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March 26, 2008
Ten Little Known Facts
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"Did you know that sometimes baby sharks will devour one another while they're still in the womb? Fighting to their death before they're even born?" —Janet Tashjian, Tru Confessions, 1999, p. 81.
(Outside the womb is no picnic, either. Here's a sea lion devouring a baby shark. And here's a fossilized shark egg and baby shark)
"There is a curious and little-known fact about the name 'penguin.' Although this name is now used exclusively to indicate the well-known birds of the southern seas, it was not originally applied to them at all. In fact, the 'original' penguin was the great auk. The actual origins of the word are fairly obscure, but one school of thought favors the idea that is made up from two Welsh words—pen, meaning 'head,' and gwyn, meaning 'white'—a possible reference to the large patches behind the great auk's eyes." —Errol Fuller, The Great Auk: The Extinction of the Original Penguin, 2003, p. 17.
"It's a little-known fact that America's first millionaire [and later first multimillionaire] was a real estate investor. A German immigrant and the son of a butcher, he was named John Jacob Astor." — Gary Keller, The Millionaire Real Estate Investor, 2005, p. 123.
"Even as debate continues on the role of female soldiers in combat, it is a little-known fact that hundreds of women already have fought, and many have died, in our nation's wars. In fact, women fought in America's wars even before the existence of the United States." — Thomas Ayres, That's Not in My American History Book, 2000, p. 67. (Indeed, women have been warriors throughout world history.)
"The U.S. Congress has the authority to order the U.S. military to shoot the President's plane out of the sky, if the U.S. President becomes a rogue President." —Keith N. Ferreira, Simpletism, 2004, p. 28.
"It's a little-known fact that it rains more in Rome than it does in London." —Duncan Garwood, Rome, 2006, p. 288.
"It wasn't an iceberg that sank James Cameron's Titanic; it was UNIX." — Bill Wagner, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Unix, 1998, p. 10.
"So-called empty space is actually a cauldron of seething energies—the Zero Point Field." —Lynne McTaggart, The Field, 2003, p. 33.
"A little- known fact is that one could live without fruits, but not without vegetables." — Meredith McCarty, American Macrobiotic Cuisine, 1996, p. 6.
"Unlike a computer's hard drive, our brains have no known limits for memory storage." —Gene D. Cohen, The Mature Mind, 2005, p. 106.
This is another post that was composed by on-going contributor Craig Conley of the Abecedarian blog fame. Craig's new book is A Field Guide to Identifying Unicorns By Sound, available in an eco-friendly low-wattage palette. Thank you again, Craig! (All previous co-blogger's posts archived here.) If other bloggers are interested to share the forum here on any other topic, please contact me for details
Please show Craig some love by leaving lots of comments below!
March 26, 2008 in Co-blogged with, Information | Permalink
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Comments
yesss, i knew it, space is not empty :)
Posted by: another at Mar 26, 2008 7:31:39 AM
Craig Conley is clearly America's top independent scholar. Love his quirky take on esoterica.
Posted by: mommady at Mar 26, 2008 9:30:52 PM
Seeing as the quote is from '96, i wonder if Meredith McCarty has died of scurvy yet. that one confuses me
Posted by: Rob at Mar 31, 2008 12:04:18 PM
Very interesting article, good work - thanks for sharing!
Posted by: Something Designer at Sep 6, 2009 8:52:56 AM