Random And Ridiculous Facts That Absolutely Nobody Wants To Know

A blue moon occurs about once every two or three years, and no, they are not really blue in color.

A blue moon is really just a full moon that appears where it shouldn't. An extra moon you might say.

Full moons usually occur once a month or three per each season, but the lunar cycle works a little different than our calendar cycle, so an extra full moon pops up every 2.7154 years. It is this second full moon in a calendar month, or the fourth full moon to appear within a season, that is referred to as a blue moon.

Cows spend six to seven hours a day just wandering around munching on grass or hay.

Consuming as much as they do, causes them to have a little tummy gas develop, which means that cows then spend a lot of time releasing this built up byproduct of their indulgence.

As they walk they burp, toot and overall just pass a heck of a lot of gas on a very regular basis. So much so that approximately fifteen percent of all the methane gas produced worldwide is burped or tooted out by cows.

It's a fact, all that gas would mean that cows are really not very environmentally friendly critters.

So what is the solution?

We could eat chicken burgers rather than hamburgers. Maybe we could all drink goat's milk instead of cow milk? Or we could switch to eating salmon, or those itty bitty little sardine guys to acquire our calcium, and give up milk altogether?

Ewwwwwwwwwww, stopping to think about it, those fishies might be a little nasty on the old cereal first thing in the morning?

You figure it out.....

Did you know that the average person passes gas between fourteen and twenty-three times a day.....

Also that all humans produce gas, but did you know that some people produce methane gas, while others do not? It's a fact!

If you find that the majority of the time your stool floats, rather than diving to the bottom of the bowl, then you are probably one of those environmentally friendly individuals who do not produce methane gas.

The gas that you so politely release into the atmosphere around you will most likely be comprised of hydrogen gas, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, or some strange combination of these. Unless of course you are one of those nasty polluting people who actually emits methane gas within their little burst of released air.

Those individuals who are emitting rather foul smelling little poofs of air from their derriere are most likely releasing a gas that contains a little sulfur.....

Don't light a match folks!

Just in case you want to have a really good cry it is kind of nice to know the facts.

One standard teaspoon will hold one hundred and twenty teardrops.

There are three teaspoons in each tablespoon which means that one tablespoon will hold 360 teardrops.

One cup holds sixteen tablespoons which means that you would cry a whopping 5760 tears to fill that cup up. Hmmmm? Better drink a cup of water before you start sniffling.

Things are getting tougher to figure out now but two cups are in every pint so to fill up that pint you will have to cry 11,520 tears.

In every quart there are two pints so to fill up that quart jar you will have to cry 23,040 tears.

And if you are really planning on the cry of the century than 92,160 teardrops can fit in a gallon jar!

Wow ...... that's a lot of teardrops. Better have extra Kleenex handy....

Surprisingly a one gallon mason jar will hold 92,160 raindrops, didn't see that one coming, huh?

That same jar will hold approximately 5000 small jelly beans (yummy).

If you save pennies like so many others do, it will take 4,992 pennies to fill up a 4 liter jar, and that adds up to an amazing $49.92 in cash that you will have saved up!

If you decide instead to save dimes, it will take 8,400 dimes which is actually $840.00, which is a whole lot of cash!

Or you can save 3,411 quarters in that jar which works out to $852.75. Hmmm? That's not much more than the dimes are worth?

A gallon jar fact for Canadians: did you know that about three and a half liters of milk will fit in a gallon jar! But if you are counting drops of milk you can count on 92,160 drops of milk fitting in there.

I'll let you know how many Rice Krispees as soon as Paul finishes counting them....

Contrary to the popular opinion of cavemen everywhere - bonking your lady fair on the head is not going to make her love you.

You see couples everywhere! Arm in arm, smiling at each other, flirting with each other, even when they are arguing with each other they look happier than you are standing there alone.

So how do you find someone? You haven't managed to stumble upon the next love of your life naturally and she hasn't managed to stumble onto you either. You've tried the local singles club, internet dating sites, and an ad in the local paper and you are getting out and out right lonely. You've considered going out and howling at the next full moon to see if that draws in some attention, but other than that brilliant idea, you are left with the option of just sitting around sulking on those long lonely evenings.

So what do you try next? A love potion to attract that special someone to you? Well maybe....Natural Love Potions.

The symptoms of a cold last between seven and fourteen days, well that is an easy disease course compared to falling in love, it is going to take you approximately a year or two to recover from the physical symptoms that love imposes on your body.

Love attacks the brain and its ability to maintain rational thought, so count on being emotionally unstable, or in layman's terms an emotional wreck, for at least a year after your initial exposure. Be aware that these symptoms can last upwards and well into the three year time period.

