Facts about burial and "green" burial

Buried in each acre of a typical cemetery is over 1,000 gallons of formaldehyde-based embalming fluid, 97 tons of steel, 2,000 tons of concrete and  56,000 board feet of wood.
Cremation releases about 350 pounds of carbon dioxide as well as soot particles, sulfur dioxide, and trace metals, including mercury from fillings.
Modern burial practices date back to the Civil War era when embalming was developed to preserve soldier's bodies so they could be shipped home. However embalming is not necessary and neither is a concrete vault or a steel casket. There is a new trend in burial to return to earlier natural methods of burial without the use of toxic chemicals pumped into the body after the bodily fluids are drained. Instead the body is simply placed in a cloth shroud or wicker or softwood casket for burial, dust to dust.
More information can be found at Mark Harris' website, Grave Matters.

"green" caskets
clockwise from top left, a coffin made of pandanus, or wild pineapple; a casket made of hand woven water hyacinth; a stylish biodegradable "Ecopod"; and one made of sustainably grown pine.

source: Audubon magazine

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Contents of a bird's stomach

The above photo shows the contents of the stomach of an adolescent Laysan albatross found on the Kure Atoll, a tiny speck of land 1380 miles from Honolulu. Photographers David Liittschwager and Susan Middleton had been watching the bird when it died so they opened it up and found that it died from the 12 ounces of indigestible items the bird had scooped up over time from the ocean's surface. The photo shows bottle caps, cigarette lighters and hundreds of plastic bits.
Draw your own conclusions but I think once the 'canaries' go then whom do you think goes next?
source: Audubon magazine

That's a lot of sugar in soda pop

529 - US consumption of soda (12-ounce servings) per person per year
500%  increase in per capita soft drink consumption over the last 50 years 
9 teaspoons of sugar per 12-ounce bottle
44 pounds of sugar per year from drinking soda for the average American (9 teaspoons x 529 cans = 4,761 teaspoons / 109 teaspoons per pound = 44 pounds).





sources: National Geographic/Zenith International, US New & World Report

Grains of pollen photo

Pollen comes in many forms and sizes. The diameter of a pumpkin pollen grain (at center) is as thick as a dollar bill. The tiny speck at its lower right is a grain of forget-me-not pollen.From National Geographic.

Facts about animal hibernation

310 is the average number of consecutive days an Australian pygmy possum hibernates.
27 is the Arctic ground squirrel's lowest recorded body temperature during hibernation.
300 pounds is how much a Kodiak bear can lose during its winter sleep.
4 is the fewest heartbeats per minute for a small hibernating animal.
30 minutes is how long it takes a little brown bat to raise its body temperature from 36 degrees to 100 degrees.

Hibernation basics
Several species of animals undergo hibernation, a state of dormancy, in order for them to survive prolonged cold winters. The animal's metabolic rate, heart rate, and breathing are reduced, decreasing body demands for food and water to minimal levels. The animal becomes unconscious and completely inactive and is able to survive for long periods on fat stored in its body.

Hibernating animals include the following mammals: ground squirrels, chipmunks, marmots, woodchucks, possums, shrews, hedgehogs, hamsters, skunks, prairie dogs, badgers, some lemurs and some bats. Brown bears enter a prolonged winter sleep during which time their metabolic rates decrease slightly. These bears awaken periodically.
Non-mammals include: some lizards, frogs, toads, newts, snakes, turtles, and bees. There is only one bird on the list, the Western Poor-Will.

Bears enter their winter sleep gradually. For several weeks before they bed down for the winter bears will remain close to the den and gradually become increasingly lethargic during their waking hours. Once the bear enters its den for the last time of the season its heartbeat drops from 50 to 60 beats per minute to around 10. Its body temperature falls slightly, and its metabolic rate slows to about one half.
Generally the colder the climate the deeper the sleep. In more southern climates such as in the Carolinas a bear may awaken to any sound but in Canada a bear might have to be poked to be roused.

Groundhogs, like most marmots, are true hibernators. Asleep in its underground burrow its body temperature drops to a few degrees above freezing. Its respiration slows to one breath every six minutes and its heart rate slows from around 100 to only 4 beats per minute.

Bats have a rapid metabolism. Their heart during flight buzzes rather than beats, at 20 times per second - about the same as a hummingbird. Because of their rapid metabolism bats must find a suitable location to hibernate in that it must be neither too warm nor too cold. If the air becomes too warm the bats will burn off their winter store of fat. If it gets too cold the bats will freeze.

Click here for a live webcam showing a hibernating black bear.

Facts about snow and snowflakes

2 Estimated maximum length, in inches, of a typical snowflake.
3.4 Average speed, in miles per hour, of a falling snowflake.

6 The number of sides that most snowflakes have.

1,140 Inches of snowfall on Washington's Mount Baker in 1998, the world record for a year's snow accumulation.

