Do Fish Drink Water?

by Bill McLain

  DID YOU KNOW?

  Driving on the left side of the road is only a minor problem compared to some others when driving an automobile in England.

  Because most English roads evolved from footpaths and cart trails, they are seldom very straight. The name of the road also changes at each village or town, and it is rare for the same name to last for more than a few miles. English roads only rarely have a shoulder and are usually flanked by trees, hedges, or rock walls. If there’s a problem and you can’t simply pull off the road, you’ll hit something.

  Most terrifying of all is the “roundabout” (in Boston they’re called “rotaries” and are just as maddening). A roundabout is a circle with a number of roads leading into it at odd angles. When you enter a roundabout, you are supposed to go around the circle until you see the road you want, then exit. In practice, however, this is a test of courage. There are no stop signs or rules for yielding. Sometimes you can go round and round while trying unsuccessfully to maneuver your automobile through the swirling traffic to reach the edge of the roundabout and your exit.

  If you’ve ever driven in England, you’ll long for the streets and highways of the United States. If you’ve ever driven in Boston, there’s a good chance you might have considered moving further west.

  Why are the roofs of some school buses painted white? (It’s not to hide pigeon droppings.)

  School buses with white roofs are usually used in areas of the country where it gets very hot. Because the white roof tends to reflect the heat better than a yellow roof, the inside of the bus stays cooler.

  In 1939 delegates from all of the states attended the first National Minimum Standards Conference to decide on a uniform color for school buses. By being of a uniform color, school buses nationwide would be instantly recognizable. When picking a color, one consideration was cost because bus manufacturers charged extra for any special color. The second consideration was safety. The delegates decided that yellow was easier to see in fog, rain, and bad weather than any other color. The selected color was called National School Bus Chrome Yellow.

  Although there is no federal law that requires school buses to be painted yellow, most states follow the recommendation. In some states, however, some of the school buses are painted white.

  The federal government regulates the manufacture of school buses but once the bus is on the road, the individual state assumes all responsibility.

  FACTOIDS

  Transporting students to school is the largest system of public transportation in the United States. Roughly 10 billion student trips a year are taken to school in school buses. Another 900 million students use public transit to get to school.

  Approximately 40,000 yellow school buses are manufactured every year.

  Although school bus accidents and fatalities do occur, the National Safety Council claims that school buses are the safest form of ground transportation in the United States. Riding a school bus is about 40 times safer than riding in the family car.

  School buses travel an average of 100 billion pupil-passenger-miles per year.

  Large school buses do not have seat belts. Each student is surrounded by energy-absorbing materials such as thick foam seats and seat frames that bend to absorb crash impacts. In addition, the entire bus is designed to absorb energy in a crash. Only New York and New Jersey have laws making school bus seat belts mandatory.

  Why don’t they make dirigibles anymore? (A little hot air goes a long way.)

  Dirigibles were popular from their inception in 1900 until their demise in the late 1930s. These large airships carried 50 passengers in style and luxury equal to that found in any lavish hotel. Dirigibles ushered in a new era of travel and promised to be the safest air travel at the time, logging over a million passenger miles without a single loss of life. Then one disaster after another occurred, which along with the outbreak of World War II marked the death of the dirigibles. However, dirigibles have recently started to make a comeback. In September 1997, the Zeppelin NT made its maiden flight. It is the first in a line of dirigibles manufactured by a German firm, Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH.

  A dirigible is different from a blimp. A blimp is a large balloon that is stretched at both ends to make it egg-shaped. The blimp, like a balloon, keeps its shape because of the gas inside. However, a blimp can buckle when strained by heavy loads or violent weather.

  The U.S. Navy constructed four nonrigid (blimp) airships in 1958 that were each 403 feet long. Two years later one of them exploded and crashed, and the other three were retired in 1962.

  Today’s blimps are used primarily for advertising and often tour sports events, fairs, and other attractions.

  A dirigible has a rigid metal framework attached to a sturdy metal keel. The entire structure is covered with fabric and is then inflated with gas, typically hydrogen (modern dirigibles use helium). The first dirigible of this type was designed by a retired German army officer, Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin. His airships were so successful that even today many people call all dirigibles “zeppelins.”

  FACTOIDS

  The first German dirigible was built in 1900. One of the most famous of the subsequent zeppelins was the Graf Zeppelin, which was built in 1928 and made transatlantic flights for the next nine years. During that time, it made 590 flights (including 144 trips across the ocean) and flew more than a million miles.

  Blimps were used during World War I as antisubmarine patrol craft. British-built blimps were called “Class B airships” or, more simply, “B airships.” The origin of the blimp’s name is unclear but the consensus is that the name is a combination of “B airships” and “limp,” which describes the blimp’s construction.

  The German dirigible company founded by Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin in 1908 still exists today.

  The U.S. dirigible Shenandoah, which means “Daughter of the Skies” in a Native American language, was the first dirigible to use nonflammable helium instead of the dangerous flammable hydrogen.

