Tag Archives: Facts

Humpback Whale

By | |
Leave a comment
Humpback Whale

Humpback whales have bumps and bumps.

  • Humpback whales have long fins and bumpy heads and are warm-blooded baleen whales, which are whales that have baleen, bristle like filtering plates, instead of teeth.
  • The scientific name of a humpback whale is Megaptera novaeangliae and they are from the family Baleanopteridae, or rorquals, which includes nine species of baleen whales.
  • Humpback whales grow up to 12 to 16 meters (39 to 52 feet) in length and weigh up to 36,000 kilograms (79,000 pounds).
  • Humpback whales are typically dark blue to black, but white or grey whales are possible, although only two fully white humpback whales have ever been spotted.
  • Humpback whales are known for their unexplained surfacing behaviour, where you can see them jumping out of the water, which includes movements like breaching, spyhopping and lobtailing, making them popular among whale watchers.
Whale, Humpback, Leaping, Blue, Spray, Ocean, Mexico, Marias Island, Breaching, Animal, One, Ten Random Facts, National Geographic
Humpback Whale
Image courtesy of National Geographic
  • Male humpback whales can sing complex songs, believed to be possibly used during mating, which are often 10 to 20 minutes long, but the singing can last for hours, and both the female and male use clicks, groans, grunts, barks, snorts and thwops, by pushing air through their airways.
  • Humpback whales are found in most parts of the ocean around the world, migrating up to 25,000 kilometres (16,000 miles) in a year towards the equator to have their young in winter, although they are believed to never go pass the equator.
  • Humpback whales only feed in summer, on small fish, krill and plankton, and live on their own fat in winter.
  • Before 1966, an estimated total of 200,000 or 90% of the humpback whale population had been whaled, causing them to come close to extinction, which was halted by whaling bans.
  • Every humpback whale has a unique marking on its tail fluke make it distinguishable among other whales.
Bibliography:
Humpback Whale, 2010, Enchanted Learning, <http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/whales/species/Humpbackwhale.shtml
Humpback Whale, 2013, Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humpback_whale>

Amazon:     

Leonardo da Vinci

By | |
Leave a comment
Leonardo da Vinci

The greatest inventor, Leonardo da Vinci.

  • Leonardo da Vinci’s full name is Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci.
  • Leonardo da Vinci was the son of a lawyer and a peasant woman, and was born on 15 April 1452, in Italy and died at the age of 67 on 2 May 1519 in France.
  • Leonardo da Vinci is known as a ‘polymath’, a person who has significant ability and knowledge in a wide variety of fields, with skills in art, mathematics, engineering and science, such as human anatomy, botany and geology.
  • Leonardo da Vinci became an apprentice under Verrocchio (Andrea di Cione) the artist, at fourteen years of age and became a qualified master artist at the age of 20.
  • Leonardo da Vinci is often thought to be one of the most outstanding painters in history and the most remarkable polymath of all time.

Leonardo, Sketch, Self-Portrait, Realistic, Beard, Old, Flickr, Ten Random Facts, da Vinci

Self-portrait by Leonardo da Vinci
Image courtesy of Erik Drost/Flickr
  • Leonardo da Vinci created notable invention concepts for vehicles, such as helicopters and bicycles, calculators and concentrated solar power.
  • On 5 August 1473, Leonardo da Vinci created an artwork named ‘Arno Valley’, with pen and ink mediums and this is his earliest known drawing.
  • Leonardo da Vinci was left handed and mostly wrote in mirror reversed cursive writing, and during his life-time he wrote and recorded 13,000 pages of notes and complex diagrams.
  • Leonardo da Vinci is known as an artist throughout the world for his famous paintings like the ‘Mona Lisa’, ‘The Last Supper’ and the ‘Virgin of the Rocks’.
  • Some of Leonardo da Vinci’s machine designs were physically constructed and tested for a documentary for the Channel Four British television station in 2003.
Bibliography:
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), 2013, BBC, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/da_vinci_leonardo.shtml>
Leonardo da Vinci, 2013, Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci>

Amazon:     

Greater Periwinkle

By | |
Leave a comment
Greater Periwinkle

Greater periwinkles are greater than lesser periwinkles.

