Here are some really interesting facts about dragonfly...
Dragonfly eyes contain up to 30,000 individual lenses. Human eyes only have one.
They have two sets of wings. They don’t have to beat their wings in unison like other insects do. Their front wings can be going up while their backs ones are going down.
They only flap their wings at about 30 beats per second (bps) compared to a bee’s 300 bps.
Excellent and strong fliers, they can loop-the-loop, hover, and fly backwards.
An Australian variety has been clocked at 36 miles per hour.
Dragonfly nymphs (the first stage after hatching) live in the water for about a year.
While underwater they eat mosquito nymphs, tiny fish, and pollywogs. When they have matured to airborne insects, they catch mosquitoes and gnats in mid-air before devouring them.
After leaving the water and becoming flying insects, they only live for about a month.
Their natural predators are birds.
Among the many names for dragonflies around the world are Old Glassy from China, Water Dipper from England and Big Needle of Wings from the ancient Celts.
Source: chevroncars.com , Interesting Facts
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
Facts about Butterflies
Here are some really interesting facts about butterflies...
Butterflies range in size from a tiny 1/8 inch to a huge almost 12 inches.
Butterflies can see red, green, and yellow.
Some people say that when the black bands on the Woolybear caterpillar are wide, a cold winter is coming.
The top butterfly flight speed is 12 miles per hour. Some moths can fly 25 miles per hour!
Monarch butterflies journey from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, a distance of about 2,000 miles, and return to the north again in the spring.
Butterflies cannot fly if their body temperature is less than 86 degrees.
Representations of butterflies are seen in Egyptian frescoes at Thebes, which are 3,500 years old.
Antarctica is the only continent on which no Lepidoptera have been found.
There are about 24,000 species of butterflies. The moths are even more numerous: about 140,000 species of them were counted all over the world.
The Brimstone butterfly (Gonepterix rhamni) has the longest lifetime of the adult butterflies: 9-10 months.
Some Case Moth caterpillars (Psychidae) build a case around themselves that they always carry with them. It is made of silk and pieces of plants or soil.
The caterpillars of some Snout Moths (Pyralididae) live in or on water-plants.
The females of some moth species lack wings, all they can do to move is crawl.
The Morgan's Sphinx Moth from Madagascar has a proboscis (tube mouth) that is 12 to 14 inches long to get the nectar from the bottom of a 12 inch deep orchid discovered by Charles Darwin.
Some moths never eat anything as adults because they don't have mouths. They must live on the energy they stored as caterpillars.
Many butterflies can taste with their feet to find out whether the leaf they sit on is good to lay eggs on to be their caterpillars' food or not.
There are more types of insects in one tropical rain forest tree than there are in the entire state of Vermont.
In 1958 Entomologist W.G. Bruce published a list of Arthropod references in the Bible. The most frequently named bugs from the Bible are: Locust: 24, Moth: 11, Grasshopper: 10, Scorpion: 10, Caterpillar: 9, and Bee: 4.
People eat insects – called "Entomophagy"(people eating bugs) – it has been practiced for centuries throughout Africa, Australia, Asia, the Middle East, and North, Central and South America. Why? Because many bugs are both protein-rich and good sources of vitamins, minerals and fats.
Many insects can carry 50 times their own body weight. This would be like an adult person lifting two heavy cars full of people.
There are over a million described species of insects. Some people estimate there are actually between 15 and 30 million species.
Most insects are beneficial to people because they eat other insects, pollinate crops, are food for other animals, make products we use (like honey and silk) or have medical uses.
Butterflies and insects have their skeletons on the outside of their bodies, called the exoskeleton. This protects the insect and keeps water inside their bodies so they don’t dry out.
Source: thebutterflysite.com , factsnfacts.com
Butterflies range in size from a tiny 1/8 inch to a huge almost 12 inches.
Butterflies can see red, green, and yellow.
Some people say that when the black bands on the Woolybear caterpillar are wide, a cold winter is coming.
The top butterfly flight speed is 12 miles per hour. Some moths can fly 25 miles per hour!
Monarch butterflies journey from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, a distance of about 2,000 miles, and return to the north again in the spring.
Butterflies cannot fly if their body temperature is less than 86 degrees.
Representations of butterflies are seen in Egyptian frescoes at Thebes, which are 3,500 years old.
