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Sour Cream

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Sour Cream

These facts are sour cream.

  • Sour cream is a thick and creamy dairy product that is generally derived from the cream of cow’s milk.
  • Sour cream is commonly used as a condiment with Mexican dishes or on baked potatoes; and is sometimes used as an ingredient in dressings, bakery items, and desserts.
  • Despite ‘sour’ being in its name, which is a reference to the traditional process of souring, sour cream is not very sour.
  • Sour cream is made with typical cream that has been through a fermentation process, usually with lactic acid bacteria types.
  • Besides lactic acid bacteria, sour cream can be made with other acids, and sometimes thickeners are added.

Sour Cream, White, Dairy, Bowl, Carton, Ten Random Facts, Australia, Condiment, Sauce

  • Sour cream can come in a low fat version, that is made from a combination of milk and cream, or just milk with added thickeners.
  • Sour cream is refrigerated when stored, so that it does not spoil.
  • Fermented cream cannot be marketed as ‘sour cream’ if it contains less than 18% fat from milk in weight.
  • Sour cream was probably invented by the Russians, before the 1600s, and is said to be a derivative of the Mongolian alcoholic drink ‘kumis’, that was originally made from mare’s (horse) milk, and eventually became popular in western societies in the mid 1900s.
  • Sour cream has a very high content of saturated fat, and is a good source of vitamin A, calcium, riboflavin and phosphorus.

 

Bibliography:
Nealon T, De Condimentis (12): Sour Cream, 2011, HiLoBrow, http://hilobrow.com/2011/06/10/de-condimentis-12-sour-cream/
Sour Cream, 2012, Nutrition Health Connection, http://www.nutritionhealthconnection.com/Milk-Products/Sour-Cream.html
Sour Cream, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sour_cream

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FIFA World Cup

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FIFA World Cup

“All in One Rhythm” – motto of the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

  • The FIFA World Cup is a soccer (association football) competition open to countries worldwide, that is held every four years and organised by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA).
  • Over 200 teams from various countries compete against each other in the three years prior to the month long FIFA World Cup, and from those teams, 32 are selected to play in the World Cup.
  • The first FIFA World Cup tournament began on the 13 July, 1930 in Uruguay, South America, and was established by the then FIFA president Jules Rimet, so that there was a soccer competition outside the Olympic Games, but the number of countries participating from Europe was low, due to the location and the effort and time required to travel to South America.
  • The champion of the FIFA World Cup is determined by 32 teams competing against each other in round-robin style tournaments in groups of four, with the top two teams of each group advancing to a round of knockout style tournaments, and if a team is successful in that round, they move on to a series of finals, and eventually the grand final, where the winners take home millions of dollars in prize money and a replica of the trophy.
  • The only team to have competed in every FIFA World Cup has been the Brazilian team, which has won more than any other, with five wins to their name up until 2010, with Italy close behind with four wins.
FIFA World Cup, 2010, South Africa, Mexico, Game, Play, Soccer, Football, Match, Ten Random Facts, Flickr
2010 FIFA World Cup – Mexico vs South Africa
Image courtesy of Celso FLORES/Flickr
  • The FIFA World Cup has been cancelled twice, due to World War II, in 1942 and 1946.
  • Originally, the FIFA World Cup had 16 teams compete against each other, but this number rose to 24 in 1982 and to 32 in 1998, although there has been talk of increasing the number to 40.
  • The ‘FIFA World Cup’ is also known as the ‘World Cup’, and up until 2010, there had only been eight winning countries in the nineteen World Cup tournaments.
  • The original FIFA World Cup trophy that was named after the founder and was called the ‘Jules Rimet Trophy’, was stolen in 1983 and never found, after it was given to Brazil to keep in 1970 for their third win, which led to a new trophy design in 1974, which is 36 centimetres (14.2 inches) in height, 6.2 kilograms (13.6 pounds) in weight and is made of 18 carat solid gold.
  • The FIFA World Cup is the most popularly watched sporting event in the world, and has more viewers than the Olympic Games, with a ninth of the world’s population watching the grand final in 2006.
Bibliography:
Bryla M, FIFA World Cup History, 2013, EyeSeeData, http://eyeseedata.com/fifa-world-cup-history/
FIFA World Cup, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Cup

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Skunk

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Skunk

Aaaah! The skunk stinks!