  • Greater periwinkles are also known as ‘big leaf periwinkles’, ‘large periwinkles’, ‘blue periwinkles’ and ‘blue buttons’.
  • The scientific name of greater periwinkles is ‘Vinca major’ and is from a family of six species of Vinca.
  • Greater periwinkles are native to Europe and North Africa and are from the family ‘Apocynaceae’, which is typically known as the dogbone family.
  • Greater periwinkles grow up to 50-70 cm (1.6 – 2 .3 feet) in height and spread 2-5 metres (6.6 – 16.4 feet) wide.
  • Greater periwinkles are ground vines with dark green coloured leaves that are glossy and sit in pairs opposite each other, with flowers that can bloom all year round, but generally in spring and summer.

Greater Periwinkle, Purple Flower, Multiple, Two, Bush, Violet, Lavendar, Colour, Austalia, Flower, Vegetation, Ten Random Facts

  • The flowers of greater periwinkles can be white or blue in colour but are typically coloured in purple shades and are 3-5 cm(1.2 – 2 inches) in diameter.
  • Greater periwinkles are an invasive weed in parts of Australia, New Zealand and United States, due to the ease of propagation from waste plant material.
  • Greater periwinkles are often mistaken for lesser periwinkles (Vinca minor) due to their similarities, although the flower and leaf sizes are larger in the greater, which also has tiny hairs on the leaves, that the lesser doesn’t.
  • The stems of greater periwinkles can be used for basket weaving and the plant is also used medicinally, although it is poisonous if large portions are consumed.
  • Greater periwinkles are happy to grow in shady areas and send down roots from their runners, making them easy to grow from cuttings.
Bibliography:
Vinca Major, 2013, Plants for a Future, <http://www.pfaf.org/user/plant.aspx?latinname=Vinca+major>
Vinca Major, 2013, Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinca_major>

Amazon:     

Weet-Bix

By | |
1 Comment
Weet-Bix

“Aussie kids are Weet-Bix kids” – Sanitarium’s Slogan

  • Weet-Bix is a wholegrain cereal that is shaped like a thin brick, known as a ‘wheat biscuit’, that is made by Australia’s Sanitarium Health Food Company and South Africa’s Bokomo.
  • The forerunner of Weet-bix were known as ‘Granose biscuits’, which were first made by the famous Kellogg brothers in the 1890s in the USA, and in 1899 they were being produced in Australia by the Sanitarium Health Food Company, and became popular during  World War I where they were being fed to the troops.
  • Grain Products Limited was established by Arthur Shannon in the mid 1920s to make wheat biscuits known as ‘Weet-Bix’, in competition to the Sanitarium Health Food Company’s Granose biscuits, and a newly formed company known as Cereal Foods that produced a sweeter wheat biscuit known as ‘Vita-Brits’.
  • Weet-Bix are a good source of fibre and are high in folate and thiamin, and are generally eaten for breakfast covered in milk.
  • Weet-Bix is a common food icon of Australia and New Zealand, and has become the two countries’ most popular cereal.

Weet-Bix, Wheat Biscuits, Woolworths, Pile, Raw, Plate, Ten Random Facts, Australia

  • In the 1920s, Bennison Osborne, Norman Jeffes, Frederick Foots and Arthur Shannon all contributed to the  new Grain Products Limited wheat biscuit, known as ‘Weet-Bix’, which became a quick success, although in 1928 the company was sold to the Sanitarium Health Food Company, who were buying out their competitors.
  • Australian soldiers ate Weet-Bix for breakfast during World War II, and the product sponsors some Australian sport teams and their players, such as cricket and soccer teams, which often appear on Sanitarium’s advertisements.
  • Australians eat approximately 1.4 billion Weet-Bix each year, and in 2010, the amount of Weet-Bix manufactured would’ve been enough to cover a soccer field up to 18 metres (59 feet) high.
  • Bennison Osborne and Ian Malcolm Macfarlane, who was also involved in the Grain Products Limited company, eventually moved to England and started a company called the British and African Cereal Company Pty Ltd, with their main product being a modified version of Weet-bix, known as ‘Weetabix’, which have become popular in a number of countries around the world.
  • Originally, Weet-Bix were delivered to shops by horse and cart, and some years later, they often had collectible cards included in the box.
Bibliography:
An Aussie Icon, 2010, Weet-Bix, <http://www.weetbix.com.au/an-aussie-icon>
Bagnall J, Weet-Bix, n.d., Weet-Bix: The Early History, <http://weetbixhistory.wordpress.com/weet-bix/>

Fishpond:  Weet-Bix

Tokyo

By | |
Leave a comment
Tokyo

Not a city, but a metropolis.  Do you want to see a real metropolis? Go to Tokyo!