There are no known treatments or cures for love and even chicken soup won't help to alleviate any of its symptoms. So crawl into bed and pull the blankets up over your head if you like, but if cupid has shot his little arrow in your direction then sooner or later you are going to find a silly little grin plastered across your face, and you will have to acknowledge the fact that you've been struck by love....Falling in love.

Healthy hair grows at the astounding rate of 400 µm per day, wow, and gosh by golly but that is amazing huh?

So what the heck is an µm you ask?

Well it turns out that an µm is one millionth of a meter. But don't grab your ruler and start measuring your silken strands just quite yet, things are going to get a little simpler in about a minute and a half.....

It turns out that hair actually grows in phases, who knew? So for the sake of simplicity we are going to say that during healthy hair's most active growth phase it is going to grow at an approximate rate of one centimeter every twenty-eight days.

That would mean that healthy hair grows about 13.035714 centimeters in a year.

So..........if we did not cut our hair, and breakage did not occur, then that could actually amount to a heck of a lot of long hair flopping around out there!

Fingernails and toenails actually grow much faster than steel nails, nuts and bolts. The nails that you build a house with really do not grow much at all. Zero inches per year to be exact. The average human nail grows much faster. It will grow at an astounding rate of approximately three millimeters per month.

Factors that influence the rate of a nails growth are age, sex and season, and of course whether that nail is a toenail or a fingernail. Fingernails grow much faster than toenails.

Young people's nails grow faster than those that adorn the hands and feet of older individuals. Male nails grow faster than female ones and everyone's nails grow faster in the summer than in the winter.

If you suffer some form of horrific accident and lose a fingernail or toenail, no worries, it will grow back. Your fingernail will take about three to six months to regrow while your toenail will take approximately twelve to eighteen months to regrow to its former glory.

........and no, your nails will not continue to grow after you perish, they will just appear to do so. As your muscle dehydrates and shrinks after death, your skin and hair will appear larger, this will cause them to look like they are growing even though they actually are not! Like you needed to know that little fact?

Detroit out performs itself by ranking consistently on the highest crime and most polluted city lists year after year.

U.S. statistics put good old Detroit Michigan on not only the highest crime list, but also on the most long term particle pollution list too, which makes it one of the least desirable areas in the country to live. Common Detroit...shape up!

Yep, there really is a most depressing day of the year and it occurs once a year, and every year without fail. It's a scientific fact!

This gosh awful weepy whiny day is referred to as Blue Monday and it is calculated out to occur on the Monday that begins the last full week in January each year. There are a number of factors that are taken into account as to why that one day out of all the others is indeed the most depressing day of the year, and when all is said and done, it really does make sense.

The formula actually takes into account six factors: weather conditions (Gloomy old January and its typical lack of sunshine), debt level and our ability to pay that debt, time elapsed since Christmas, time elapsed since failing our New Years resolutions, our general seasonal motivational levels, and our need to take action and to have something to look forward to( During January there are no statutory holidays in the fore-see-able future, gasp!).

If you are interested in seeing who developed this amazing theory, and find possible ways that you can avoid unnecessary suffering on this day....Most Depressing Day of the Year but maybe grab a tissue first.......

Smiles are contageous too....So remember to pass one on today.

Workaholic's Day
It's a busy world, and some people are much busier than others, these are the workaholics of our modern society. These individuals are generally the first to arrive at their work place and often the last to leave it in the evening. They usually take their work home from the office with them, and even when they are simply relaxing at home, their workplace is still within their mind. A holiday to honor these unique individuals has been set aside especially for them, it is July 5th, and it is National Workaholics Day....Workaholic's Day.


Rat Catcher's Day
For all you official rat catchers out there you do indeed have a special day devoted to you and your goodly deeds. This is the day when rat catchers everywhere are recognized for their bravery in ridding communities of that oh so frightening pest known ever so commonly as the RAT. This date came into being to enhance the fabled story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin and actually has two official dates. Depending on where you reside, and which day you prefer to celebrate it, Rat Catcher's Day can fall on either June 26 or July 22....Rat Catcher's Day.

How do you tell if that copper colored penny rattling around at the bottom of your piggy bank is really made of copper?

Over the many years that pennies have been around, they have been made from varying combination of copper, zinc, nickel, and tin, so how do you tell if your penny is copper or zinc?

How do you know if your penny is actually a genuine copper....How to tell if your penny is copper or zinc.

