Philadelphia Tribune - Index

Philadelphia Tribune - The Learning Key, Tuesday September 22, 2009 - Index

College, Cambridge.
• Our eyes are always the
same size from birth, but
our nose and ears never
stop growing.
• The Statue of Liberty’s
tablet is 2 ft. thick.
• There are two credit cards
for every person in the
United States.
• The United States government
keeps its supply of silver
at the U.S. Military
Academy at West Point,
N.Y.
• No animal, once frozen
solid (i.e., water solidifies
and turns to ice) survives
when thawed, because the
ice crystals formed inside
cells would break open the
cell membranes. However
there are certain frogs that
can survive the experience
of being frozen. These frogs
make special proteins,
which prevent the formation
of ice (or at least keep the
crystals from becoming
very large), so that they
actually never freeze even
though their body temperature
is below zero Celsius.
The water in them remains
liquid: a phenomenon
known as “supercooling.” If
you disturb one of these
frogs (just touching them
even), the water in them
quickly freezes solid and
they die.
The slogan on New Hampshire
license plates is “Live Free or Die.”
These license plates are manufactured
by prisoners in the state prison in Concord.
• The straw was probably
invented by Egyptian brewers
to taste in-process beer
without removing the fermenting
ingredients, which
floated on the top of the
container.
• The word “pound” is abbreviated
“lb.” after the constellation
“libra” because it
means “pound” in Latin, and
also “scales.” The abbreviation
for the British Pound
Sterling comes from the
same source: it is an “L” for
Libra/Lb. with a stroke
through it to indicate abbreviation.
• The three largest landowners
in England are the
Queen, the Church of
England and Trinity
• Madrid is the only European
capital city not situated on a
river.
• The Boston University
Bridge (on Commonwealth
Avenue,
Boston,
Massachusetts) is the only
place in the world where a
boat can sail under a train
driving under a car driving
under an airplane.
• Emus cannot walk backwards.
• It is believed that
Shakespeare was 46 around
the time that the King James
Version of the Bible was written.
In Psalms 46, the 46th
word from the first word is
shake and the 46th word
from the last word is spear.
PAGE 8 / September 2, 2008