30 Temperature colder (degrees Celsius) that an Arctic bird's feet may be than the rest of his body, to prevent heat loss.

23 The percentage of snow cover that may occasionally cover the Earth's land surface.

37 Feet 7 inches, greatest depth of snow on the ground, recorded March 1911 at Tamarac, California

102 Feet, 0.5 inches, greatest snowfall amount in 12 months, Feb 1971 to Feb 1972 at Paradise, Mt. Rainier, Washington.

63 Inches, the most snowfall in one 24 hour period at Georgetown, Colorado in 1913.

430 Average amount of snow in inches per year that falls at Stampede Pass, Washington. It's known as the snow capital of the United States.

300,000 Cubic yards of snow a large avalanche can potentially release.

Firn is snow that has survived for at least one year on the ground.


Make a snowflake grow!


A bit of snow science:
Snow is composed of small crystals of frozen water. These crystals form by condensation of atmospheric water vapor around tiny particles (most commonly silicate minerals or sea salt). As these individual crystals of ice fall through the atmosphere they cluster together and form snowflakes. At temperatures below -40 degrees C water can solidify spontaneously without the need for foreign particles.
The shapes of snow crystals depends primarily on the temperature of formation and to a lesser extent the atmospheric humidity. The size of a snow crystal depends mainly on the moisture content of the air.
The majority of snow crystals occur in a hexagonal, or six-sided, form as a result of the arrangement of oxygen atoms within the crystals.
For more snow science

Fun facts about soil

1 tablespoon of soil has more organisms in it than there are people on earth
200 to 500 years is how long it takes to make one inch of topsoil
5,000 is the number of different types of bacteria residing in one gram of soil
15 tons of dry soil per acre pass through one earthworm each year
1.4 million earthworms can be found in an acre of cropland
10 percent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions are stored in soil
4,000 gallons of water are needed by soil to produce one bushel of corn
11,000 gallons of water are needed by soil to produce one bushel of wheat

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Kissing good for allergies!

Not that we need any more reasons to kiss but to add frosting on the cake there is a Japanese study that shows kissing may suppress the allergic reaction.

A 30-minute kissing session may suppress the body's allergic reaction to pollen, providing welcome relief from hay fever, a new study suggests. Scientists based at the Satou hospital in Japan found that kissing worked by relaxing the body and reducing the production of histamine – a chemical that the body produces in response to pollen, causing the sneezing, runny noses and streaming eyes that characterize hay fever attacks. The researchers asked a total of 24 couples, where both partners suffered from hay fever, to spend 30 minutes kissing. Blood samples were taken before and after to compare levels of histamine, and results showed that after the kissing session levels of the chemical were significantly reduced. This was not found to be the case, however, when the experiment was repeated with cuddling but no kissing, with no change in histamine Commenting on the findings, Dr Hajime Kimata, who conducted the research, said: "The results indicate for the first time levels found.that kissing may alleviate allergic responses." It is already known that stress can cause an increased allergic reactions to allergens, suggesting that kissing has a relaxing effect, causing the reduction in histamine levels.(source)

Odd and weird facts, part two

Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.

Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.

The strongest muscle in the body is the TONGUE.

It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

Polar bears are left-handed.

The catfish has over 27,000 taste buds, that makes the catfish rank 1 for animal having the most taste buds.

A cockroach will live nine days without its head, before it starves to death.

Butterflies taste with their feet. Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

There are more chickens than people in the world.

Two-thirds of the world's eggplant is grown in New Jersey.

The longest one-syllable word in the English language is "screeched."

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple.

"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".

Almonds are members of the peach family.

There are only four words in the English language which end in "- dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.

Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

A dragonfly has a lifespan of 24 hours.

A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.

In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.

The name for Oz in the "Wizard of Oz" was thought up when the creator, Frank Baum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N and O-Z, hence "Oz."

The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.

Odd and weird facts, part one

The sentence "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter in the English language.
The average human eats 8 spiders in their lifetime at night.

A rhinoceros horn is made of compacted hair.

The shortest war in history was between Zanzibar and England in 1896. Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes.

A polar bear's skin is black. Its fur is not white, but actually clear.

Donald Duck comics were banned in Finland because he doesn't wear pants.

More people are killed by donkeys annually than are killed in plane crashes.

Shakespeare invented the word "assassination" and "bump."

If you keep a Goldfish in the dark room, it will eventually turn white.

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

The names of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with.

The word "lethologica" describes the state of not being able to remember the word you want.

TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters on only one row of the keyboard.

If the population of China walked past you in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction

A snail can sleep for 3 years.

China has more English speakers than the United States.

The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

The longest word in the English language is 1909 letters long and it refers to a distinct part of DNA.

Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

Feb 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.