How can a cricket be used as
a thermometer?
If you hear a cricket chirping and you
have a watch, you can estimate the temperature where the
cricket is. If you can hear more than one you can tell
whether they are experiencing different temperatures.
To calculate the "cricket temperature," count
the number of chirps in a 14-second period. Add forty to
the result, and you have a rough estimate of the
Fahrenheit temperature of the cricket.
This method works best with the snowy tree cricket, whose
song sounds like gently ringing sleigh bells. Depending
on the species of cricket, you might have to adjust the
counting time by one or two seconds, up or down.
Why does it work? Because crickets are cold-blooded
creatures, the rate of their metabolism is strictly
determined by temperature. The warmer it is, the faster
they move and the faster they chirp. The same method
would work equally well with other insects if they had
the regular chirping habits of crickets.
More cricket lore, and how to keep them as pets:
http://freeweb.pdq.net/headstrong/cricket.htm
Scroll down this page to read about crickets:
http://naturesmart.com/articles/1999_3rd_qtr.htm
Crickets and their relatives, grasshoppers and katydids:
http://www.optonline.com/comptons/ceo/01181_A.html
Another Cool Fact about crickets:
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1997/02/23.html
What, exactly, is an itch?
We don't exactly know. We visit the
planets, map the human genome, and split the atom. But an
itch is still largely that which you scratch, one of
medicine's last frontiers.
It's a stimulus affecting the nerve endings between the
dermis and epidermis; scientists liken it to a form of
pain. But that's neither here nor there. It's usually
caused by histamine released in the epidermis. Scratching
stops it, either by interfering with the nerve impulses
or by temporarily damaging the nerves themselves. That's
it. So if you would like to make your mark in medicine,
investigate the itch. But you won't get much help from
research so far. You'll just have to start from scratch.
(Source: ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA)
FAST FACTS
In the 1950s, American women who wanted
to wear something loose and comfortable often slipped
into a muumuu. A what? It was a shapeless, beltless dress,
originally introduced by missionaries into Hawaii. They
figured that the native women would look better even in
muumuus than in what they had been wearing, which was
nothing.
And why were the dresses called muumuus? It's said that
muumuu is Hawaiian for "cut off," applied to
the dress because it seemed to just abruptly end at the
neck. But I still firmly
believe that Hawaiians were simply quoting a local cow
with a
repetition compulsion.
(Source: WHO PUT THE BUTTER IN BUTTERFLY?)
What causes jet lag?
Scientists long ago ruled out airline
food and forced exposure to hours of droning conversation
from the bore in the seat next to you as causes. The
funny thing is that the cause most people would point to,
a change in time zones with the accompanying confusion
with meal and bed times is also apparently not the only
answer. Many people flying North to South, without
changing time zones, also suffer from jet lag.
(That surprised me, too!)
So what else could be the cause? Most likely it's the
pressurized cabin with its low humidity, the plane's
vibration, engine noise, and radiation from the high
altitude. In other words, your body is being assaulted
while you sit there with your seat belt fastened. The
solution? Drink plenty of water, move around the cabin,
and take vitamin supplements.
(And next time take the train, but not if you're crossing
the
ocean.)
(Source: READER'S DIGEST DID YOU KNOW?)
FAST FACTS:
At Verkhoansk in eastern Siberia, the temperature
occasionally plunges to 90 degrees below zero with a wind
chill factor of...oh come on, if it's 90 degrees below do
you really care what the wind chill factor would be?
At that temperature, if you went out without a mask or
breathing apparatus and inhaled, your lungs would
immediately
be coasted with frost. Oh sure, Jack Frost is cute when
he's nipping at your nose, but he gets a little ugly when
he's chowing on the inside of your lungs.
(Source: THE BEST, WORST AND MOST
UNUSUAL)
Who built Stonehenge, and when?
Would you believe it was the Rolling Stones? I didn't
think so. Then again the Druids, who are often credited
with the feat, have a name that also sounds,
appropriately, like that of a rock group.
The Druids, ancient Celtic priests who performed human
sacrifices, may have used Stonehenge for their rituals,
but there's no evidence that they built it. In fact, we
don't know for sure who did.
The huge stone monoliths, possibly an ancient
astronomical calendar, are on Salisbury Plain in
Wiltshire, England. The stones themselves were
transported from Wales, 300 miles away and, about 2000 B.C.,
placed amidst a series of ditches and pits dug as many as
a thousand years earlier.
(Source: THE WORLD BOOK ENCYCLOPEDIA and JUST
CURIOUS, JEEVES
by Jack Mingo and Erin Barrett)
FAST FACTS:
It is a common belief that it's possible to
determine the age of a rattlesnake by closely examining
the number of "rattles" at the end of its
slithery body, just as one can date a tree by counting
its "rings." This is a myth. The snake does
create more rattles when it sheds its skin. But that
shedding happens more often than once a year.
Besides, if you try to figure out how many birthdays this
lethal little thing has had by closely examining it, you
may not have any more yourself.
(Source: DICTIONARY OF MISINFORMATION)
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