Antarctica is the only continent on which no Lepidoptera have been found.
There are about 24,000 species of butterflies. The moths are even more numerous: about 140,000 species of them were counted all over the world.
The Brimstone butterfly (Gonepterix rhamni) has the longest lifetime of the adult butterflies: 9-10 months.
Some Case Moth caterpillars (Psychidae) build a case around themselves that they always carry with them. It is made of silk and pieces of plants or soil.
The caterpillars of some Snout Moths (Pyralididae) live in or on water-plants.
The females of some moth species lack wings, all they can do to move is crawl.
The Morgan's Sphinx Moth from Madagascar has a proboscis (tube mouth) that is 12 to 14 inches long to get the nectar from the bottom of a 12 inch deep orchid discovered by Charles Darwin.
Some moths never eat anything as adults because they don't have mouths. They must live on the energy they stored as caterpillars.
Many butterflies can taste with their feet to find out whether the leaf they sit on is good to lay eggs on to be their caterpillars' food or not.
There are more types of insects in one tropical rain forest tree than there are in the entire state of Vermont.
In 1958 Entomologist W.G. Bruce published a list of Arthropod references in the Bible. The most frequently named bugs from the Bible are: Locust: 24, Moth: 11, Grasshopper: 10, Scorpion: 10, Caterpillar: 9, and Bee: 4.
People eat insects – called "Entomophagy"(people eating bugs) – it has been practiced for centuries throughout Africa, Australia, Asia, the Middle East, and North, Central and South America. Why? Because many bugs are both protein-rich and good sources of vitamins, minerals and fats.
Many insects can carry 50 times their own body weight. This would be like an adult person lifting two heavy cars full of people.
There are over a million described species of insects. Some people estimate there are actually between 15 and 30 million species.
Most insects are beneficial to people because they eat other insects, pollinate crops, are food for other animals, make products we use (like honey and silk) or have medical uses.
Butterflies and insects have their skeletons on the outside of their bodies, called the exoskeleton. This protects the insect and keeps water inside their bodies so they don’t dry out.
Source: thebutterflysite.com , factsnfacts.com
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Facts about Dolphins
These are some really interesting facts about these beautiful creatures. I found them different from the normal ones available on the web.
There are 32 species of marine dolphins, four types of river dolphins, and six types of porpoises. The distinction between dolphin and porpoises is often blurred, but generally porpoises have spade-shaped teeth and blunt rounded faces. Dolphins have teeth shaped like rounded cones set in jaws that extend in a snout or beak.
The term “dolphin” is from the Greek delphis which is related to delphys (such as the Delphic Oracle) meaning “womb.” The term “porpoise” is from the Old French porpais which means “pork fish,” perhaps because the porpoise snout resembles the snout of a pig.
Called “re-entrants,” dolphins once lived on land and looked and behaved something like a small wolf but with five hoof-like toes on each foot instead claws. Some dolphins still have hair on their heads and the Amazon River dolphin has hair on its beak. Dolphins also have remnant finger bones in their flippers, a forearm, wrists, and a few remnant leg bones deep inside their bodies.
Killing a dolphin in ancient Greece was considered sacrilegious and was punishable by death. The Greeks called them hieros ichthys “sacred fish,” and the sun god, Apollo, assumed the form of a dolphin when he founded his oracle at Delphi at Mount Parnassus.
In Rome, dolphins were thought to carry souls to the “Islands of the Blest,” and images of dolphins have been found in the hands of Roman mummies, presumably to ensure their safe passage to the afterlife.
Famous philosophers such as Pliny, Herodotus, Aelian, and Aristotle comment on the compassion, friendly, and almost moral nature of the dolphin.
Images of dolphins have been found carved far within the desert city of Petra, Jordan.
The killer whale is the largest dolphin (true whales don’t have teeth but sift their prey through plates of baleen). The smallest dolphin is the Hector or Maui Dolphin, of which only 150 are left today.
The narwhal dolphin has a large ivory tusk (like a unicorn) which is often poached. The only remaining populations are in the Greenland Sea and Baffin Bay.
Dolphin teeth are used for grasping, not chewing. They have no jaw muscles for chewing.
