Fact: Only a quarter of the Sahara Desert is sandy
Most of it is covered in gravel, though it also contains mountains and oases. And here’s another geography fact that everyone gets wrong: It isn’t the world’s largest desert. Antarctica is.
Fact: Bananas grow upside down
Or technically, we peel them upside down. Naturally, they grow outward from their stems, but that means their bottoms actually face the sky. As they get bigger, the fruits turn toward the sun, forming that distinctive curve.
Fact: There were active volcanoes on the moon when dinosaurs were alive
Most of the volcanoes probably stopped erupting about a billion years ago, but NASA findings have suggested there might still have been active lava flow 100 million years ago, when dinosaurs were still roaming.
Fact: Dogs sniff good smells with their left nostril
Dogs normally start sniffing with their right nostril, then keep it there if the smell could signal danger, but they’ll shift to the left side for something pleasant, like food or a mating partner.
Fact: Avocados were named after reproductive organs
You’ll never look at avocados the same way again. Indigenous people of Mexico and Central America used the Nahuatl word āhuacatl to mean both “testicles” and “avocado.” The fruits were originally marketed as “alligator pears” in the United States until the current name stuck.
Fact: T. S. Eliot wore green makeup
No one is sure why the poet dusted his face with green powder, though some guess he was just trying to look more interesting.
Fact: The word “fizzle” started as a type of fart
In the 1400s, it meant to “break wind quietly,” according to the English Oxford Living Dictionaries.
Fact: Human noses and ears get bigger as we age
It’s pretty common to see the claim that our nose and ears are the only parts of our body that keep growing as we age, but that’s not exactly true. Our nose and ears stop growing along with the rest of our body, but thanks to the weight of gravity, both parts continue to lengthen over time, according to the Discovery Channel.
Fact: No number before 1,000 contains the letter A
But there are plenty of E’s, I’s, O’s, U’s, and Y’s.
Fact: The # symbol isn’t officially called hashtag or pound
Its technical name is octothorpe. The “octo” means “eight” and refers to its points, though reports disagree on where “thorpe” came from. Some claim it was named after Olympian Jim Thorpe, while others argue it was just a nonsense suffix.
Fact: The French have their own name for a French kiss
Something extra interesting about this kissing fact? The word hasn’t been around for long. In 2014, galocher—meaning to kiss with tongues—was added to the Petit Robert French dictionary.
Fact: You can thank the Greeks for calling Christmas “Xmas”
In Greek, the word for “Christ” starts with the letter Chi, which looks like an X in the Roman alphabet.
Fact: Movie trailers originally played after the movie
They “trailed” the feature film—hence, the name. The first trailer appeared in 1912 and was for a Broadway show, not a movie.
Fact: Mercedes invented a car controlled by a joystick
The joystick in the 1966 Mercedes F200 showcase car controlled speed and direction, replacing both the steering wheel and pedals. The car could also sense which side the driver was sitting in, so someone could control it from the passenger seat.
Fact: H&M actually stands for something
This is one of those interesting facts you’ve probably never thought about before. The clothing retail shop was originally called Hennes—Swedish for “hers”—before acquiring the hunting and fishing equipment brand Mauritz Widforss. Eventually, Hennes & Mauritz was shortened to H&M.
Fact: The U.S. government saved every public tweet from 2006 through 2017
Starting in 2018, the Library of Congress decided to only keep tweets on “a very selective basis,” including elections and those dealing with something of national interest, like public policy.
Fact: Theodore Roosevelt had a pet hyena
Its name was Bill, and it was a present from the Ethiopian emperor. Roosevelt was famous for his many pets, including a one-legged rooster, a badger, a pony, and a small bear.
Fact: The CIA headquarters has its own Starbucks, but baristas don’t write names on the cups
Its receipts say “Store Number 1” instead of “Starbucks,” and its workers need an escort to leave their work posts.
Fact: Giraffe tongues can be 20 inches long
Their dark, bluish-black color is probably to prevent sunburn.
Fact: There’s only one U.S. state capital without a McDonald’s
Montpelier, Vermont, doesn’t have any of those Golden Arches. It also happens to have the smallest population of any state capital, with just 7,500 residents.
