Formidable Facts

Before you assume,

LEARN THE FACTS.

Before you judge,

understand why.

Before you hurt , feel

Before you speak, think.

-unknown

Throughout our lifetimes we are inundated with “facts” that help us understand how to live healthy, happy and educated lives. Some facts make us laugh, some facts just help us get along, some facts are disturbing and some facts make us glad we are who we are. A lot of what we hear or understand depends on outcome. The more accurate the fact the closer it is to the truth and our trust in it.

The following unsung facts, while random on subject and substance, are definitely worth the read.

#1 Fact: Hot desert sand storms are a caldron for Bacterial Meningitis.

Exposure to airborne dust and high temperatures are influential vectors of Bacterial Meningitis.
The Sahel region of Niger specifically and West Africa in general, has the highest number of Bacterial Meningitis in the world.
Over the past ten years about one million cases of bacterial meningitis were diagnosed in the Sahel region of Africa, resulting in some 100,000 deaths.

#2 Fact: The largest flea in the world feasts on the Mountain Beaver.

The Mountain Beaver, a small burrowing rodent weighing no more than 5 lbs, hosts the largest flea in the world: the Hystrichopsylla schefferi, which holds the Guinness Book of Records at 13 mm in length! Now that’s disgusting on so many levels.
The head of a Hystrichopsylla schefferi alone is the size of a cat or dog flea.

#3 Fact: Babies swim in and drink their own pee for about 25 weeks.

A baby starts drinking a mixture of urine and amniotic fluid around week 10 or 11, or when a layer of cells blocking their mouths, called the buccopharyngeal membrane , ruptures, allowing the baby to swallow.
By week 20 most of the amniotic fluid is urine. No way!

#4 Fact: Jellyfish are made up of 95% water and are brainless.

Jellyfish have been in existence for 650 million years.
Jellyfish proceed the dinosaur and shark.
Jellyfish do not possess a brain. Say what?

#6 Fact: A Wombat’s poop is square.

Wombats are burrowing marsupials native to Australia.
Wombats are the only animals in the world with cube shaped scat.
Wombats intestines vary in shape and stretch irregularly during digestion. This irregularity is to blame for the strange scat although its anus is round.
Who said you couldn’t be a square peg in a round hole.

#7 Fact: Smoking will kill you.

Tobacco spearheads the #1 preventable cause of death in the world today.
More than 16 million Americans are living with a disease caused by smoking.
Smoking harms nearly every organ in the body and is a direct link to cancer, lung disease, heart disease, stroke, immune system malfunction, rheumatoid arthritis, tuberculosis, eye disease and erectile dysfunction.
Smoking is responsible for over 480,000 deaths per year in the United States alone.
Smoking is nasty, don’t even think about it!

#8 Fact: Love Can Be Tricky

It’s virtually impossible to stay angry at someone you truly love.
Anger that lasts more than 3 days indicates that you are not in love.
“Love easily lost” occurs most frequently in a relationship built precariously to begin with.

#5 Fact: The stickers on fruit are edible.

Fruit stickers are edible if mistakenly eaten with the fruit. Specialized paper was design for this purpose
The glue on the back of the sticker is edible as well. How nice.

#9 Fact: Water Intoxication can be detrimental to your health.

Please watch this youtube video for important information on the real dangers of drinking too much water. It’s a fact!!

#10 Fact: Dogs Experience Eye Love.

In both humans and dogs, eye contact releases the hormone oxytocin, otherwise known as the love hormone
Looking into the eyes of your dog increases the bonding between the two of you.

#11 Fact: Some dogs actually have web feet.

Webbed feet are natural to Newfoundlands, Portuguese Water Dogs and Weimaraners to help them navigate in water.
Many dogs have webbed feet that aren’t necessarily used for swimming. Dachshunds have webbed feet to dig and were used to help hunt badgers, prairie dogs and other small burrowing animals.
Portuguese Water Dogs are made for the water and were known to help fishermen herd fish into their nests.

#12 Fact: The smallest dog in the world measures 3.8 inches tall and can fit into a tea cup.

According to The Guinness Book of Records the smallest living dog today is a tiny Puerto Rican Chihuahua named Milly who measures 3.8″ in height.
Milly weighed less than one ounce at birth and had to be fed with a eyedropper. An ounce is a little more than the weight of a hummingbird!
Milly weighed 20 ounces at one year of age. Wow!

#13 Fact: The oldest Spruce tree in the world is found in Sweden.

Old Tjikko is a 9,550 year-old Norway spruce, located on Fulufjället Mountain of Dalarna province in Sweden. It originally gained fame as the “world’s oldest tree “but has since been corrected as the third oldest clonal tree and the oldest living Picea abies (spruce).
Old Tjikko is one of a series of genetically identical clones growing from a root system, one part of which is estimated to be 9,550 years old.

#14 Fact: The massive Aspen grove, Pando, is located in south central Utah, and incredibly honored as the oldest organism and heaviest rooted system in the world.

Pando has been nicknamed the trembling giant.
Pando is a clonal colony, a collection of genetically identical trees that have grown from a single ancestor.
Pando occupies 108 acres and is estimated to weigh 6,600 short tons, making it the heaviest known organism on earth!
The root system of Pando is approximately 80,000 thousand years old, placing it among the oldest known living organisms. Unbelievable!

#15 Fact: The Australian Box Jellyfish: A Translucent beauty with one of the deadliest venom on earth.

The venom from the Australian Box Jellyfish is considered to be the most deadly in the marine world, containing toxins that viciously attack the heart and nervous system of its victim.
Its tentacles can hurl millions of nematocysts if threatened while injecting large amounts of venom.
The Australian Box Jellyfish can store enough venom to kill 60 adults.
It can reach up to 1 foot in diameter and its tentacles growth up to ten feet long.
It can swim at speeds up to four knots. (Most jellyfish float wherever the current takes them.)
The Australian Box Jellyfish has eyes at the sides of it head. So don’t think there not on you!
You see one of these creatures, swim away pronto!

A Brief Pause

**I just love unusual and often unknown facts. In fact this post is an ongoing project and will continue to grow as I find more interesting and little known stuff to share.

References

(1)Photos from google images

(2)Video: You tube “Water Intoxication”