Did You Know???

[Patrick]

And very few towns have recycling programs. We just have burnable and non-burnable.

If your trying to keep me from moving to Japan Eimi, you're succeeding.  No recycling, wasting paper, bad police.  It's sounding less and less like a place I'd like to live in.

[Eimi]

Don't worry, it has plenty of redeeming qualities ;)  The people more than make up for it.

[PastMember]

Daylight savings time is no fun... it made me late for work because I forgot all about it!

[Eimi]

I do miss DST.  I mean, you woudn't think one hour would make that much of a difference, but it really does.  Its so depressing when the sun is setting at 8:00 in the middle of the summer.

[PastMember]

Hawaii doesn't do daylight savings... it is sort of weird, because the number of hours ahead/behind you other places are changes...

[Cali]

Okay, I think our newsletter guy likes bananas a bit too much!

Did You Know ...?
A compendium of banana trivia you couldn't live without.
• Bananas were officially introduced to the American public at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. Each banana was wrapped in foil and sold for 10 cents. Before that time, bananas came to America on the decks of sailing ships as sailors took a few stems home after traveling in the Caribbean.
• In Eastern Africa you can buy banana beer. This beer is brewed from bananas.
• India is by far the largest world producer of bananas, growing 16.5 million tons annually on average, followed by Brazil which annually produces 6.5 million tons. To the Indians, the flower from the banana tree is sacred. During religious and important ceremonies such
as weddings, banana flowers are tied around the head, for they
believe this will bring good luck.
• More than 96 percent of American households purchase bananas
at least once each month. The average American consumes
more than 28 pounds of bananas each year.
• Some horticulturists suspect that the banana was the earth's first
fruit. Banana plants have been in cultivation since the time of
recorded history. One of the first records of bananas dates back to
Alexander the Great's conquest of India where he first discovered
bananas in 327 B.C.
• There is no such thing as a banana tree. Bananas grow on plants. The banana plant reaches its full height of 15 to 30 feet in about one year. The trunk of a banana plant is made of sheaths of overlapping leaves, tightly wrapped around each other like celery stalks.
• The phrase "going bananas" was first recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary, and is linked to the fruit's "comic" connections with monkeys.
• The word "banan" is Arabic for finger.
• There are more than 500 varieties of banana in the world: The most common kinds are Dwarf Cavendish, Valery, and Williams Hybrid bananas.
• The Cavendish is the most common variety of bananas now imported to the United States.
The Cavendish is a shorter, stubbier plant than earlier varieties. It was developed to resist plant diseases, insects, and windstorms better than its predecessors. The Cavendish fruit is of medium size, has a creamier, smooth texture, and a thinner peel than earlier varieties.

[Patrick]

Those look very similar...

[PastMember]

Hawaii doesn't do daylight savings... it is sort of weird, because the number of hours ahead/behind you other places are changes...

Neither does Arizona. I got and still get so messed up when they do the whole DST thing here in Tennessee!!

[Eimi]

I have one to add!  Banana's are also an unusal fruit in that they rippen better OFF the vine rather than on it.  If left on the vine they rot so they are picked green and left to rippen.

[Patrick]

Cali's first info thing on bananas said that Eimi.

[Cali]

More facts you can't live without!

• All the moons of the solar system are named after Greek and Roman mythology, except the moons of Uranus, which are named after Shakespearean characters.
• Astronauts brought back about 800 pounds of lunar rock to Earth. Most of it has not been analyzed.
• In 1959, the Soviet space probe "Luna Two" became the first manmade
object to reach the moon as it crashed onto the lunar surface.
• In 1968, "Apollo Seven," the first manned Apollo mission, was launched
with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Fulton Eisele, and R. Walter
Cunningham aboard.
• Jupiter's moon Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system, and is
larger than the planet Mercury.
• Olympus Mons on Mars is the largest volcano in the solar system.
• On a clear night in the Northern Hemisphere, the naked eye can discern some 5,000 stars.
• On February 7, 1969, a meteorite weighing more than one ton fell in Chihuahua, Mexico.
• Only 55 percent, on average, of all Americans know that the sun is a star.
• Robert Goddard a scientist and holder of 214 patents fired the first rocket using liquid propellant in 1926.
• Uranus was discovered in 1781 and is the only planet that rotates on its side.
• Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon on Sunday, July 20, 1969. Edwin Aldrin was the second. They were members of Apollo 11, and landed in the Sea of Tranquility.
• The Lunar Excursion Module was named the "Eagle." Michael Collins stayed onboard the mother ship, "Columbia."
• The Apollo 11 plaque left on the moon says: "Here men
from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon July
1969, A.D. / We came in peace for all mankind."
• The first American satellite in orbit, Explorer I, was
launched on February 1, 1958.
• The first man-made object to circle the earth was Sputnik I. It was launched in 1957.
• A lump of pure gold the size of a matchbox can be flattened into a sheet the size of a tennis court.
• Absolutely pure gold is so soft that it can be molded with the hands.
• An ounce of gold can be stretched into a wire 50 miles long.
• The largest gold nugget ever found weighed 172 pounds, 13 ounces

[PastMember]

My random fact of the day:

Kangaroos (and wallabies) can have an in-the-pouch joey (baby) as well as an older joey that is still dependent on mom and still nursing. The really cool think is, that she can produce 2 different types of milk so that both joeys get the correct nutritional content.

[Cali]

Did You Know ...?
A compendium of trivial trivia you couldn't live without.
• A 1,200-pound horse eats about seven times its own weight each year.
• A bird requires more food in proportion to its size than a baby or a cat.
• A capon is a castrated rooster.
• A chameleon can move its eyes in two directions at the same time and tongue is twice the length of its body.
• A chimpanzee can learn to recognize itself in a mirror, but monkeys can't.
• A Cornish game hen is really a young chicken, usually 5 to 6 weeks of age, that weighs no more than 2 pounds.
• A cow gives nearly 200,000 glasses of milk in its lifetime.
• A father Emperor penguin withstands the Antarctic cold for 60 days or more to protect his eggs, which he keeps on his feet, covered with a feathered flap.  During this entire time he doesn't eat a thing. Most father penguins lose about 25 pounds while they wait for their babies to hatch. Afterward, they feed the chicks a special liquid from their throats. When the mother penguins return to care for the young, the fathers go to sea to eat and rest.
• A father sea catfish keeps the eggs of his young in his mouth until they are ready to hatch. He will not eat until his young are born, which may take several weeks.
• A female mackerel lays about 500,000 eggs at one time.