Wednesday, May 23, 2012

head rattlers

That is, things that rattle around in my head. Things I know. Things people often roll their eyes at when I mention them. Things no one thinks are true. But are.

- The Great Lakes hold enough water to cover the 48 contiguous U.S. states nearly 10 feet deep.
- If you cut Mount Everest off at sea level, turned it upside down and put it into the Challenger Deep, there would still be over a mile of water over the top of it.
- A blue moon is actually not all that rare: there’s one every two or three years.
- Due to a lack of genetic diversity and its susceptibility to Panama Disease, the banana we know (the Cavendish) is going extinct. The Cavendish replaced the Gros http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifMichel, which was wiped out by another Panama Disease strain in the 1960s.
- When considering average smoothness, if you shrank the Earth down to the size of a billiard ball, the Earth would be smoother.
- The potato is a member of the nightshade family; the sweet potato is a member of the morning glory family.
- A tube of sausage is called a chub.
- Mother Theresa and Mohandas Gandhi were actually NOT that awesome.