  • Tokyo means ‘Eastern Capital’ in Japanese, but has been officially known as ‘Tokyo Metropolis’ or ‘Tokyo-to’ in Japanese since 1943, although it was originally known as Edo, a small fishing community, being renamed as ‘Tokyo’ in 1868.
  • Tokyo is the capital of Japan, located on Honshu, in the south-eastern part the largest and main island of Japan, and has been the home of the Japanese emperor, his family and his Imperial Palace since the 1800s.
  • In 2011, Tokyo had a population of over 13.1 million residents in the metropolis with the 23 special wards or ‘cities’ containing 9 million of the total population.
  • In 2008, Tokyo had a gross domestic product (GDP) of US$1,479 trillion, making it the wealthiest city in the world.
  • Tokyo was the host of the 1964 Summer Olympic Games, and will be hosting the 2020 Summer Olympic Games, while sumo, judo, karate, baseball and tennis are among the popular sports in the metropolis.

Tokyo, Panorama, Japan, City, Bird, Overveiw, Tower, Flickr, Ten Random Facts

Tokyo
Image courtesy of Sebastien Batardy/Flickr
  • Tokyo was the victim of a major earthquake, the Great Kantō Earthquake in 1923, and the bombing of Tokyo in World War II (1944-45) destroying half the city, with 140,000 and 75,000 to 200,000 fatalities respectively.
  • In 2011, Tokyo’s Skytree became the second tallest structure and the tallest tower in the world, and the city has numerous high rise buildings and apartments to cater for the densely populated area.
  • Tokyo is said to be the cleanest city in the world, and the metropolis covers an area of 2,187 square kilometres (844 square miles) and contains 26 cities, 8 villages and 23 wards.
  • Tokyo has a comprehensive train and subway system which is the major form of public transport there, with monorails and buses being second.
  • Tokyo is an urban heat island, explaining increases of temperature over the years, which the government is helping to reduce by planting thousands of trees during its ten year project which will be complete in 2016.
Bibliography:
TOKYO – 9 FACTS ABOUT THE MOST FASCINATING AND BIZARRE CITY IN THE WORLD, 2013, Just One Way Ticket, <http://www.justonewayticket.com/2013/02/19/tokyo-9-facts/>
Tokyo, 2013, Wikipedia, < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo>
Tokyo Outline, 2012, Go Tokyo, <http://www.gotokyo.org/en/tourists/info/info_basic.html#01>

Amazon:     

Antelope

By | |
Leave a comment
Antelope

Hoofed and horned, the antelopes.

  • Antelope are hoofed animals that look similar to deer and belong to the Bovidae family which is the family of cloven-hoofed mammals, that includes sheep, cattle, goats and buffalo.
  • Antelope are native to Africa, Asia and Europe, with about 70 of  the species, which is the majority, belonging to Africa.
  • All male antelope have permanent horns, which most females also have, that are used for fighting and defence.
  • Depending on the species, antelope can be as small as 24 cm (9.4 inches) in height like the royal antelope, or as large as 178cm (70 inches), like the common eland.
  • Antelope are typically brown, tan or red in colour, while a white underbelly is common, and their fastest speed is 70km/h (43m/h) with some species jumping over 2 meters (6 feet) high.

Antelope, Brown, herd, many, Impala, Serenget National Park, Tanzania, Ten Random Facts

Antelope
Image courtesy of National Geographic
  • Antelope have sharp hearing and eyesight, and they use these senses to detect predators like crocodiles, cheetahs, lions and hyenas.
  • Antelope typically live in herds, sometimes in herds of up to 800, which can be used as a defence against predators, although some of the forest species only have a handful of animals in a herd.
  • Many native people believe that some antelopes have horns with special powers, and the horns of the saiga antelope are used in traditional Chinese medicine.
  • Antelope are found in a variety of habitats including woodlands, savannahs, grasslands and forests, where their diet is mainly grass.
  • In 2009, 25 of the 91 species of antelope were endangered, which was worse than 13 years earlier in 1996.
Bibliography:
Antelope, 2013, A-Z Animals, <http://a-z-animals.com/animals/antelope/>
Antelope, 2013, San Diego Zoo, <http://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/antelope>
 Antelope, 2013, Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antelope>

Amazon:     

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...