8,388,608 We have a very interesting series here on TV entitled 'Who Do You Think You Are' which traces the ancestry of selected celebrities as far back as records allow. A recent subject was traced back 22 generations and could further trace his line, by extrapolation, to Edward III. (died 1377). 22 generations take us back to around late 15th century. So here is the useless point of this post. At 22 generations back we each, at that time, have 8,388,608 traceable relatives. I doubt that the population of England at that time was much more than this number so, in theory, we Brits are all related to each other.......even former kings of England....
50,000 A white shark uses-up 50,000 teeth during its lifetime. People change teeth twice during their lifetime, but sharks exchange teeth twice a month. So, for them, teeth are disposable items. Should a tooth break, it is directly replaced, Their teeth do not sit in mandibular or maxillary bones, but rather sit loose in the skin of the gums. Fossil teeth can be found in certain areas of beach in the world. Good posting, Rad. I watch that show sometimes. Very interesting, even if I do not know the personalities.
@Sjoerd What fascinates me is the amount of historical records tucked away around the world. I have been particularly impressed when a search has gon to some hidden away village in India and there are still ancient records available. But my post followed my sisters' amazement that Danny Dyer, a soap serial actor on BBC, is related to Edward III. She was not so impressed when I explained how many options the program had to chose from to trace.
Yes Rad---too right: the amount of historical records that exist in the world is truly amazing. What they contain is what perks my interest. That is why I like watching that show---it is totally immaterial to me who the celeb is, because it is the process and the written records that intrigue me...and of course where they lead. It is interesting to look back in time although I find it not so important for myself.
7 What are the chances of a white Christmas here?---- 7%, is the answer. The weather men and women wind themselves up as well as us viewers with stats and hopes of a white Christmas...but this year there is very little chance. Having said that--the weather is unpredictable by definition and nature, so who knows. I know that my fingers are crossed.
What amount of time is a moment? Have you ever thought about that? Is it a year? Is it a month? Is it a minute? Is is a second? Think about it--many english-speakers and Dutch-speakers for that matter, use the word (term), "moment". We feel what we mean by this, and the person being spoken to feels what is meant, but there is a specific time frame that it means once calculated out. It is a garden term for me, I use it all the time in the garden.Whilst gardening, if the bride calls out for me to come get a bee out of her hair, I would cheerfully chirp back, "Just a moment, dear". Not the right answer, and she knows that. Yes, she knows that a moment is far too long to have a bee buzzing and potentially sting her. So she would respond in a manner that would let me know in no uncertain terms that a moment is far too long a time frame for a response. She may then say something like..."Not in a moment fool, NOWWWWWWWWWW"! Well, you get the gist. Moment is a word from Late Middle English....taken from French.....which was taken from Latin (momentum). It is a brief period of time. Ah yes, but how much time is meant by, "brief"? That is the question.---Can you picture me standing here in a robe holding a skull in my hand, saying this? A moment was a Medieval unit of time, one can find it in books. A shadow on a sundial moves 40 moments in the period of an hour. Obviously through the seasons the times would vary because of the angle of the sun and the length of the days. An average of this in modern time would equal 90 seconds. In the 8th Century writings of The Venerable Bede: "Bede describes the Medieval system as 1 hour = 4 points = 10 minutes = 15 parts = 40 moments". So then, if 1 hour - 60 minutes, then 60 divided by 40 = 1.5. That is 1½ Medieval minutes. Voilá !
20 A Coo-coo can lay up to 20 eggs in a season. As you know coo-coo's do not build nests themselves, nor do they raise the young. They lay their eggs in the nest of some other bird and then destroys the other bird's eggs and the parents brood the eggs and feed the resultant chicks. 500 A frog chorus can be heard up to 500 metres away. Investigators have noticed that if one male frog begins to croak...the rest will follow. We have then in the small canals alongside the lottie and when a train comes it sets them off. At home if a jet passes over it sets our froggies off as well.
86,000 Some days ago was the "International Biological Diversity Day". As everyone knows, the most diversity is found in the Insect Kingdom. In this Kingdom the beetles form the largest group...and in this group the most numerous are the Weevils with more and more being found daily it is reported. At last count, it was determined that there are 86,000 different sorts of weevil. In my country there are more than 700 sorts alone.
500,000 The Apus apus flies 500,000 km non-stop after fledging. The ones that are fledging now ill not feel a solid surface with their underdeveloped feet. That will not happen until they mate. For the moment they will spend time feeding on small winged insects before flying to South Africa.
40,000 and 5 Keeping in the same vein as flying: The Sterna paradisaea, or Arctic tern travels 40,000 Km's per year. They brood mostly above and around the Pole Circle. They stopp over here on their way south to catch a fish or two. When they leave there they do not stop again until they reach the Antarctic waters. Below the South Pole circle there is sunlight 24 hours a day and so they can hunt fish continuously....apparently the long trip is worth the effort. And now for the 5: If you could stretch a spider web from the earth to the moon, that web material would only weigh 5 kilo's. The web material is amazing stuff--the smartest scientific experts have not yet been able to make a material that is as strong yet flexible and light weight as the spider web material. **If you could construct a spider web to a scale 100 times greater than it in Nature is, a fighter jet flying at maximum speed could be stopped by it. The jet would probably not survive the experiment, but the spider web most certainly would.
2,000,000 There are scientists here that look into how many acorns and beech nuts fall out in a large nature area here (the Veluwe). They have determined that in 2004 ~2 million kilo beech nuts fell out of the trees there. This is important for the wild swine that wander around there. in a good year fewer swine die and there are more piglets. The beech tree is unreliable in terms of how much they produce--two good years in a row is a seldom occurrence.
Thankfully we have no wild swine. I see how destructive and dangerous they are. I would carry a gun all the time.
They really are destructive...but luckily for hikers, quite shy. I have only seen them a couple of times in my life. I wouldn't want to make them angry though because they do have imposing tusks. 600 A heksenkring (Witches' Circle) was once measured with a diameter of 600 meters ! If one spore develops into a fungus. The centre eventually disappears and on the perimeter of the mycelia mushrooms appear. As years go by, the circle grows larger and larger. The huge French circle was estimated to be more than 700 years old.
