Some simply astonishing facts for October 2024 include Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world put together and how giant pandas make tough choices in the wild.
Lakes, Lakes and More Lakes!
1. Canada is the second largest country in the world by total area.
2. It is also the world’s most educated country: over half its residents have college degrees.
3. The country has more lakes than the rest of the world’s lakes combined!
4. Lakes can contain either fresh or salt water. Most lakes contain freshwater, but some lakes are called “closed lakes” because they only lose water through evaporation, which can leave behind salt.
5. Freshwater accounts for only 3% of the world’s water (the rest is saltwater). However, despite that tiny amount, freshwater habitats are home to more than 100,000 species of plants and animals.
Professional Ice Hockey Is Tough
6. The oceans remove more than 25% of all the carbon dioxide that humans put into the air.
7. Sports originated in ancient Greece, often involving training for war or hunting. Early games often involved throwing spears, stakes, and rocks, and sparring with opponents.
8. According to a Detroit free press poll, 68% of professional ice hockey players have lost at least one tooth during a game.
9. Boxing was once illegal in the United States.
10. The human body has bones in many places, including 54 bones in the hand and wrist, and 26 bones in the foot. Your skull has 22 bones, including 8 cranial bones and 14 facial bones.
Dem Bones, Dem Bones…
11. The femur, or thighbone, is the longest and strongest bone, while the stapes in the middle ear is the smallest and lightest.
12. The hyoid bone at the base of the tongue is the only bone in the body that’s not connected to another bone.
13. Golf balls have an average of 336 dimples.
14. Tooth enamel is the hardest part of the human body, even harder than bone.
15. Teeth are as unique as fingerprints, and no two sets are the same.
Ship of Theseus
16. Teeth start forming in the womb before birth, but don’t “erupt” until a child is between 6 and 12 months old.
17. The body produces about 2 million red blood cells every second, and they live for about 120 days.
18. Bones stop growing in length during puberty, but they continue to gain density until about age 30. The body also constantly remodels its skeleton by building up and breaking down bone tissue, which means that each bone is essentially rebuilt from scratch every decade or so.
19. Red blood cells are disc-shaped and made in the bone marrow, they contain hemoglobin, a protein that carries oxygen from the lungs to other parts of the body and also helps remove carbon dioxide from the body.
20. In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all the world’s nuclear weapons combined.
Giant Pandas Are Cold, Man
21. On average, 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year.
22. The skeleton has many jobs, including moving the body, protecting the brain, heart, and lungs, manufacturing blood cells and storing and regulating minerals.
23. On average, people fear spiders more than they do death.
24. Thirty-five per cent of the people who use personal ads or online apps for dating are already married. And men are three times more likely to use them than women.
25. If a giant panda gives birth to more than one offspring, it’s quite common for the mother to abandon one to give their chosen cub a better chance of surviving.
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