While the brains of most mammals have a relatively smooth surface, the brains of humans are extremely convoluted. The dolphin brain is even more “folded” than humans and was this way millions of years before the first appearance of humans. Scientists often measure intelligence by the number of brain “folds.”f
Some dolphins can understand as many as 60 words, which can make up 2000 sentences. They also show signs of self-awareness.
Just a tablespoon of water in a dolphin’s lung could drown it. A human could drown if six teaspoons of water were inhaled into the lungs.
A baby dolphin is born tail-first to prevent drowning. After the mother breaks the umbilical cord by swiftly swimming away, she must immediately return to her baby and take it to the surface to breathe.
A baby dolphin must learn to hold its breath while nursing.
A female dolphin will assist in the birth of another's baby dolphin, and if it is a difficult birth, the “midwife” might help pull out the baby. Other dolphins, including bulls, will swim around the mother during birth to protect her.
The blowhole is an evolved nose that has moved upward to the top of the dolphin’s head.
Air can be expelled from a dolphin’s blowhole at speeds topping 100 mph.
A dolphin’s body has adapted to avoid the bends (the formation of air bubbles in blood and tissue as a diver returns to the surface of the water) by completely collapsing its ribcage, forcing the air under pressure out of its lungs and into the windpipe and the complex air chambers that lie below the blowhole.
Dolphins don’t have a sense of smell, but they do have a sense of taste and, like humans, can distinguish between sweet, sour, bitter, and salty tastes.
Unlike a fish, which moves its tale from side to side, a dolphin swims by moving its tale (made up of flukes) up and down. And a dolphin carries more oxygen in its blood than a fish and can swim longer than a fish...hence, dolphins are better adapted to the sea than are any fish.
The eyes of a dolphin produce “dolphin tears,” a slippery secretion which protects the eye against foreign objects and infection and reduces friction between the surface of the eye and surrounding sea water. Marine dolphins see quite well both below and above the water.
Dolphins also “see” with sounds. They emit a series of clicks and pings that travel long distances through water. When the sound hits an object, echoes are bounced back to the dolphin, enabling it to literally hear distance, shape, density, movement, and texture of an object.
With their “echo-location,” dolphins can distinguish between types of fish the same size, between aluminum and brass, and between a steel ball that is two and one-half inches in diameter and one that is two and one-fourth inches in diameter.
A dolphin’s “sonar” or echo-location is rare in nature and is far superior to either the bat’s sonar or human-made sonar.
Blocking off a dolphin’s ears with suction cups hardly affects it hearing, yet if its lower jaw is covered with a rubber jacket, a dolphin will have trouble hearing...leading scientists to believe sound may be carried from the water to its inner ear through a different route than the ear canal, such as the lower jawbone or even its entire body.
A dolphin can produce whistles for communication and clicks for sonar at the same time, which would be like a human speaking in two voices, with two different pitches, holding two different conversations.
A 260 lb. dolphin eats approximately 33 lbs. of fish daily without gaining weight, which is akin to a human eating 15-22 lbs. of steak a day.
Unlike most wild animals, dolphins spend a lot of time enjoying sex and foreplay that is not determined by being “in season” or the urge to procreate.
No one knows exactly why dolphins beach themselves. But because dolphins may use the magnetic field of the earth to navigate their way, some scientists believe that some places where dolphins strand have an abnormal magnetic field.
Dolphins typically do not live alone, but rather in schools or pods. They have a complex social structure and seem to have a wide range of emotions, including humor.
Dolphins may kill sharks by ramming them with their beaks.
Dolphins often practice “fishwacking,” swatting its victim with its broad flukes as the fish tries to evade capture. Some scientists think that dolphins can also use their high-pitched sounds to stun or paralyze fish while hunting.
Unlike most wild animals, wild dolphins have been known to play with humans, especially children
While most wild animals avoid contact with humans, wild dolphins are known to play and associate with humans, especially children.
In 1971, the Navy dispatched a team of dolphins “armed” with large carbon-dioxide filled hypodermic needles strapped to their beaks to guard a US Navy base in Vietnam. The dolphins had been taught to hunt humans swimming in the water and prod them with their beak, delivering a fatal injection in the humans’ lungs or stomachs.
Dolphins do not breathe automatically as humans do and will die if given a general anesthetic. They must sleep at the surface of the water with their blowholes exposed. Dolphins shut down only half of their brain while they sleep to stay alert and breathing.
