Page 25 - The 'X' Zone Book of Triviology

o The Great Lakes contain one-fifth of the world’s fresh surface water. o A human eye can detect 10 billion colors. o The largest gallstone ever recorded was 13 pounds. o Ticks can live for 25 years. o Earth’s rotation is gradually slowing. o The thickest skin is on the upper back; the thinnest is on the eyelids. o Humans possess over 600 muscles; caterpillars have over 2,000. o Once a hurricane has done extensive damage, its name is retired from the list of future names. o A housefly lives about 0.2 years compared to a Mario’s tortoise at 150+ years. o The swift - a bird - eats, drinks, and mates in the air. o Thunder can be heard as far as 20 miles away. o Tongue prints - as well as fingerprints - are unique to each person. o The fireworks you watch usually explode at 1,500 feet. o Unlike an adult, a child aged six or seven months can breathe and swallow at the same time. o Wind increases in speed the higher it is off the Earth’s surface. o The U.S. averages 708 tornadoes a year. o Magnetism is stronger than gravity. o The oldest species of trees in the U.S. is the bristlecone pine of Nevada and California. o Oak trees only produce acorns when they are at least fifty years old. o Krakatoa volcano’s detonation is 1883 was heard as far away as Australia, some 3,000 miles. o Your ears and nose continue growing throughout your life. o Snakes have been clocked at 12 m.p.h. o The sting of the Australian jellyfish can kill a person in one to three minutes. o Insects outnumber people a million to one. o A queen termite can lay up to 30,000 eggs per day. o Some insects have up to 4,000 muscles compared to about 600 muscles in a human body. o There is a breed of penguin called Macaroni. o The largest insect, the 4-inch (10-cm) long Goliath beetle, is the size of a computer mouse. o Those annoying no-see-ums (midges) can flap their wings up to 63,000 times a minute. o It takes nectar from 22 million flowers to make one pound (.5 kg) of honey. o Ants smell with their antennae and flies taste with their feet. o Wind is named after the direction from which it blows. o A Virginia forest ranger was struck by lightning seven times from 1942 to 1977. o Tornadoes are dark because they are filled with dust, debris, and dirt. o Tornadoes occur most often during the months of April, May and June. o You cannot sneeze and keep your eyes open. o Elephants can’t jump. o The naked mole rat, the only cold blooded adult mammal, is not naked, a rat, or a mole. o A hummingbird weighs about as much as a copper penny. o The migration champion is the Artic tern, who twice a year makes n 11,000-mile flight. o The American opossum’s gestation period is 12 - 13 days; the elephant’s is 21.7 months. o Alexander Graham Bell was one of the founders of the National Geographic Society. o The subject of the first radio broadcast talk show in 1909 was women’s suffrage. o Antarctica was not discovered until the 1940s. o The first kidney transplant was performed on June 17, 1950.