Saturday, November 17, 2012

Crazy!

  • If you walk and talk with someone, eventually you will synchronize your steps with each other Interpersonal synchronization of stepping happens when people walk side-by-side. Little is known about this, but it has practical uses in therapy. In 2009, this phenomenon was the subject of a study to help impaired people in rehabilitation. Subjects were paired together to walk on treadmills side-by-side. The result? People started walking faster to keep up with their partners.
  • McDonald's SALADS are more fattening than their burgers. - You can see for yourself in their nutritional facts. A hamburger at McDonald's has 9 grams of fat. A cheeseburger has 12 grams of fat. The Premium Caesar salad with crispy chicken has 17 grams of fat. The Premium Southwest Salad with crispy chicken and the Premium Bacon Ranch Salad with crispy chicken both have 20 grams of fat. On top of that, SALAD DRESSING adds EVEN MORE fat. If you want to add Creamy Southwest Dressing, it's 6 more grams of fat. The Ranch Dressing has 15 grams of fat. The Creamy Caesar Dressing has 18 grams of fat. So, if you get a salad with crispy chicken and salad dressing, you could be consuming 35 grams of fat - the fat equivalent of 4 hamburgers. 
  • A strawberry isn't an actual berry, but a banana is. By technical definition, a berry is a fleshy fruit produced from a single seed. The strawberry, however has its dry, yellow "seeds" on the outside (each of which is actually considered a separate fruit). True berries, such as blueberries and cranberries have seeds inside. However, the banana fruit is a berry for the same reason strawberries are not. There is a theory that strawberries were named by 19th century children who picked the fruit, strung them on grass straws, and sold them as "Straws of berries".
  • Believe it or not, you actually CAN'T see the Great Wall of China from Space! You've probably seen this "fact" a bunch of times: "The Great Wall of China is the only human-made object that can be seen from outer-space." Turns out it's not even true. The first known publishing of this "fact" was back in 1938, long before anyone was traveling in space. Since then lots of people have gone into outer space and looked at the Earth and haven't found the Great Wall. The Great Wall is huge (5500 miles long) but in order to be visible from far away it would also have to be very wide and distinct looking from the ground. The Great Wall is very thin. If it were visible from space, every interstate highway would be too! On the other hand, you can see the Pyramids of Giza from space. You can also see Minutemaid Park, the Toyota Center, and the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, TX (source 123)
  • You can overdose and die from coffee. There is such a thing as a lethal dose of caffeine. Medical literature contains reports of people dying from ingesting large amounts of caffeine, often through unconventional means, such as injecting caffeine straight into the bloodstream or having a coffee enema (literally putting coffee in your butt!). It takes ten grams of caffeine in one sitting to kill a person, which would literally take between 80 and 100 cups of coffee, which is pretty hard to do. If you want to know how many cups of coffee will kill you, check out this calculator
  • Four is the only number that has the same amount of letters as its actual value.
  • You're more likely to die on your way to buy a lottery ticket than you are to actually win the lottery.
  • If you touch your tongue while yawning, it can stop the yawn.
  • Women speak about 7,000 words a day. The average man averages just over 2,000.   
  • THIS IS CRUEL: Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is the fear of long words
  • According to suicide statistics, Monday is the favored day for self-destruction.