The dolphin’s most dangerous enemy is humans.
Dolphin sonar seems not to detect the fine threads of fishing nets, and millions of dolphins have drowned as a result of becoming entangled.
Dolphins play around boats, surfing the bow waves and even helping fisherman by signaling when it’s the best time to cast their nets...nd then herding the fish into them.
Public outrage over the death of millions of dolphins in the 1960s prompted the introduction of the Marine Mammals Protection Act (MMPA) by the U.S. in 1972, which was substantially updated in 1994 with the addition of the Zero Mortality Rate Goal (ZMRG). The ZMRG required fisheries to reduce incidental mortality and serious injuries to marine mammals to levels approaching level zero.
Source: facts.randomhistory.com , factsnfacts.com
There are 32 species of marine dolphins, four types of river dolphins, and six types of porpoises. The distinction between dolphin and porpoises is often blurred, but generally porpoises have spade-shaped teeth and blunt rounded faces. Dolphins have teeth shaped like rounded cones set in jaws that extend in a snout or beak.
The term “dolphin” is from the Greek delphis which is related to delphys (such as the Delphic Oracle) meaning “womb.” The term “porpoise” is from the Old French porpais which means “pork fish,” perhaps because the porpoise snout resembles the snout of a pig.
Called “re-entrants,” dolphins once lived on land and looked and behaved something like a small wolf but with five hoof-like toes on each foot instead claws. Some dolphins still have hair on their heads and the Amazon River dolphin has hair on its beak. Dolphins also have remnant finger bones in their flippers, a forearm, wrists, and a few remnant leg bones deep inside their bodies.
Killing a dolphin in ancient Greece was considered sacrilegious and was punishable by death. The Greeks called them hieros ichthys “sacred fish,” and the sun god, Apollo, assumed the form of a dolphin when he founded his oracle at Delphi at Mount Parnassus.
In Rome, dolphins were thought to carry souls to the “Islands of the Blest,” and images of dolphins have been found in the hands of Roman mummies, presumably to ensure their safe passage to the afterlife.
Famous philosophers such as Pliny, Herodotus, Aelian, and Aristotle comment on the compassion, friendly, and almost moral nature of the dolphin.
Images of dolphins have been found carved far within the desert city of Petra, Jordan.
The killer whale is the largest dolphin (true whales don’t have teeth but sift their prey through plates of baleen). The smallest dolphin is the Hector or Maui Dolphin, of which only 150 are left today.
The narwhal dolphin has a large ivory tusk (like a unicorn) which is often poached. The only remaining populations are in the Greenland Sea and Baffin Bay.
Dolphin teeth are used for grasping, not chewing. They have no jaw muscles for chewing.
While the brains of most mammals have a relatively smooth surface, the brains of humans are extremely convoluted. The dolphin brain is even more “folded” than humans and was this way millions of years before the first appearance of humans. Scientists often measure intelligence by the number of brain “folds.”f
Some dolphins can understand as many as 60 words, which can make up 2000 sentences. They also show signs of self-awareness.
Just a tablespoon of water in a dolphin’s lung could drown it. A human could drown if six teaspoons of water were inhaled into the lungs.
A baby dolphin is born tail-first to prevent drowning. After the mother breaks the umbilical cord by swiftly swimming away, she must immediately return to her baby and take it to the surface to breathe.
A baby dolphin must learn to hold its breath while nursing.
A female dolphin will assist in the birth of another's baby dolphin, and if it is a difficult birth, the “midwife” might help pull out the baby. Other dolphins, including bulls, will swim around the mother during birth to protect her.
The blowhole is an evolved nose that has moved upward to the top of the dolphin’s head.
Air can be expelled from a dolphin’s blowhole at speeds topping 100 mph.
A dolphin’s body has adapted to avoid the bends (the formation of air bubbles in blood and tissue as a diver returns to the surface of the water) by completely collapsing its ribcage, forcing the air under pressure out of its lungs and into the windpipe and the complex air chambers that lie below the blowhole.
Dolphins don’t have a sense of smell, but they do have a sense of taste and, like humans, can distinguish between sweet, sour, bitter, and salty tastes.
Unlike a fish, which moves its tale from side to side, a dolphin swims by moving its tale (made up of flukes) up and down. And a dolphin carries more oxygen in its blood than a fish and can swim longer than a fish...hence, dolphins are better adapted to the sea than are any fish.
