdust, the ice can last for most of the year without melting.

The [Tootsie Roll] company has done well even when the candy industry has been in a slump. It has paid dividends for 53 years, increased sales each year for the past 19 years, and boosted annual earnings for the past 14 years.

Vampire bats need two tablespoonfuls of blood each day. They land near a sleeping victim and approach on foot to avoid waking the intended prey. The bat uses a heat sensor to determine where the blood is closest to the skin and then makes a small incision (one fifth of an inch long) to extract the blood.

The longest place name in the United States is that of a lake near Webster, Massachusetts. The 2-square mile lake is called Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg, which is a Nipmuck Indian word freely translated as “You fish on your side, I fish on my side, nobody fishes in the middle.”

The longest place name in the world is a hill in New Zealand. The hill is simply called Taumatawhakatangihangakoauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanataha. It is a Maori word meaning “The brow of the hill where Tamatea who sailed all round the land played his nose flute to his lady love.”

If you count the chirps of a tree cricket for 15 seconds and then add 37, it will be almost exactly the true temperature in degrees Fahrenheit.

Poplar trees and both red and silver maple trees are good rain predictors. During a low pressure system before an impending rainstorm, the leaves flip up.

This is taken from the book Do Fish Drink Water by Bill McLain.

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