The name frog comes from the Old-English 'frogga', which means, to jump. There are over 5,000 varieties of frogs.
* From a taxonomic perspective, all members of Anura are frogs, but only members of the family Bufonidae are considered toads. Frog usually refers to species that are aquatic or semi-aquatic with smooth and/or moist skins, and the term 'toad' generally refers to species that tend to be terrestrial with dry, warty skin.
* Frogs legs are considered a delicacy in China, Greece, New Orleans, and France.
* Frogs will only eat something that moves; in nature that would be insects or spiders. Tadpoles are vegetarian.
* Amphibians, such as frogs, always return to water to breed. However, there is a midwife frog where the male carries the frogspawn around on his body. When he senses the time is ripe, he swims out into the water and the tiny tadpoles emerge from their egg-jelly and swim away.
* Frogs, can change their color to suit their background; not as spectacularly as chameleons, but enough to save them from a casual predator.
* Ranidaphobia means fear of frogs. Touching frogs will not give you warts, that's just a myth.
37.5% of the US population was involved in agriculture in 1900 and today less than half of one percent are in that business. We still have all the food we need, as well as supply other parts of the world.
There are 2.2 million farms and 50.4% of farms are less than 99 acres in size, with the average age of a farmer at 57.1 years old.
We export $115.5 billion of farm products a year. The top five farming counties in the US are in California. All data taken from the census.
With this handy program you can have an excuse to get off the phone every time and no one needs to know about it. Just set it to anyone in your contacts list, select a delay time (up to two hours) and press the sleep button on the top of your phone. Escape Call Free for iPhone will sit silently until the timer has run out, at which point you will get an urgent call and you can decide if it is time to leave.
A chipotle (chi-POET-lee) is a smoked, dried jalapeño chili used primarily in Mexican, Mexican-American, Tex-Mex, and Mexican-inspired cuisine. The deep red jalapenos are smoked for days until completely dry. It takes about 10 pounds of jalapenos to make a pound of chipotle.
Until recently, chipotles were almost exclusively found in the markets of central and southern Mexico. As Mexican food became more popular, it expanded into Northern Mexico and eventually the United States and other places, such as China.
Most chipotle chiles are produced in the Northern Mexican state of Chihuahua. This variety of chipotle is known as a morita (Spanish for blackberry or black raspberry; literally "little purple one"). This is a description of how the chipotle looks.
On the keyboard of life, always keep one finger on the escape key.
The US Postal Service delivered 19 billion cards, letters, and packages between Thanksgiving and Christmas last year. I wonder how many trees that is?
Couldn't resist this one. The Post Office has another official web site http://www.usps.com/green/ Seems like an oxymoron to have a 'green' website for a business that deals in delivering paper. Here is a clip from the site -
"did you know…We're building new postal facilities with the environment in mind. We use recycled fiberglass, natural lighting, thermal windows and solar electric and thermal systems. And water tanks to harvest rainwater."
I first thought this was a hoax, but it is from a reputable scientific organization, and I verified it with other publications. Australian scientists are looking for ways to reduce harmful methane emissions from the country's woolly flocks, a researcher said Nov 29, 2009.
Twelve percent of Australia's total greenhouse gas emissions originate with agriculture, and some 70 percent of that amount is blamed on livestock, with most of it coming from burps, study leader John Goopy said. (Yes, that is his real name)
With sheep, almost all of the methane produced comes out of their mouths. "There's not very much passed out the animal's anus at all," said Goopy, from the New South Wales Department of Industry and Investment.
Scientists measure the sheep's methane emissions by herding them into a specially designed booth shortly after they eat and then calculating the amount of gas belched. They hope to find whether there is a genetic link between the sheep that produce the least methane, which could then be exploited to breed low-emissions sheep.
Sheep produce about seven kilograms (15 lb) of methane a year while other cattle produce ten times that amount. Cows, sheep, goats, camels, buffaloes, and termites release methane.
"Of the 200 sheep so far tested, about half produced much more than average while the other half belched considerably less methane." (Hmmm, real science here)
Methane has about 17 to 21 times the environmental warming capacity of carbon dioxide. However, methane lasts only 12 years in the atmosphere vs. CO2, which lasts 100 years in the atmosphere. Wikipedia says the main greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone.
Let's sum this up - most of 70% of 12% comes from all livestock, of which sheep are some part of, and half of them produce more burps than the other half, so let's change nature and breed out the burping half. - We will deal with farting cows later.
And these people actually get paid by the government for these kinds of goopy studies. Of course, half get paid more and half get paid less than average.
Happy belated Birthday to Samuel Langhorne Clemens, who was born on November 30, 1835.
In 1990, 24.8% of people 25 and older did not complete high school. In 2000, 19.6% did not complete high school. This is down from 33.1% in 1980
In 1990, 20.3% of people over 25 completed college. In 2000, 24.4% completed college. This is up from 16.2% in 1980. Finally some numbers are going in the right direction.
A mature tree can produce as much oxygen in a season as 10 people inhale in a year. It takes 12 trees to produce a ton of printing paper—24 trees for higher grade writing paper. Emails are treeless.
Chocolate causes acne
The American Academy of Dermatology says acne is not caused by any specific type of food, including chocolate. The adolescent affliction is linked to the levels of testosterone in your body.
Sitting too close to the TV will ruin your eyes
According to WebMD.com, the worst thing that can happen as a result of sitting too close to the screen is a nagging headache.
Carrots improve your eyesight
The American Optometric Association found that 48% of Americans still believe carrots are the best food for eye health. And though it does have beta-carotene and Vitamin A. Dark leafy greens like spinach are even healthier for the eyes.
Taking a swim less than one hour after eating will give you cramps
The Mayo Clinic says it is perfectly safe to swim after you eat a light meal or snack. The site does recommend taking a break after eating a big meal, not because of cramping, but due to lethargy.
Lightning never strikes the same place twice
According to the National Weather Service, lightning can strike the same place numerous times. In fact, the Empire State Building is hit an average of 25 times a year.
When a defining moment comes along, you define the moment, or the moment defines you.
