Trivia

[Lady Sidhe]

I collect trivia, and here's some stuff I thought was interesting:


Fleas can accelerate 50 times faster than the space shuttle.

There's enough energy in ten minutes of one hurricane to
match the nuclear stockpiles of the world.


Papaya leaves and unripe papaya have an enzyme called
papain that breaks down protein in meat to make it tender.
That’s why papaya can be used as a meat tenderizer.

Oak trees are struck by lightning more often than any other
tree. It has been theorized, this is one reason that the
ancient Greeks considered oak trees sacred to Zeus, god
of thunder and lightning.


Body language differs from one country to another. For
instance, grasping one's ears is a sign of repentance or
sincerity in India. A similar gesture in Brazil--holding
the lobe of one's ear between the thumb and forefinger--
signifies appreciation.

Chicago, Illinois was nicknamed the Windy City because
of the excessive local bragging that accompanied the
Columbian Exhibition of 1893. Chicago has actually been
rated as only the 16th breeziest city in America.



Seals can withstand water pressure of up to 850 pounds
per square inch.

Physicists now believe the universe to be three billion
years younger than previously thought. New information
gathered by the Hipparcos satellite, combined with a
reanalysis of other distance data, has enabled researchers
to refine the lower age limit of the universe to
9.6 billion years.