  • Skunks are a family of nocturnal mammals native to the Americas, that typically have striped or spotted fur, in colours of black or brown and white or cream.
  • Skunks have the scientific family name Mephitidae, meaning ‘stench’, which is the family of skunks and stink badgers, that consists of 12 or 13 species, and the more well known striped Mephitis mephitis species is sometimes domesticated.
  • ‘Skunks’ are also known as ‘polecats’ in the United States of America, and while they were originally in the same family as typical polecats, in the Mustelidae family, they are only distantly related.
  • Depending on the species, skunks measure 40 to 94 centimetres (1.3 to 3 feet) in length, and weigh 0.2 to 8.2 kilograms (0.4 to 18 pounds).
  • Skunks eat a variety of food items including fruit, nuts, plant material, honeybees, larvae, worms, small mammals, small reptiles and eggs, and others.

Striped Skunk, Black and White, Snow, Slink, Ten Random Facts, America, Yellowstone Park

Striped Skunk
Image courtesy of Dan Dzurisin/Flickr
  • Skunks have glands on their rear under their tail, that produce a very stinky spray that contains sulphur, that is able to reach enemies up to 3 metres (10 feet) away and can be smelt up to a kilometre (0.6 miles) away.
  • Skunks have good hearing and smelling capabilities, but can only see up to 3 metres (10 feet) away.
  • Skunks live in burrows where they stay during winter and cooler weather for lengthy periods, but they do not genuinely hibernate.
  • Female skunks give birth to two to ten babies a year, known as kits, that are born deaf and blind, and they have an average three year lifespan, although it ranges from one to seven years in the wild, and up to ten years in captivity.
  • Skunks are preyed upon by great horned owls and some other species of birds, as well as some land dwelling animals, particularly from the dog family, Canidae, even though most are deterred by the stripey colouring and the strongly scented spray of the animal.
Bibliography:
Skunk, 2014, National Geographic, http://animals.nationalgeographic.com.au/animals/mammals/skunk/
Skunk, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skunk

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Tiger Tooth Aloe

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Tiger Tooth Aloe

If you are not careful, the tiger tooth aloe will do some scratching.

  • Tiger tooth aloe is an evergreen succulent plant native to Africa’s Kenya, and is one of the 500 plus species in the Aloe genus.
  • Tiger tooth aloes are a dwarf aloe species, and grow up to 25 to 30 centimetres (9.8 to 11.8 inches) in height.
  • Tiger tooth aloes have the scientific name Aloe juvenna and are commonly mistaken for the less common Aloe squarrosa, however their growth habits differ; the A. juvenna grows in a tight, compact, clump-like fashion, and the A squarrosa grows in a more loose way, with leaves that recurve (bend backwards).
  • Tiger tooth aloes are from the sub family Asphodelaceae, which belongs to the family Xanthorrhoeaceae, a family of flowering monocot plants.
  • Tiger tooth aloes grow best in sunny or lightly shady areas, are drought tolerant and do not like frost.

