Curiouser and curiouser

I'm in the process of reading a very fascinating book that has given me some cool random facts that I'd like to share with you!

There are somewhere around 40,000 thunderstorms around the world everyday.

The term, "walking on cloud nine" most likely comes from the first edition of the International Cloud Atlas, where the "plumpest and most cuhiony looking" cloud was the ninth one listed, called the cumulonimbus.

One of the last really big animals to become extinct was the Sea Cow. It looked like a cross between a walrus and a whale and could reach lengths of up to 30 feet and weigh ten tons (in comparison, a male African elephant can get to be about 30 feet long, but weigh only 16,500 pounds.) It was extinct by 1768.

Yellowstone national park (2.2million acres) is a supervolcano. Beneath the park is a magma chamber about 45 miles across (approx. the same size as the park). The park has been erupting every 600,000 years(-ish). An eruption that occurred about 2 million years ago covered New York State in up to 67 feet of ash, and California in 20 feet of ash. The most recent eruption covered 19 western states (basically everything west of the Mississippi River), in addition to parts of Canada and Mexico. The last eruption was over 600,000 years ago.

"She sells sea shells by the seashore" is most likely referring to Mary Anning from England. She had a knack for finding fossils, and she spent 35 years of her life gathering and selling fossils to tourists near the English Channel.

Almost every dinosaur that you can name (for ex. stegosaurus, brontesaurus, triceratops, etc.) was discovered by either Edward Drinker Cope or Othniel Charles Marsh. The only big exception is the T-Rex.

For years, makers of toothpaste and laxatives put radioactive material in their products. Radioactivity wasn't banned in all products until 1938.

Radioactivity is so long lasting that Marie Currie's papers and lab books (even her cookbook) from the 1890's are too dangerous to handle. They are kept in lead lined boxes, and you have to wear protective gear to touch them.



All fact were found though A short history of nearly everything by Bill Bryson.