Fact: Europeans were scared of eating tomatoes when they were introduced
Scholars think Hernán Cortés brought the seeds in 1519 with the intent of the fruits being used ornamentally in gardens. By the 1700s, aristocrats started eating tomatoes, but they were convinced the fruits were poisonous because people would die after eating them. In reality, the acidity from the tomatoes brought out the lead in their pewter plates, and they actually died of lead poisoning.
Fact: Humans aren’t the only animals that dream
Studies have indicated rats dream about getting to food or running through mazes. Most mammals go through REM sleep, the cycle in which dreams occur, so scientists think there’s a good chance they all dream.
Fact: The inventor of the microwave appliance received only $2 for his discovery
Percy Spencer was working as a researcher for American Appliance Company (now Raytheon) when he noticed that a radar set using electromagnetic waves melted the candy bar in his pocket. He had the idea to make a metal box using microwaves to heat food, but the company was the one to file the patent. That was in 1945, and he received a $2 bonus but never any royalties.
Fact: The Eiffel Tower can grow more than six inches during the summer
The high temperatures make the iron expand.
Fact: Glitter may have originated on a ranch
According to local lore, a man by the name of Henry Ruschmann from Bernardsville, New Jersey, invented glitter by accident in 1934 while working on a cattle ranch. The New York Times reports that in the popular origin story, Ruschmann, a machinist, was trying to find a way to dispose of scrap material by crushing it into tiny pieces. Plastic went in, glitter came out, and the rest is commonly accepted as history.
SOURCE: Reader’s Digest: Elizabeth Yuko
Sew Colorful 
Good morning – very interesting facts – Miss Pat!
Mostly sunny here today – high of 94º predicted.
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Good morning, GA! It’s very humid here and 65 at the moment but it is going up quickly. Supposed to be low 90’s here for the next few days – steamy but no rain in the forecast. Wheezer was once again in my chair on the patio. Her dish was empty so I refilled it – she promptly chowed down, then decided to do a quick walkabout around the living room. No head scratch allowed today.
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‘You’re worried if he knows which direction he’s going’: Nervous world leaders greet Biden at NATO
And …Poland Preparing Military For Full-Scale Conflict, Army Chief Says
And …Russia’s Medvedev wants NATO, Ukraine snuffed out for good
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Our Take: “It’s just a weird experience.”
“It’s incredibly awkward for our allies to get asked these questions about Biden’s mental acuity,”
“The Americans need to hear from us all that the problem is not Ukraine,” said Baiba Braže, the Latvian foreign minister. “The problem is Russia.”
No. The problem is parasitic elites leeching the lifeblood out of humanity, while they indulge in the deepest throes of groundless degeneracy and occult satanism.
The problem is NATO.
Now we have Poland preparing for a “full-scale conflict” with their historic nemesis—I feel confident now that Putin’s history lesson to Tucker was very intentional—and Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman (and former president and prime minister) Dmitry Medvedev vowing to destroy either NATO or Ukraine, or “even better—both.”
Wew, lad.
Let’s check in on Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who is considered one of the most measured and even-keeled diplomats in the world.
Okay… well, what about the Chinese? They have been on the sidelines this whole time, with Xi being the cooler head in the room.
Well then. It would appear that the stage is set. The world has been reforged into a powder keg, and the State Department is a scorned child playing with matches.
Who will step in and stop them?” — GhostofBasedPatrickHenry
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they are ACTING surprised…it’s been evident for a long time
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“The Associated Press is telling the story about the fleet of drones patrolling New York City’s beaches for signs of sharks and struggling swimmers drawing backlash from an aggressive group of seaside residents: local shorebirds.
Since the drones began flying in May, flocks of birds have repeatedly swarmed the devices, forcing the police department and other city agencies to adjust their flight plans. While the attacks have slowed, they have not stopped completely, fueling concern from ‘wildlife experts’ about the impact on threatened species nesting along the coast.”
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“Friday Funnies: Spaghetti Season…and other odd happenings.”
ROBERT W MALONE MD, MS, JUL 12, 2024
“The truth is that the USA has fallen further and further behind in the world rankings for educational testing results. It is difficult to get a straight answer whether the numbers above are 100% correct. A.I. likes to hide uncomfortable facts, but even Googlenet can’t hide the basic truth of this meme that is overwhelmingly obvious to anyone paying attention.”