Tiger Tooth Aloe, Ten Random Facts, Vegetation, Spiky, Green, Vegetation, Australia

  • Tiger tooth aloes have fleshy, spiky foliage that is light green in colour with pale coloured spots, and the leaves can have a red-brown tinge if the plant receives sun all day on a continuous basis.
  • Tiger tooth aloe plants do not often flower, although when they do, they flower in summer or autumn.
  • Tiger tooth aloe plants tend to spread and form a ground covering, and are suitable for growing in the garden and in pots.
  • Tiger tooth aloe flowers grow on a long spike and are an orange-red colour.
  • Tiger tooth aloe plants can be grown from seed, though they are usually grown from cuttings or by dividing the clumps.
Bibliography:
Aloe juvenna, 2014, Dave’s Garden, http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/61412/#b
Aloe juvenna, 2014, Houseplants: Care and Propagation, http://houseplantz.net/aloe-juvenna/
Aloe juvenna – Tiger tooth aloes,n.d, San Marcos GROWERS, http://www.smgrowers.com/products/plants/plantdisplay.asp?plant_id=3588

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Lake Hillier

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Lake Hillier

Pink all year round… Lake Hillier

  • Lake Hillier is a lake located in the Recherche Archipelago, on Middle Island, the largest island in the archipelago, south of Western Australia.
  • Lake Hillier is famously coloured pink, which can be seen as a stunning bubblegum pink from the air and transparent pink from land.
  • Lake Hillier is believed to be first discovered by Europeans in 1802, by navigator Matthew Flinders, while circumnavigating Australia, who, along with shipmaster John Thistle, discovered the water’s high salt content.
  • ‘Lake Hillier’ is also known as ‘pink lake’, and is the home to many birds, both native and those that migrate.
  • Lake Hillier, at its longest point, is 600 metres (1969 feet) and at its widest, is 250 metres (820 feet).
Hillier Lake, Australia, Pink Lake, Ground, Sand, Partial, Salt, Western Australia, Flickr, Ten Random Facts
Hillier Lake, Western Australia
Image courtesy of Graeme Chruchard/Flickr
  • Lake Hillier is surrounded by a thick covering of eucalyptus and paperbark trees, and the lake is difficult to access via land due to the dense forests.
  • The cause of the pink colour of Lake Hillier is uncertain, even though it has been investigated, and it is possibly caused by the high salt content, the pigments in the water’s algae or the pigments of bacteria in the salt crusts, or a combination of the three.
  • For six years, in the early 1900s, Lake Hillier was used for salt mining.
  • Lake Hillier’s pink coloured water will still look pink when removed from the lake and placed in a container.
  • Lake Hillier is only separated from the ocean by a thin band of trees and plants located on sand dunes.
Bibliography:
Lake Hillier, 2014, Globe Tourism, http://globe-tourism.com/lake-hillier.html
Lake Hillier, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Hillier
Pink LakeWestern Australia2014, Australia, http://www.australia.com/explore/states/wa/pink-lake.aspx

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Lanyard

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Lanyard

These facts are attached to a lanyard.

  • Lanyards are lengths of textiles that can be used as decoration, for holding items, and for rigging.
  • Lanyards are typically used to prevent misplacing or dropping small items.
  • ‘Lanyard’ comes from the French word ‘lanière’, meaning ‘lash’ or ‘strap’.
  • Lanyards are generally worn on the shoulder, neck or wrist, depending on their use.
  • Lanyards come in many sizes, colours and shapes, are commonly decorated with advertising, and often end with a metal latch that enables the user to attach items on the end.

Lanyard, Long, Pink, Green, Plain, Three, Girl, Ten Random Facts

  • Lanyards were first mentioned by the French in the 1400s, and were later used in France’s military for securing whistles, guns and swords.
  • Lanyards can be used ornamentally on uniforms, and are sometimes used to mark a person’s position in the military.
  • Lanyards are made from a variety of materials that are generally braided or woven, and can include PET plastic, leather, cord, rope, satin, polyester, nylon or silk.
  • Lanyards can be worn on a person’s wrist, and used as a safety strap that is connected to a machine, so that if the person falls off or down, it triggers an ‘off’ mechanism on the machine.
  • Modern style lanyards have become very popular, and are commonly used to hold electronic items, keys or identification cards, around one’s neck.
Bibliography:
Lanyard, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanyard
Wilson L, The History of the Lanyard, 2013, EHow, http://www.ehow.com/about_5580332_history-lanyard.html

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