The eyes of a dolphin produce “dolphin tears,” a slippery secretion which protects the eye against foreign objects and infection and reduces friction between the surface of the eye and surrounding sea water. Marine dolphins see quite well both below and above the water.
Dolphins also “see” with sounds. They emit a series of clicks and pings that travel long distances through water. When the sound hits an object, echoes are bounced back to the dolphin, enabling it to literally hear distance, shape, density, movement, and texture of an object.
With their “echo-location,” dolphins can distinguish between types of fish the same size, between aluminum and brass, and between a steel ball that is two and one-half inches in diameter and one that is two and one-fourth inches in diameter.
A dolphin’s “sonar” or echo-location is rare in nature and is far superior to either the bat’s sonar or human-made sonar.
Blocking off a dolphin’s ears with suction cups hardly affects it hearing, yet if its lower jaw is covered with a rubber jacket, a dolphin will have trouble hearing...leading scientists to believe sound may be carried from the water to its inner ear through a different route than the ear canal, such as the lower jawbone or even its entire body.
A dolphin can produce whistles for communication and clicks for sonar at the same time, which would be like a human speaking in two voices, with two different pitches, holding two different conversations.
A 260 lb. dolphin eats approximately 33 lbs. of fish daily without gaining weight, which is akin to a human eating 15-22 lbs. of steak a day.
Unlike most wild animals, dolphins spend a lot of time enjoying sex and foreplay that is not determined by being “in season” or the urge to procreate.
No one knows exactly why dolphins beach themselves. But because dolphins may use the magnetic field of the earth to navigate their way, some scientists believe that some places where dolphins strand have an abnormal magnetic field.
Dolphins typically do not live alone, but rather in schools or pods. They have a complex social structure and seem to have a wide range of emotions, including humor.
Dolphins may kill sharks by ramming them with their beaks.
Dolphins often practice “fishwacking,” swatting its victim with its broad flukes as the fish tries to evade capture. Some scientists think that dolphins can also use their high-pitched sounds to stun or paralyze fish while hunting.
Unlike most wild animals, wild dolphins have been known to play with humans, especially children
While most wild animals avoid contact with humans, wild dolphins are known to play and associate with humans, especially children.
In 1971, the Navy dispatched a team of dolphins “armed” with large carbon-dioxide filled hypodermic needles strapped to their beaks to guard a US Navy base in Vietnam. The dolphins had been taught to hunt humans swimming in the water and prod them with their beak, delivering a fatal injection in the humans’ lungs or stomachs.
Dolphins do not breathe automatically as humans do and will die if given a general anesthetic. They must sleep at the surface of the water with their blowholes exposed. Dolphins shut down only half of their brain while they sleep to stay alert and breathing.
The dolphin’s most dangerous enemy is humans.
Dolphin sonar seems not to detect the fine threads of fishing nets, and millions of dolphins have drowned as a result of becoming entangled.
Dolphins play around boats, surfing the bow waves and even helping fisherman by signaling when it’s the best time to cast their nets...nd then herding the fish into them.
Public outrage over the death of millions of dolphins in the 1960s prompted the introduction of the Marine Mammals Protection Act (MMPA) by the U.S. in 1972, which was substantially updated in 1994 with the addition of the Zero Mortality Rate Goal (ZMRG). The ZMRG required fisheries to reduce incidental mortality and serious injuries to marine mammals to levels approaching level zero.
Source: facts.randomhistory.com , factsnfacts.com
Facts about Snakes
Here are some more really interesting facts about snakes...
There are 2700 species and subspecies of SNAKES in the world.
As a group, they lack legs, hearing, and movable eyelids. Having evolved from lizards, some snakes still possess skeletal remnants of legs.
Snakes have a large number of vertebrae (180 to 435), most of which have ribs attached.
There are 4 families of snakes: Boidae (boas and pythons), Colubridae (racers, garter snakes, rat snakes and many others), Elapidae (cobras, mambas, and their relatives), Viperidae (rattlesnakes and other vipers).
Snakes have no movable eyelids or external ears.
Snakes are the world's most effective natural control on rodent population.
Most snakes can swallow prey that is 3 times or more their own body diameter.
