Hello, my blog-lovers and dog-lovers! My readers and writers! My fellow nature nerds! Nature Nerd here. Wow. It has been a long time since I have last posted. It has been 55 days. That is 1,320 hours, 79,200 minutes, 4,752,000 seconds. Moving on from math, the 2020 Student Blogging Challenge is coming up. Before the challenge starts, my communications class all created our very own listicles! A listicle is “a piece of writing or other content presented wholly or partly in the form of a list” (I had to look that up 😎). Other people did lists of useful knowledge that one could use to be a better person. But if you have read my blog before, you know I post on the more “silly” side of things. Now that the introduction is complete, let’s take a leap of faith into my listicle of 11 strange things I learned in 8TH GRADE that haunt me to this day:
!! – Scientists still don’t know why smaller dogs live longer than bigger dogs:
It is weird to think, after all the hard work that humanity has put in to reach the modern face of science, scientists still have no explanation on why smaller dogs live longer than larger ones. There are some theories circling around the internet, but there is no solid evidence. Most large animals, such as whales, live much longer, because it takes more time to pump blood over the organisms body. As a result, larger organisms have less heart beats.
!) – Dolphins can help humans from shipwrecks and other disasters because, as a mammal, they know “the pain” of drowning:
Dolphins and other whales have been found to show empathy, compassion, and grief, not only to other members of their species and genes, but to humans as well. Scientists don’t have an explanation why. When a human is attacked by a shark, they sometimes protect the human, because a shark is a common enemy between species. Same with shipwrecks and drowning.
( – Squirrels are behind most power outages in the United States:
The squirrels are after us, their empire is building, they have made subtle attacks, but soon they will strike. . .just kidding! Most people blame lightning or storms, but the percentage of lightning hitting the surface is very low. Squirrels are common in most regions around the U.S. In August of 2013, 24 power outages caused by squirrels nationwide.
* – Every morning you wake up with a new consciousness:
A consciousness is defined as a “sentience or awareness of internal or external existence.” When you are asleep, you are not aware of your external surroundings and internal thoughts when dreaming. Therefore, every morning you wake up with a new consciousness. I am not sure if this is a scientific fact, a friend pointed it out to me, and it made me think.
& – Reading and dreaming are from two different parts of the brain, that is why you can’t read in dreams:
The reading part of the brain, the wordbox, is located on the left side of the brain. It transfers words from our visual system, to the language region. The right side of the brain, which controls dreaming, doesn’t interact with the wordbox, but it does with other parts of your brain. You can’t tell time in a dream as well. Strange.
^ – The GoodYear blimp is the official bird of Redondo Beach, California:
This one is just as weird as it sounds and just as weird as it gets. Redondo Beach is a city by the coast, near the landing airport of the GoodYear blimp. It became the city’s official bird in 1983. Why? I don’t even know. Is it a bird? I still don’t even know.
% – Phones affect the strength of your muscles:
Let me teach you a fun trick for any hangout. First, ask a friend to stand up and put their dominant arm up straight to their side. Then, Tell them to hold their arm still and resist, while you push down on their arm for two to three seconds. Next, have them use their opposite arm to hold their phone up to their chest. Now, try the arm resisting experiment again. You will find that you can push down their arm without breaking a sweat. This is because of the electromagnetic waves that emit from phones. Don’t believe me? C’mon, try it!
$ – Sloths can hold their breath longer than dolphins can:
When slowing down their heart rate, a sloth can breath underwater for up to 40 minutes. On average, that is four to twelve times longer than any dolphin. Also, around eighty times longer than the average human. Although, wet sloths are creatures straight from nightmares.
# – Cats bring back dead animals, usually because they think you are a bad hunter and they don’t want you to starve:
While cats are thought to be heartless creatures who kill innocent animals, they are not as evil as they seem. They bring back animals they have hunted, because they think you are an unskilled hunter. The cat wants to teach you and make sure you don’t starve. It is the ultimate sign of love from a cat.
@ – No matter how hard you try, you can never remember how your dream started:
Another dream related one! Dreams always start in the middle of an event. The left side of the brain, the side controlling reading, logic, and memory, is resting while we sleep. That makes it difficult to remember our dreams, but, no matter what, you can never remember the beginning.
! – Your tongue never rests:
Your tongue is always moving. It never rests at the bottom of your mouth. It is either helping you eat, talk, or pressed against your teeth or pressed to the top of your mouth. This is the top one because I think about it every day and I can’t get it out of my mind. Hopefully, after reading this, you won’t have this always stuck in your head, or at the tip of your tongue.
I want to apologize for sharing this listicle with you, in case you have these odd facts stuck in the back of your mind too. It was fun to write and now you can share this knowledge with your friends. Do you have any weird or wacky facts? Feel free to share them in the comments below! Also, go and learn from my classmates about things they learned this school year. Anyways, that sums up this blog post. Can’t wait to see you again once the challenge starts. Here comes the old tagline: Thank you for reading; I need to get rolling. Nerd out! 😛