Fact check: Basically true.
A Psychology Today study showed that.
Did you catch that 87% of therapists speak to their patients about politics. But it gets worse. It turns out that the vast majority of psychologists are also liberal. The ratio of liberals to conservatives in the broader field of psychology is 14-to-1, and only 6% of therapists describe themselves as conservative “overall,”.
So, 94% of therapists are liberal, and 87% of therapists speak to their patients about politics. All I can say is keep off of the therapist’s couch if you wish to save your sanity and most definitely keep your kids far away!”
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A reader posted this video in the comments last week, so I dug a little deeper into the history of this film.
This is hard to believe, but true:
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“The cartoon above is already dated! As the deep state has decided that Biden has to go, the media has gone from covering up Biden’s blunders to headlining them. All within the span of a week.”
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Funny how MSM in the USA didn’t pick up on this little story!
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Why yes, Jill might have pulled this trick once or twice…. Let’s keep that between ourselves though.
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Sorry but there is NO fricking way anyone can determine that there were active volcanoes on the moon a billion years ago!!!!
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Well, that’s interesting – a mutiny in space!!! Just saw this on Mysteries at the Museum:
(The crew of Skylab 4 in August 1973. From left to right: astronaut Gerald Carr, who commanded the mission; scientist-astronaut Edward Gibson; astronaut William Pogue. Wikimedia Commons)
ENTIRE ARTICLE @ SmithsonianMag.com:
“What happens when humans spend more than 84 days in space? One time, they just took a day off. On this day in 1974, the last Skylab mission finished. It marked the end of what was then the longest amount of time humans had spent in space, on the space station that was the U.S.’s predecessor to the International Space Station. It also marked the end of a tense standoff.
About a month earlier, the three-strong crew of Skylab 4, tired of the demanding schedule NASA had set for them, had announced an unscheduled day off, turned off their communication radio to mission control, and “reportedly spent the day relaxing, taking in the stunning views of the Earth from orbit,” writes Amy Shira Teitel for Motherboard.
After that day of silence, they reached a compromise with the ground crew, she writes. A reduced workload and the freedom to complete tasks on their own schedule was what they got, while NASA got the reward of watching the final Skylab mission finish on schedule.
The three Skylab missions (Skylab 1 was the launch of the space station itself), which took place in 1973-74, were a project that journalist David Hitt called “homesteading space.” Their purpose was to actually try living in space, as astronauts today do on the International Space Station, rather than simply making short trips.
As part of this mission, the Skylab 4 astronauts experimented with ways to overcome some of the problems associated with living in space, wrote the BBC, trying out new diets and exercises to prevent muscle loss and other symptoms of prolonged weightlessness.
The three astronauts—Gerald Carr, William Pogue and Edward Gibson—faced a demanding, lengthy mission, Teitel writes. NASA’s plan called for a total of 6,051 work hours between the three men, she writes. Basically a 24-hour schedule. Besides the medical and scientific experiments, there was loading and unloading gear and making observations of the Sun and Earth as well as the comet Kohoutek. On top of all that there were four spacewalks, at a combined total of about a day in length.
This demanding schedule was too much for the crew, she writes, which presumably led to them declaring a day off. After all, what was NASA going to do, come and get them? The one consequence of their actions we know for sure, though: none of the three ever left Earth again.
At a 2016 university award ceremony, Edward Gibson talked about his spacewalk. “When you’re out there, it’s a silent world, except for the whispers of your own breath,” he said. “It feels like the world down there doesn’t even know you’re there.”
Although the episode has been commonly called a “mutiny,” it wasn’t in the technical sense and it did have the consequence of forcing NASA to reconsider how they had been treating crews, writes Michael Hitzik for the Los Angeles Times. “NASA treated the crew as expendable instruments of its schedule, but Skylab 4 showed that when push came to shove the astronauts had all the control in their own hands.”
The astronauts’ journey back to Earth’s atmosphere took five hours, wrote the BBC. In spite of problems with the landing craft, they came down in the Pacific Ocean as planned. Gibson came out of the capsule, BBC wrote, saying, “I feel great.”
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can’t blame them eally
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