505 Glass Tank Contests Continued Multiple Winners

[Reddhott]

Not all snow is the same and who knows this better than skiers and snowboarders? Skiers created in the early 1900s their own terminology to describe various types of snow. The crazy lingo used by them includes funny terms such as “pow pow,” “mashed potatoes,” “champagne snow (powder),” “cauliflower,” “sticky snow,” “dust on crust” and many other descriptive terms. Slang adds humor, color and personality to any vocabulary. Did you know that “pow pow” or simply pow (from powder) is the fresh powder snow, which is actually a soft, fluffy type of snow? “Champagne snow” has such an extremely low moisture content that you can’t even make a snowball with it. While “champagne powder” is great for skiing because it’s smooth and dry, “mashed potatoes” is an old, dense and heavy snow that is hard to turn skis in.

 

[Lynzy]

A jiffy is actually 1/100th of a second.

 

[Debra_oh]

Electric eels are not actually eels.



They actually are much more closely related to carp and catfish! These fascinating creatures can generate an electrical charge of over 600 volts - five times that of a wall socket! Their bodies contain electric organs with about 6,000 electrocytes. These are cells that store power like tiny batteries.

Some electric eels can get up to 8 feet long and weigh as much as 44 pounds! Despite their size and high voltage shocks, electric eels rarely kill people. The most dangerous thing to worry about is drowning after being stunned by one.

 

[DocTonyNYC]

The enduring symbol of love, Cupid (or Eros) is said to have come from Chaos (“The Yawning Void”) and represents the primitive forces of love and desire.

 

[Lynzy]

A group of whales is called a pod.

 

[Reddhott]

Most snowflakes form dazzling crystal patterns with six sides. But occasionally, a triangular crystal forms, something that has puzzled physicists for years. A 2009 study in the open-access, pre-publish journal arXiv.org revealed that triangular snowflakes form when the six sides of the seed crystals are slightly asymmetric. This makes them wobble randomly as a snowflake falls, allowing the bigger sides to hit the fast-flowing air inside the cloud, and grow at the expense of the smaller sides.

Other snowflakes have even stranger shapes: Some look like hourglasses, others like spools of thread and still others like needles. And while the quintessential snowflake is the six-armed, symmetrical beauty, most versions are hardly so picturesque. In fact, since the arms of a snowflake all grow randomly, asymmetrical snowflakes are more common.

 

[Debra_oh]

On top of Mt. Everest, water can boil at 156.2 °F (69 °C).

What we know as the boiling temperature of water is only for standard pressure. When there is a change in pressure (for instance, at a higher elevation) the boiling temperature changes as well. So instead of water boiling at 100 °C or 212 °F, at 8,848 m (29029 feet) high, the boiling temperature is much lower. It actually decreases by 1°C every 285 m (935 ft) of elevation.

 

[DocTonyNYC]

European males subconsciously seek out women whose waist circumference is about 70% of their hips. Beauty icons such as Audrey Hepburn, Venus de Milo, and even Twiggy had a waist ratio of exactly 70%.

 

[skydragon]

I was born on the prairies where the wind blew free and there was nothing to break the light of the sun. I was born where there were no enclosures.
Geronimo

 

[Lynzy]

The highest a human has flown from the earth upward by balloon is approximately 128,097 feet which is over 23 miles (39 kilometers) above sea level and it was done by Felix Baumgartner of Austria. The balloon was 55 stories tall, helium filled and strung to a capsule that Felix sat in. Baumgartner was wearing a full body, high technology, oxygen supplied, fully pressurized and heated suit with helmet.

 

[Reddhott]

 

[Debra_oh]

Only one woman has ever appeared on United States paper currency.



Although women such as Sacagawea and Susan B. Anthony have been depicted on coins in recent years, neither have appeared on paper currency. That sole distinction belongs to our original first lady, Martha Washington, who appeared on a set of $1 Silver Certificates in the late 19th century.

 

[DocTonyNYC]

When a person falls in love, the ventral tegmental area in the brain floods the caudate nucleus with dopamine. The caudate then signals for more dopamine; the more dopamine, the higher a person feels. The same system becomes activated when someone takes ........

When someone looks at a new love, the neural circuits that are usually associated with social judgment are suppressed.

 

[Reddhott]

Uranus was originally called George’s StarWhen Sir William Herschel discovered Uranus in 1781, he was given the honor of naming it. He chose to name it Georgium Sidus (George’s Star) after his new patron, King George III (Mad King George). This is what he said:
In the fabulous ages of ancient times the appellations of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were given to the Planets, as being the names of their principal heroes and divinities. In the present more philosophical era it would hardly be allowable to have recourse to the same method and call it Juno, Pallas, Apollo or Minerva, for a name to our new heavenly body. The first consideration of any particular event, or remarkable incident, seems to be its chronology: if in any future age it should be asked, when this last-found Planet was discovered? It would be a very satisfactory answer to say, ‘In the reign of King George the Third.’Uranus was also the first planet to be discovered with the use of a telescope.e

 

[Lynzy]

Tennessee is bordered by 8 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina and Virginia - more than any other in the US.

 

[Debra_oh]

Nicotine is named after Jean Nicot, who introduced tobacco to France.



In the mid-16th century Nicot served as the French ambassador to Portugal. A friend in Lisbon who was a botanist invited Nicot over for dinner and showed him a tobacco plant that was growing in his garden. The friend told Nicot that tobacco had healing properties, and Nicot became convinced of this fact after treating a friend's facial wounds.

Nicot eventually sent some tobacco snuff to the Queen of France, who suffered from chronic migraine headaches. The snuff worked, and the queen decreed that tobacco was to be called "Herba Regina," or the queen's herb! Introducing tobacco to France is Nicot's major claim to fame, and we have since honored him by naming the tobacco plant after him (Nicotiana tabacum) - and more prominently, the addictive stimulant in tobacco we know as nicotine!

 

[DocTonyNYC]

Since ancient Greece, the apple has been a symbol of love. The Celts believed that the apple represented love because it lasted so long after being picked.

 

[Lynzy]

African Grey Parrots have vocabularies of over 200 words.

 

[Debra_oh]

Ice cream existed back in the second century B.C.



We do not know for certain when or where it was first invented; however, we do know that Alexander the Great ate snow and ice that was flavored with honey and nectar. King Solomon of Israel and the Roman Emperor Nero were also said to enjoy icy drinks from time to time.

The popularity of ice cream surged a thousand years later when Marco Polo brought a recipe that resembled modern sherbet back to Italy from the Far East. "Cream ice" also appeared in England around the same time. In 1660, ice cream finally became available for common people and not just royalty or rulers. This was made possible when a Silician named Procopio developed a recipe that blended milk, cream, butter, and eggs at the first café in Paris!

 

[Lynzy]

The only continent with no active volcanoes is Australia.