Less than one-third of the world's snake species are venomous and less than 10% are dangerously venomous. However, in Australia 65% of all snake species are venomous, in the United States only 10% of the snake species are venomous.
You can't tell the age of a rattlesnake by counting its rattles because it gets a new rattle each time it sheds its skin, which can occur 1 to 6 times per year.
The world's longest snake (by reliable documentation) is the reticulated python, with a maximum length of, perhaps, 30 feet.
Common Cobra venom is not on the list of top 10 venoms yet it is still 40 times more toxic than cyanide.
The venom of the Australian Brown Snake is so powerful only 1/14,000th of an ounce is enough to kill a human.
Source: all-creatures.org , factsnfacts.com
There are 2700 species and subspecies of SNAKES in the world.
As a group, they lack legs, hearing, and movable eyelids. Having evolved from lizards, some snakes still possess skeletal remnants of legs.
Snakes have a large number of vertebrae (180 to 435), most of which have ribs attached.
There are 4 families of snakes: Boidae (boas and pythons), Colubridae (racers, garter snakes, rat snakes and many others), Elapidae (cobras, mambas, and their relatives), Viperidae (rattlesnakes and other vipers).
Snakes have no movable eyelids or external ears.
Snakes are the world's most effective natural control on rodent population.
Most snakes can swallow prey that is 3 times or more their own body diameter.
Less than one-third of the world's snake species are venomous and less than 10% are dangerously venomous. However, in Australia 65% of all snake species are venomous, in the United States only 10% of the snake species are venomous.
You can't tell the age of a rattlesnake by counting its rattles because it gets a new rattle each time it sheds its skin, which can occur 1 to 6 times per year.
The world's longest snake (by reliable documentation) is the reticulated python, with a maximum length of, perhaps, 30 feet.
Common Cobra venom is not on the list of top 10 venoms yet it is still 40 times more toxic than cyanide.
The venom of the Australian Brown Snake is so powerful only 1/14,000th of an ounce is enough to kill a human.
Source: all-creatures.org , factsnfacts.com
Facts about Australia
These are some really interesting facts about Australia. I found these quite different from the normal ones available on the internet...
The UK fits into Australia thirty-three and a third times.
The platypus is only found in Australia.
The World’s longest mail run in a single day is the flying postman’s route. From Cairns to Cape York the postie covers 1450km over nine hours with ten stops.
Tasmania has the cleanest air in the world and its rainwater is so pure 5.5 tonnes of it was shipped to Seoul to quench the thirsts of Australia’s Olympic athletes.
Hyams Beach in Jervis Bay, NSW, has the whitest sand on Earth according to the Guinness Book of Records.
Sydney has the deepest natural harbour in the world with 504,00 mega litres of water.
Australians drive on the left-hand side of the road like us.
Australians celebrate the Queens birthday with a public holiday. Alright for some!
Perth has more cafes per capita than any other city in the world.
South Australia is the driest state on the World’s driest continent.
Half of Australia’s total wine production comes from South Australia.
Western Australia is Australia’s largest State. At 2,525,500 sq km, Western Australia is about the same size as Western Europe, and possesses cattle stations (ranches) the size of England.
Approximately 200,000 camels roam Australia’s deserts representing the largest herd of wild camels on earth.
There are over 60 national parks and reserves in the Northern Territory including Kakadu National Park, Litchfield National Park, Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park (Ayers Rock), West MacDonnell National Park, Nitmiluk National Park (Katherine Gorge), and Davenport Ranges National Park (Tennant Creek).
Melbourne has been twice voted the most liveable city in the world by the London based Economist Intelligence Unit.
Australia’s longest running soap, Neighbours, celebrated its 20th anniversary last year (2005) having broadcast 4,635 episodes. Visitors to Melbourne can take an official Neighbours tour to Ramsay street (real name Pin Oak Court) in Vermont South, you can also see an authentic Neighbours set in the Melbourne Museum. Look closely and you will see that cast members of the soap have signed the back of the set. Check out the Neighbours Trivia Night, held every Monday evening at the Elephant and Wheelbarrow pub in trendy St Kilda, where you can mingle with the stars and get your photos taken with the likes of Dr. Karl Kennedy and Toadie.
The Australian Surf Life Savers set up beach life guarding in the UK with the RNLI in 1953.
