Interesting Facts

• The Mexican Jumping Bean is not a bean. It is actually a thin-shelled section of a seed capsule containing the larva of a small gray moth called the jumping bean moth (Laspeyresia saltitans).
• At 840,000 square miles, Greenland is the largest island in the world. It is 3 times the size of Texas. By comparison Iceland is only 39,800 square miles.
• Kids in ancient Egypt made hoops from dry, stripped grapevines and used them the way we use hula hoops today.
• Brrrrr-rr! The coldest temperature ever measured on Earth was -129 Fahrenheit (-89 Celsius) at Vostok, Antarctica, on July 21, 1983. And speaking of Antarctica...it is the only continent without reptiles or snakes.
• There is an average of 50,000 spiders per acre in green areas.
• The hog-nosed skunk can spray its noxious spray up to fifteen feet and is said to be incredibly accurate. Its victim will have either low vision or no vision for up to two days.
• The first attempt at creating a microwave oven came in 1952, when Tappan introduced the first home model. It cost $1295!
• An olive tree can live up to 1500 years.
• It takes between four and five pounds of grapes to produce a single pound of raisins.
• The earliest known written version of Sleeping Beauty was published in 1637 by an Italian named Giambattista Basile.
• Add this to your list of oddball inventions: In 1976 someone filed a U.S. Patent for Pogo Shoes--a combination of ugly boots and a pogo stick. So far, no reports of them on the store shelves.
• Ants can live up to sixteen years!
• Ostriches are capable of running 15 mph. Betcha can't catch one!
• Since they first came out in 1949, more than 189 billion Lego pieces in 2,000 different shapes have been produced!
• The longest street in the world is named Yonge Street. It originates on the north short of Lake Ontario (in Toronto, Canada) and ends at the Ontario-Manitoba-Minnesota border!
• The state of New York instituted the nation's first mandatory seat-belt law on July 12, 1984.
• Mount St. Helens shrunk by 1,313 feet in 1980.