Most of us know that the tobacco plant is not good for us because it contains a little chemical that we all know by the name of "nicotine". However, what most people do not know is that other nightshade plants such as eggplant, and tomato also contain this same chemical. The nightshade family of plants has a distinct protective defense mechanism to keep insects from consuming them, they produce alkaloids, a nitrogen containing structure designed to poison the offending insect.

There are four types of alkaloids distinct to the nightshade family of plants, steroid alkaloids, pyrrolizidine alkaloids, indole alkaloids, and tropane alkaloids. Health effects from the consumption of these can result in joint or nervous system disorders, digestive problems, loss of calcium in bone or increase of calcium in soft tissue, as well as other health related problems.

The people who ingest members of the nightshade family, also eat the very alkaloids that the plant produces to ward off offending insects, the very poisons that nightshade plants produce to keep itself from being consumed....What are nightshade plants?

The term sick building syndrome dates back to the 1973 oil embargo and the resulting oil crisis. With oil shortages being threatened worldwide the price of oil raised dramatically. In efforts to conserve oil stocks new building standards were adopted. Newly constructed and renovated homes, offices and schools were constructed much more airtight. It was believed that this move would have buildings requiring less heating and cooling costs. Instead it trapped bacteria and other pollutants within these buildings, and gave these contaminants the opportunity to multiply, and rise to dangerous levels.

In the early 1900's and throughout the mid 1900's building standards required 15 cubic feet of fresh air per minute per person for appropriate ventilation within a building. This amount was reduced to a mere 5 cubic feet of air per minute per person when the new energy conservation measures were implemented in the 1970's.

Homes built in the seventies and early eighties were constructed with these standards in place. These homes are still being lived in, and unless they have been renovated since that time then they may still be "sick buildings", is your home one of them....Sick Building Syndrome.

Although all foods contain calories. Some foods take so much energy to digest that your body actually burns up the calories from them in the process of consuming them. These are called Zero Calorie Foods.

Still other amazing foods take so much energy to digest that you actually lose weight by eating them. These are known as Negative Calorie Foods....Zero Calorie Foods.

Search engine ingenuity actually began long before the World Wide Web even came into existence. The concept of creating a data base of information came glaringly to light with the publishing of an article back in 1945 entitled "We May Think" written by Vannaver Bush. In this article he encouraged scientists to work together to develop a knowledge based system of information for the entire world to share....Search engine evolution: Where they started and where they are today.

A rather amusing bit of trivia concerning Redneck names is that most of them will sound just as good on the pet as they do on the owner. Names like Duke, Daisy, Rufus, Angel, Dakota, and Misty can be applied to both man and beast alike. Yep, it is something that only a Redneck would think of doing...

As you peruse the alphabetical listings of tried and true Redneck names keep the very vital pieces of information that go into selecting a Redneck name in mind. How a Redneck name is chosen is very much as distinctive as are Rednecks themselves....Redneck People Names - Redneck Pet Names.

We say things to ourselves that we would never consider saying to someone else. You are fat. You look awful. Why are you so stupid? You can't do it. When was the last time that you caught yourself doing it? Well it is time to stop the negative messages. It is time to love yourself just a little bit more than you currently do.

It is highly unlikely that you would criticize a friend, relative, or work associate the way that you do yourself, so stop it. Be as patient and understanding with yourself as you would be with everyone else....How to love yourself more.

Flirting just isn't a skill that most of us were born with, or one that we were generally taught as we aged, so learning to flirt can take a little practice to get right. It is also not an exact science, so it may take a little time to learn how to flirt effectively, and to learn to identify the signs when someone is flirting back at you....Flirtation Signals That Encourage The Opposite Sex.

When you participate in pleasurable activities like smiling, laughing, exercising or playing, your brain does an amazing thing and releases a little chemical message known as an endorphin.

These endorphins are feel good messages that have the power to actually remove physical and emotional pain. They travel down the spine, and then throughout your body, sending a feeling of well being as they go. These endorphins not only have the ability to relieve pain but they also have the power to make you feel happy. So remember to take time to play - It really is important.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/mosquito.htm

http://www.daveingram.ca/bcdragonflies/facts.html

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http://www.usatoday.com/weather/resources/askjack/archives-weather-extremes.htm

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080104123911.htm

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/gas.html

http://www.uni.uiuc.edu/~stone2/Bee_anatomy.html

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=7762

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nail_(anatomy)

http://www.snopes.com/science/nailgrow.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hair_follicles

http://aipl.arsusda.gov/kc/cowfacts.html

http://www.mint.ca

http://www.science.gc.ca

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Images displayed on this article are from my family's personal photo album. Other images for this article were found at: Karen's Whimsy: Public Domain Images and Wikipedia: Public Domain Mosquito Image.