Grido's Book of Random Facts: Volume. 1

Grido's Book of Random Facts: Vol. 1

It been told to small children that if you eat an apple seed then a tree will grow inside you, whilst this isn't true, and i'm sorry for spoiling it for those who still held that belief, there is another equally lethal reason not to eat them, they contain cyanide.

You may find it hard to believe, but it's true, they do. Apple seeds contain trace amounts of cyanide in them. You would have to eat huge amounts of them to have the lethality that would be caused by pure cyanide, by which point it's probably bad for your digestion anyway. This is the real reason why you're told shouldn't eat them, don't say that you weren't warned.

As another note, Peach and Apricot pits contain the same substance, but this time in potentially harmfull levels, so don't go swallowing those, that would be baaaad.

Are they Really your Parents?

Ever looked at your parents and wondered why you dont look much like them? It could just be your hopefullness or your imagination, or it could be due to the fact that you were actually given to the wrong ones.

In fact it has been reported by different studies that 100,000 to 500,000 newborns are accidentally switched at birth every year and given to wrong parents! According to a report in a journal, 500,000 or 1 out of every 8 babies born in American hospitals is sent home with the wrong parents. In many cases, these oversights are caught and corrected within a few days and the babies are returned to their mothers. But on the other end of the scale, it's said that in some overcrowded facilities, particularly in large cities, the number of switched babies could be considerably higher possibly as high as 3 out of 8.

***This may not be the case nowadays as they tag babies and mothers at birth, though ooh I don't know, about when you were born I think they hadn't started that yet.

Crocodile dung - Contraceptive?

Nowadays the contraceptives used are condoms, pills, and injections with various sorts of each. These sorts are fairly well known about all over the globe and are also one of the top profit making areas of business in the modern day, but did you know that Crocodile dung was also once used as contraceptive?

Crocodile dung is the first recorded contraceptive used in 1850 B.C. to meet the demand for a control on the increasing population, but that's what it's still used for, so nothing much has changed there.

The dung was mixed with a paste like substance and would either act as a barrier to the sperm getting in, or by changing the Acidity of the womb so that any sperm already there wouldn't survive.

A version of the condom used today was only invented in 1880, so that's about 2000 years using other methods like the one I mentioned.

Fancy trying it some time?*

* (slaps his own wrist) Bad Grido, you shouldnt say that sort of thing.

Dolphin friendly

Dolphins are one of the few animals other than humans known to mate for reasons other than reproduction and especially male Bottlenose with other dolphin species.

Aggressive behaviour is rarely observed, but it may have a large impact on the relationships, it's found that males are more aggressive than females, and use sexual coersion during the breeding season, though the bottlenose may also be submissive in such encounters. Female bottlenose dolphins are highly tolerant of all this, as they haven't been observed acting aggressively towards juveniles or adults of either sex. Though female aggression is extremely rare, but females receive aggression more often

Occasionally, dolphins will also show sexual behaviour towards humans as well, so watch out when Dolphins are about.

Exploding peanuts

Now, peanuts, appear harmless enough don't they? Well would they look so innocent if I told you that they were a component in dynamite?

So, how exactly are peanuts involved in dynamite? Well Dynamite is made from Nitroglycerine which is also known as trinitroglycerin, and glyceryl trinitrate, is an oily, explosive liquid made by nitrating glycerol. So nitroglycerine is made from glycerol. Glycerol or glycerine, is a viscous liquid used in soap, cream, and food. Glycerol is made of...that's right...Peanut oil! Peanut oil is of course made from peanuts! So there you have it! The principle ingredient of dynamite is peanuts!

In fact as dynamite was invented by Alfred Nobel (the founder of the Nobel Peace Prize) and that he made his fortune from it, you could conceivably concur that without peanuts, there very possibly would never have been a Nobel Peace Prize.

Honeymoon

Why exactly is a Honeymoon called a Honeymoon? Well there's two possible reasons i've come across.

The first being: That in Babylon around 4,000 years ago, for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink, and if i'm anything to go by, then that would be a lot of mead. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month or what we know today as the honeymoon.

The other is: The first recorded appearance of the term honeymoon came in 1546 though, the man would simply abduct the woman of his choice and take her into hiding. This would last at least as long as it took for her angry relatives to stop searching for her. Normally this might be about a month, to follow along with the moon phases again. While in hiding, the couple would partake of mead, which then continues the honey bit of honeymoon.

A Seahorse in my brain?

The hippocampus is a small area area of the brain that plays major roles in long term memory and spatial navigation.

The name Hippocampus come the Greek words "hippos" and "kampos", literally meaning "horse sea monster". Hippocampus is also the name of the genus that seahorses are in. In humans it has a curved and convoluted shape that reminded early anatomists of a seahorse. Nice to know that scientists were sensible back then. :)

In rodents, the hippocampus is shaped something like a banana they dont call it the banana though, it's still called the Hippocampus.

Statues

Legend has it that for every memorial statue with a person on a horse, if the horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died of battle wounds; if all four of the horse's legs are on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

Well, this story has long intrigued art enthusiasts, sculpting specialists and even history buffs. And a number of these experts have put the code to the test over the years. They simply make lists of statues, the positions of the horse’s feet, and the subject’s history in battle, and note the code’s success. In most cases, these tests have shown that the code is accurate in less than 30 percent of sculptures, and, to date, no sculptor has made a spectacle of announcing that he or she, in fact, does adhere to the code.

So, while the jury is still out on whether this legend is true, it makes for interesting statue viewing.

Tickle me

Scientists have discovered that the feeling experienced when we are tickled causes us to panic and is a natural defense to little creepy crawlers like spiders and bugs.

*shudder*

The tickle response may be a protective warning device against the stings and bites of harmful insects. That same ticklish feeling sends us into a state of panic and causes a response of uncontrollable laughter if a person tickles us.

Tickling was and is an ingredient in forming and keeping social bonds. Such bonding occurs through stimulating each other to laugh and feel merry. This is particularly true for parents and children.

The threat of being tickled without laying a finger on them is enough to induce hysterics. This is as effective with adults as with children and provides a clue to the fact that tickling is not merely a physical sensation

You cannot tickle yourself. If you try, you will not succeed since there is no surprise or lack of control in the stimulation.

As a slightly off track note, tickling was used as a method of torture by the ancient Romans.

hehe, see tickling is evil.

Where a certain word comes from

A certain four letter word which begins with an 'F' does actually have a meaning behind it's use. It comes from ancient England where you had to get consent from the King to have a baby. The King would then give them a placard to hang on their door saying ''Fornication Under Consent of the King'' so now you know. So if they don't have that placard up then they are using the wrong use of that word.