Fraser Island in Queensland is the largest sand island in the World.
Australia is the only continent on Earth occupied by only one nation.
Australia has a tradition of building giant, quirky structures that can often be spotted by the road side. New South Wales is home to the Big Banana, Queensland has the Big Apple, the Big Tasmanian Devil can be found in Tasmania, you can find the Big Scotsman in South Australia, the Big Koala in Victoria, the Big Crocodile in Western Australia and the Big Stubby in The Northern Territory.
Source: embraceaustralia.com , Interesting Facts
The UK fits into Australia thirty-three and a third times.
The platypus is only found in Australia.
The World’s longest mail run in a single day is the flying postman’s route. From Cairns to Cape York the postie covers 1450km over nine hours with ten stops.
Tasmania has the cleanest air in the world and its rainwater is so pure 5.5 tonnes of it was shipped to Seoul to quench the thirsts of Australia’s Olympic athletes.
Hyams Beach in Jervis Bay, NSW, has the whitest sand on Earth according to the Guinness Book of Records.
Sydney has the deepest natural harbour in the world with 504,00 mega litres of water.
Australians drive on the left-hand side of the road like us.
Australians celebrate the Queens birthday with a public holiday. Alright for some!
Perth has more cafes per capita than any other city in the world.
South Australia is the driest state on the World’s driest continent.
Half of Australia’s total wine production comes from South Australia.
Western Australia is Australia’s largest State. At 2,525,500 sq km, Western Australia is about the same size as Western Europe, and possesses cattle stations (ranches) the size of England.
Approximately 200,000 camels roam Australia’s deserts representing the largest herd of wild camels on earth.
There are over 60 national parks and reserves in the Northern Territory including Kakadu National Park, Litchfield National Park, Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park (Ayers Rock), West MacDonnell National Park, Nitmiluk National Park (Katherine Gorge), and Davenport Ranges National Park (Tennant Creek).
Melbourne has been twice voted the most liveable city in the world by the London based Economist Intelligence Unit.
Australia’s longest running soap, Neighbours, celebrated its 20th anniversary last year (2005) having broadcast 4,635 episodes. Visitors to Melbourne can take an official Neighbours tour to Ramsay street (real name Pin Oak Court) in Vermont South, you can also see an authentic Neighbours set in the Melbourne Museum. Look closely and you will see that cast members of the soap have signed the back of the set. Check out the Neighbours Trivia Night, held every Monday evening at the Elephant and Wheelbarrow pub in trendy St Kilda, where you can mingle with the stars and get your photos taken with the likes of Dr. Karl Kennedy and Toadie.
The Australian Surf Life Savers set up beach life guarding in the UK with the RNLI in 1953.
Fraser Island in Queensland is the largest sand island in the World.
Australia is the only continent on Earth occupied by only one nation.
Australia has a tradition of building giant, quirky structures that can often be spotted by the road side. New South Wales is home to the Big Banana, Queensland has the Big Apple, the Big Tasmanian Devil can be found in Tasmania, you can find the Big Scotsman in South Australia, the Big Koala in Victoria, the Big Crocodile in Western Australia and the Big Stubby in The Northern Territory.
Source: embraceaustralia.com , Interesting Facts
Interesting Facts about Pizza, especially in U.S.
Here are some really interesting facts about pizza, especially pizza in the U.S.A.
Since 1987, October has been officially designated National Pizza Month in the United States.
Approximately three billion pizzas are sold in the United States every year, plus an additional one billion frozen pizzas.
Pizza is a $30 billion industry in the United States.
Pizzerias represent 17 percent of all U.S. restaurants.
Ninety-three percent of Americans eat pizza at least once a month.
Women are twice as likely as men to order vegetarian toppings on their pizza.
About 36 percent of all pizzas contain pepperoni, making it the most popular topping in the United States.
The first known pizzeria, Antica Pizzeria, opened in Naples, Italy, in 1738.
More pizza is consumed during the week of the Super Bowl than any other time of the year.
On average, each person in the United States eats around 23 pounds of pizza every year.
The first pizzeria in the United States was opened by Gennaro Lombardi in 1895 in New York City.
