Fun Friday Fact - hope you respond weekly to give us all a smile

[Ashley0616]

A human loses about a million skin cells per 24 hours

[Heather Shay]

In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all the world’s nuclear weapons combined.

[Ashley0616]

Mistletoe has no scent

[Heather Shay]

[Ashley0616]

New Zealand has more cats per person than any other country in the world

[Ivy]

Yeah, but wouldn't this be a point of view thing?  I mean it's a sphere in space…

[Heather Shay]

The history of the day is linked to the chaotic scenes of Philadelphia in the 1960s. It was then termed as Black Friday when Philadelphia Police used it to describe the havoc caused by the suburban tourists flooding the city for the holiday shopping.

[Heather Shay]

There are 32 muscles in a cat’s ear.

[Jani]

There are 5 very sharp points on a cat's paw!  

[Ashley0616]

Shoes that were specific to left and right were not made until the Civil War.

[Heather Shay]

https://www.rd.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_243273610.jpg?fit=700%2C461

JANOSSY GERGELY/SHUTTERSTOCK

Sloths can hold their breath longer than dolphins can

By slowing their heart rates, sloths can hold their breath for up to 40 minutes. Dolphins need to come up for air after about ten minutes.

[Ashley0616]

At an average of 15 breaths per minute, we take about 400 million breaths during a lifetime. This is equivalent to about 53 million gallons of air.

[Heather Shay]

Full Solstice Moons Are Rarer Than Blue Ones

Since 1793, the full moon has only occurred on the winter solstice 10 times, according to the Farmer's Almanac. The last one was in 2010, which was also a lunar eclipse! The next full moon on a winter solstice won't be until 2094.

[awkward-yet-sweet]

Today is Bill of Rights day. The Bill of Rights was signed on December 15th, 1791.

 

https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/december-15/

[Ashley0616]

The # symbol isn’t officially called a hashtag or a pound. It’s technically called an "octothorpe." The “octo-” means “eight” to refer to its points

[KathyLauren]

I always called it a number sign.  I called it that for many years before I learned that some people also use it for pounds, which seems a very odd usage to me. 

 

It is also a sharp symbol in music.

[Heather Shay]

Hanging stockings started by accident

Legend has it we hang stockings by the chimney with care because one year a poor widowed man didn't have enough money for his three daughters' dowries, making it difficult for them to marry. Generous old St. Nick dropped a bag of gold down their chimney one night and into the freshly washed stockings the girls had hung by the fire to dry. After that, the tradition stuck!

[Heather Shay]

• The first New Year’s celebration dates back 4,000 years. Julius Caesar, the emperor of Rome, was the first to declare Jan. 1 a national holiday. He named the month after Janus, the Roman god of doors and gates. Janus had two faces, one looking forward and one looking back. Caesar felt that a month named after this god would be fitting.

[Heather Shay]

Queen Elizabeth II was a trained mechanic. 

It's estimated that Americans eat 50 billion hamburgers each year.

Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first class.

Close to 70 percent of the world's freshwater is held in glaciers and ice sheets. 

Australia is "technically" wider than the moon. 

[Ashley0616]

A group of stingrays is called a fever.

The plural of cul-de-sac is culs-de-sac

The term "lawn mullet" means having a neatly manicured front yard and an unmowed mess in the back

[awkward-yet-sweet]

Tomorrow is January 6th, the feast of Epiphany in Western churches.  Eastern churches celebrate Christmas on January 7th, and Epiphany (also called Theophany) on January 19th.

 

Epiphany commemorates the Wise Men coming to see Jesus.  Contrary to the nativity scenes you see, according to the Bible this occurred some time after the birth, maybe even a year later.  Much of the tradition surrounding Epiphany and the Wise Men is a medieval invention,  as the description of the event in contemporary sources is minimal.  

 

January 6th is also my husband and GF's wedding anniversary...and likely the date of their first child's conception 😏🤫. As she was told for years she couldnt have kids, apparently strange wonders still happen on Epiphany. 

[Ashley0616]

1 hour ago, awkward-yet-sweet said:

January 6th is also my husband and GF's wedding anniversary...and likely the date of their first child's conception 😏🤫. As she was told for years she couldnt have kids, apparently strange wonders still happen on Epiphany. 

Happy anniversary to them and glad that she was able to prove them wrong.

[Mirrabooka]

The second Friday in January is the day that most people quit their New Year's resolutions!

 

 

[Heather Shay]

Believe it or not, in the state of Ohio, in 1895, there were only 2 cars in the state and they still managed to get into an accident.

[Davie]

The evolution of beat perception.

Music exists in every human culture, and every culture has some form of music with a beat: a perceived periodic pulse that listeners use to guide their movements and performers use to coordinate their actions. Rhythm is often considered the most basic aspect of music, and is increasingly thought to be a fundamental organizing principle of brain function.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4026735/