- There is, in the Pacific Ocean, a huge disgusting mass of floating plastic debris the size of Texas. Oceanographers call it, (un)affectionately, “The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.”
- Al Franken won in Minnesota (but we can’t count him yet.) Kinda like Roland Burris. The suspense is killing me.
- It is, as of January, 2009, illegal to text while driving in California.
- Also, as of January, 2009, California journalism teachers cannot be fired for the content of their students’ papers. Yay, free speech!
- Studies show that 80 percent of people who make New Year’s resolutions will stop keeping them by mid-February.
- According to a UK survey, the average teenager sends almost 10,000 text message per year.
- NOT being lactose intolerant is actually a mutation.
- Americans spend about 57 minutes per week having sex. That’s 14 minutes less than the global average.
- Dogs aren’t completely color blind, they just can’t see green.
- Ann Coulter can’t see green either. Coincidence? I think not.
Okay, I made that last one up… and offended dogs in the process.
Sorry, Lex.
i only knew 3 of the things on the list. now i’m 7 things smarter. thanks! :-)
More on item #1…
In the book “The World Without Us” by Alan Weisman, the U.S. Navy corroborated an early 90′s estimate of over 3 million tons of plastic swirling around in the Pacific Gyre. That was over 10 years ago. All this plastic has appeared in barely more than 50 years. (An oceanic gyre is a large, slowly swirling vortex caused by wind and ocean currents.)
“By 2005, the size of the gyrating Pacific dump was estimated to be as much 10 million square miles–nearly the size of Africa. And it’s not the only one: the planet has six other major tropical oceanic gyres all of them swirling with ugly debris.” (excerpt from chapter 9 of Weisman’s book).
cmw