The record for the world's largest pizza depends on how you slice it. According to Guinness World Records, the record for the world's largest circular pizza was set at Norwood Hypermarket in South Africa in 1990. The gigantic pie measured 122 feet 8 inches across, weighed 26,883 pounds, and contained 9,920 pounds of flour, 3,968 pounds of cheese, and 1,984 pounds of sauce. In 2005, the record for the world's largest rectangular pizza was set in Iowa Falls, Iowa. Pizza restaurant owner Bill Bahr and a team of 200 helpers created the 129 X 98.6-foot pizza from 4,000 pounds of cheese, 700 pounds of sauce, and 9,500 sections of crust. The enormous pie was enough to feed the town's 5,200 residents ten slices of pizza each.
Source: recipes.howstuffworks.com , Interesting Facts
Since 1987, October has been officially designated National Pizza Month in the United States.
Approximately three billion pizzas are sold in the United States every year, plus an additional one billion frozen pizzas.
Pizza is a $30 billion industry in the United States.
Pizzerias represent 17 percent of all U.S. restaurants.
Ninety-three percent of Americans eat pizza at least once a month.
Women are twice as likely as men to order vegetarian toppings on their pizza.
About 36 percent of all pizzas contain pepperoni, making it the most popular topping in the United States.
The first known pizzeria, Antica Pizzeria, opened in Naples, Italy, in 1738.
More pizza is consumed during the week of the Super Bowl than any other time of the year.
On average, each person in the United States eats around 23 pounds of pizza every year.
The first pizzeria in the United States was opened by Gennaro Lombardi in 1895 in New York City.
The record for the world's largest pizza depends on how you slice it. According to Guinness World Records, the record for the world's largest circular pizza was set at Norwood Hypermarket in South Africa in 1990. The gigantic pie measured 122 feet 8 inches across, weighed 26,883 pounds, and contained 9,920 pounds of flour, 3,968 pounds of cheese, and 1,984 pounds of sauce. In 2005, the record for the world's largest rectangular pizza was set in Iowa Falls, Iowa. Pizza restaurant owner Bill Bahr and a team of 200 helpers created the 129 X 98.6-foot pizza from 4,000 pounds of cheese, 700 pounds of sauce, and 9,500 sections of crust. The enormous pie was enough to feed the town's 5,200 residents ten slices of pizza each.
Source: recipes.howstuffworks.com , Interesting Facts
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Noodles & Rice Facts
Here are some really interesting and fun facts about "Noodles & Rice"...
Australians consume more than 18 million kilograms of noodles every year – that's almost one kilogram per person!
In Japan, it is considered good form to loudly slurp your noodles as a way of telling your host that you are enjoying the meal.
Australians eat approximately 3.5 billion rice crackers or 55 million packets each year – that's approximately 184 crackers per person!
Noodles symbolise longevity in China.
Noodles have been created from flour and water since 1000BC and today they are more popular than ever.
Noodles are an excellent source of vitamins and minerals including thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and iron. Iron helps transport oxygen throughout the body and thiamin, riboflavin and niacin help convert carbohydrates into energy.
Noodles are low in fat and have a very low sodium content.
If the packets of rice crackers sold in Australia each year were placed end to end they would stretch four times further than the River Murray or five times as high as Mount Kosciusko.
NSW consumers are the nation's biggest fans of rice crackers, munching through 17.6m packets each year, followed by Victorians who consume 11.3m packets each year.
Source: fantasticsnacks.com.au , Interesting Facts
Australians consume more than 18 million kilograms of noodles every year – that's almost one kilogram per person!
In Japan, it is considered good form to loudly slurp your noodles as a way of telling your host that you are enjoying the meal.
Australians eat approximately 3.5 billion rice crackers or 55 million packets each year – that's approximately 184 crackers per person!
Noodles symbolise longevity in China.
Noodles have been created from flour and water since 1000BC and today they are more popular than ever.
Noodles are an excellent source of vitamins and minerals including thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and iron. Iron helps transport oxygen throughout the body and thiamin, riboflavin and niacin help convert carbohydrates into energy.
Noodles are low in fat and have a very low sodium content.
If the packets of rice crackers sold in Australia each year were placed end to end they would stretch four times further than the River Murray or five times as high as Mount Kosciusko.
NSW consumers are the nation's biggest fans of rice crackers, munching through 17.6m packets each year, followed by Victorians who consume 11.3m packets each year.
Source: fantasticsnacks.com.au , Interesting Facts
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