10 Random Facts - January 2021 Edition

1. Grizzly bears have a surprising thing in their diet.

To be more specific grizzly bears that live in Yellowstone National Park have a surprising thing in their diet, moths. Every year during the summer hundreds of thousands of millers, which are the adults of the army cutworm, make their way from the farmlands up to the mountains to seek refuge from the sun in between the rocks. Grizzly bears that live in Yellowstone, and sometimes even a black bear or two, will climb up specifically for the purpose of eating these moths. It might seem odd to think of something that big eating something so tiny, but they are actually quite nutritious especially considering the number of moths the bears eat per day. One moth has enough fat to count as about one half of a calorie, and then each bear eats about forty thousand of these moths a day. Meaning that it's belly is filled with about twenty thousand calories just from these little moths daily.

2. William Henry Harrison's inauguration speech didn't kill him.

Harrison had a lot to prove in his inauguration speech and some people think that in his attempts to do so he inadvertently caused his own death. People criticized him for not being intellectual enough and in response to that he ended up giving the longest inaugural address in history. Taking almost two hours to finish, his speech was 8,445 words long. Now droning on isn't necessarily deadly (for the speaker anyway 😉), but on this particular day it might have been a good idea to just get on with the matter. A snowstorm was predicted for that day, but wanting to prove that he was still a hardy general that was capable of handling such weather he refused to move the ceremony inside. He gave his two hour speech out in the cold and wet weather leading some to believe that it was to blame for his extremely short presidency, especially because he didn't even bother with an overcoat, hat, or gloves. In reality though, his unfortunate death was probably caused by enteric fever brought on by contaminated drinking water. He didn't even start to show respiratory issued until about five days into his illness, before that it was completely stomach related symptoms.

3. Mariah Carey didn't make a good waitress.

She had two main reasons for hating her job as a waitress. Number one, she said that she could never work the cash register properly. Number two, nobody could ever remember her name. At the time her name Mariah was obviously not popular yet, and so people had a tough time with the pronunciation. To fix this problem she stated that she would make up more common names such as Debby but then she would forget what name she gave. This resulted in people calling for a Debby and her not remembering that was supposed to be her. Another career she explored while working on her musical one was cosmetology. She studied for about five hundred hours in beauty school before she eventually dropped out.

4. The game Centipede has more story than you might think.

I for one did not realize that the classic arcade game had a story element, but it turns out that it does. Apparently you aren't just some weirdo shooting at an even weirder bug. You are actually playing as a garden gnome protecting your garden from bugs. And two years after the release of Centipede, Atari also let out Millipede in which you are an elf/archer that is trying to protect your mushroom forest. And if you thought the small game series stopped there, you're wrong. There was also a board game, a hoard of knockoffs, and even talks of (you better sit down for this) a movie.

5. I found out some weird stuff about food recently.

Not the most informative beginning statement I know but wait for it, there's Spam involved. It's become something of a joke or myth that Spam stands for Scientifically Processed Animal Matter, but actually Spam is a combination of the words "spiced" and "ham". I don't know about you but that sounds less suspicious to me. I also found out that you can get high on nutmeg, although I wouldn't suggest it. Nutmeg is one of the many spices that contain myristicin, which when broken down in the body becomes a compound that can affect sympathetic nervous system and cause hallucinations. Commonly nutmeg intoxication also causes symptoms such as drowsiness, dizziness, a dry mouth, and confusion. If taken in too large of doses it can be extremely dangerous, sometimes causing organ failure, and has even caused death when taken with other drugs. If you like to use nutmeg during your baking then rest assured you should be fine since you wouldn't be using very much. It takes about two teaspoons (10 grams) to get a toxic response and the symptoms worsen if you get up to 50 grams or more.

6. There's a reason why babies put everything in their mouth.

It might seem like a random cute thing that babies do, but there is a scientific reason for this behavior. The areas in and around their mouth are the first places to become sensitive, and since babies rely on their sense of touch to explore everything they stick everything in their mouths to figure the world out. Babies actually have about three times more taste buds than adults, and they're located not only on the tongue but on the back, roof, and sides or the mouth. Infants also have more bones than us, they're born with three hundred bones that will eventually fuse together to make the two hundred and six bones that adults have.

Bonus Fact: Newborns can't really cry because their tear ducts aren't developed enough to make tears quite yet. It's about three weeks after birth that a baby can start shedding actual tears and before then they scream and howl to let you know they need something.

7. People once considered a famous constellation to be part of another.

The Ancient Greeks thought that the constellation Libra was actually the claws of the constellation Scorpio. They even named the portion of the sky that contained Libra after that idea. They named it Chelae which basically means "claws". The association between Libra and Scorpio eventually faded when people began to associate Libra with balance, but traces of that ancient belief still remain. The Arabic names of two of the stars pay homage to it, the brightest star in the constellation is Zubeneschamali ("northern claw") and the second brightest star is Zubenelgenubi ("southern claw").

8. Your brain is fatty.

Your brain is actually the fattiest organ in your entire body, and is composed of a minimum of 60% fat. Despite the fattiness of the brain, it only accounts for about 2% of our overall body weight. The average adult brain weighs in at around three pounds, this is due to the fact that our brains are texturally similar to firm jelly. Your brain doesn't stay the same size all your life though. It may seem obvious that when you're a baby your brain grows a lot, technically it will triple in size in your first year of life and continues to mature until you're about 25. But what you may not know is that starting in your middle age your brain will actually start to shrink, although fortunately this doesn't seem to have an impact on overall intelligence.

9. Kamala Harris has a relatable morning routine.

Typically the politician will wake up at about six o'clock, and workout for about half an hour. Her go-to breakfast is a bowl of Raisin Bran complete with almond milk, along with some tea including honey and lemon. She's said that her husband wakes up an hour before her, and normally starts his day by reading the news. As if that isn't already relatable enough she says she owns a collection of Chuck Taylor converse sneakers that she wears to the airport. When in the air she watches shows and movies that her husband put on her iPad for her. #couples_goals

10. The White House will now be home to pets once more.

The Bidens own two dogs, German Shepards named Champ and Major. Champ is the elder of the group, the twelve year old dog was named by the Biden's grandchildren. Major was adopted from the Delaware Humane Association when he was just a pup in 2018. And the dogs might be joined by a feline friend at some point. Dr. Jill Biden hinted during the campaign that she would love to get a cat if her husband won, and in November it was reported that the adoption of the cat was in motion. It will be the first cat in the White House since a black cat called India "Wille" Bush lived there during the George W. Bush administration.