Trivia Lovers!

[Sphye]

Hey! Did you know there's a female ostrich at Disney World that had a male ostrich's feathers?

http://www.jamboeveryone.com/2013/02/sally-ostrich.html

When there are no male ostriches, one female changes color so that it appears there is a male around. Males tend to protect young and territories from predators. They want the predators to think there is a man around the house to fight off potential problems.

Yup. Guess Disney got it right in Fantasia with their black and white female ostriches. XD Isn't nature just awesome?

I think that hens can do that, too. In the past my family has had hens and no roosters, and typically it results in one hen growing out a larger comb and slightly pointier feathers. You can tell the difference via a spur or lack-thereof, though. Male chickens have spurs on their legs, and females do not.

[scmarshtacky]

@Sphye: Well, you could say that too actually since a fruit, after pollination, contains seeds. ^^ Unless it's treated with Auxin, in which case you have seedless fruits, but that's another matter. The fleshy part is the ovary wall and accessory tissue and the seeds are contained on the inside. For example, the pea pod would be the accessory tissue while the peas would be the embryo-containing seeds.

Carrots, lettuce, broccoli. Stuff from leaves, stems, or underground storage organs are vegetables.


That's cool Silverhart!

[Sphye]

I just recalled another tidbit of information I found by googling a string of things at one in the morning:
Did you know that box jellyfish have multiple different types of eyes, but no brains? It's apparently a mystery to biologists as to how they can see without a brain to interpret the information.

Edit: I learned that going longer than twelve hours without eating triggers a survival response in your body, causing energy to be rationed much more and for extra energy to be saved as fat cells, in case you can't eat for a while. It's a nice way for our bodies to keep us from starving if we had a famine, but it's less convenient if you just sleep in for too long and miss a meal.

[Silverhart]

There are 364 gifts total in the '12 Days of Christmas' song. ^^

12 partridges
22 turtle doves
30 French hens
36 colly birds
40 gold rings
42 geese
42 swans
40 maids
36 ladies
30 lords
22 pipers
12 drummers

Woo! That's some crazy party! XD

[Sphye]

There are 364 gifts total in the '12 Days of Christmas' song. ^^

12 partridges
22 turtle doves
30 French hens
36 colly birds
40 gold rings
42 geese
42 swans
40 maids
36 ladies
30 lords
22 pipers
12 drummers

Woo! That's some crazy party! XD

That's a lot of gifts, and especially a lot of birds. Did you know that the "Five Golden Rings" bit actually refers to ring-necked pheasants? Even more birds.

[Diddlebug]

Username:
Diddlebug

What is one of your favorite facts?
Contrary to popular belief, there is no place on the planet you can drill through the middle of the earth and get to China. China is directly across from water, not land.

Do you like to play trivia games, or merely stash away information for yourself?
I used to play trivia games, but nowadays I love just store them away to bring up in a conversation amongst other trivia lovers x)

Other?
Can't get enough trivia! I do love sharing any interesting facts that I learn, so this is definitely a great thread for me xD
Codeword so I can find them if things get a little busy.

[Sphye]

You're on the front page of the thread now, Diddle. ^u^

Did you know that the Bermuda Triangle's strangeness could be attributed to little more than odd magnetics and underwater geysers? Of the disappearances that have happened there, pilots mistaking their location when they couldn't use their navigational gear and ships sinking due to water density changing would make sense for most all of them. It is simply a dangerous area, but theories of aliens and monsters are very likely just imagination.

[Diddlebug]

That's good... Don't want an alien invasion xD

Speaking of water, though, did you know that water boils quicker in Denver, Colorado than in New York City. The reason is the difference in altitude and atmospheric pressure between the two locations.

[Aliria]

Username:
Aliria
What is one of your favorite facts?
It's illegal to hunt whales in Wyoming, an entirely landlocked state. (I don't actually know if that one is true, but it's still entertaining!)

In one of the earliest known written versions of Cinderella, she wore slippers of 'vair,' a French word meaning 'White squirrel fur,' but then when it was rewritten much later, the word 'vair' had disappeared from the language,and the person rewriting it assumed it should have been 'verre' meaning 'glass.'

The giant squid has a donut-shaped brain that circles it's esophagus, so if it swallows anything too large, it risks brain damage.

Sorry, that's three. Couldn't stop myself.
Do you like to play trivia games, or merely stash away information for yourself?
Stash it away.....And occasional trivia games and showing off...
Other?
The Book of Useless Information is the greatest thing ever. It's literally a 600+ page book of this kind of thing.
Codeword so I can find them if things get a little busy.

[Sphye]

Did you know that one of the the main purposes of crying may simply be that it causes other people to respond empathetically to you?