  In 1929, just a year after it was built, the Graf Zeppelin made a flight lasting 21 days and covering 21,500 miles.

  The largest dirigible ever made was the German Hindenburg, which was 804 feet long and could carry 235 tons. It was bigger than a Boeing 747 and almost as big as the Titanic. In 1937, while landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, the Hindenburg burst into flames and crashed. The airship was completely destroyed and 36 people lost their lives. Experts still argue as to the cause of the crash. Some think it was a static electric spark, others believe it was sabotage.

  Many historical dirigible events took place at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey. The Shenandoah made its maiden flight there, the Graf Zeppelin’s historic endurance flight began and ended there, and the Hindenburg’s fiery crash there led to the death of rigid airships around the world.

  DID YOU KNOW?

  The Hindenburg disaster is well documented and many people have heard about it or seen films of its fiery crash. Three other dirigible disasters also occurred in the United States. However, these dirigibles were built for the U.S. Navy.

  In 1925, the Navy dirigible Shenandoah was ripped apart during a thunderstorm. Winds of 70 mph ripped the control cabin from the airship and eight crew members riding in it were killed, as were others in the tail section.

  The bow section remained aloft and carried seven men over Ohio farmland. A farmer managed to grab one of the mooring ropes and tie it around two tree stumps. The crew members all jumped to safety.

  When it was all over, 14 men had died, 29 had survived, and the dirigible’s wreckage was strewn across 12 miles of farmland.

  The Navy dirigible Akron was destroyed in 1933. Two years later, the Navy dirigible Macon was returning from a successful scouting mission when it ran into severe winds off of Point Sur, south of Monterey, California. A crosswind hit the ship, tore off its upper fins, and the ship started to fall. To lighten the dirigible, the crew threw overboard everything they could find. The Macon started rising until it reached an alt
itude of 5,000 feet. Then it started falling again and minutes later gracefully settled into the ocean. Two crew members died: one jumped out of the falling ship, the other tried to retrieve his belongings and drowned. Of the 83-man crew, 81 survived.

  The Navy never built another dirigible.

  How many people in the world visit zoos in a single year? (Lions and tigers and bears, oh, my!)

  About half of the people in the United States, or around 100 million people, visit zoos in a single year. Roughly 10 percent of the world’s population, or 600 million people, visit zoos worldwide.

  The world zoo attendance figures may be misleading because it is difficult to determine the number of zoos in the world. There are approximately 1,000 zoos worldwide that belong to national, regional, or international zoo federations. However, if the word “zoo” is defined as any institution exhibiting wild or nondomestic animals to the public then there are probably over 10,000 zoos in the world.

  FACTOIDS

  Hippopotamus is a Greek word meaning “river horse.”

  Vampire bats need two tablespoonfuls of blood each day. They land near a sleeping victim and approach on foot to avoid waking the intended prey. The bat uses a heat sensor to determine where the blood is close to the skin and then makes a small incision (one fifth of an inch long) to extract the blood.

  The oldest-known animal was an Aldabra tortoise who lived to be more than 152 years old.

  Bamboo makes up 99 percent of a panda’s diet. The panda spends about 12 hours a day eating from 23 to 36 pounds of bamboo.

  The finicky koala eats only the leaves from the eucalyptus tree. On top of that, although there are more than 500 species of eucalyptus trees in Australia, the discriminating koala will eat the leaves of only about 20 species.

  Bats can fly up to 60 miles per hour and as high as 10,000 feet.

  The South American capybara is the world’s largest rodent and can weigh up to 145 pounds.

  A giraffe’s tongue can be up to a foot and a half long.

  For most of the year cactus is the only food available for peccaries. They break off portions of the cactus and use their feet to expose the inner part. They eat small pieces and can consume the spines without suffering any ill effects.

  A baby gorilla learns to crawl and walk twice as fast as a human baby.

  DID YOU KNOW?

  One of the most famous zoos in the United States is the San Diego Zoo. It was founded in 1916 by a local physician who had a collection of 50 animals in his 100-acre zoo. One person, named Army, took care of all the animals. Army had only one arm but as the good doctor said, “It was all that he needed.” With far too many animals for a one-armed zookeeper, the zoo now has over 1,000 people on its staff.

  Renowned for being one of the first zoos in the country to keep animals in a naturalistic setting, the San Diego Zoo has maintained this tradition by opening new natural habitats in recent years. These include an aviary, Gorilla Tropics, Pygmy Chimpanzees, Hippo Beach, and the Polar Bear Plunge.

  The Pygmy Chimpanzees is a 6,000-square-foot exhibit of the typical habitat that is home to the bonobo, or “pygmy,” chimpanzee. These primates have slender shoulders and a distinctive “center part” in the hair on their heads. But the bonobos are not the only interesting part of the exhibit.

  During a violent Southern California windstorm, all of the young palm trees in a nursery were blown over and tossed into a jumbled heap. They were left there for a few years before being set upright and planted in the Pygmy Chimpanzees exhibit. These “twisted” palms are now one of the fascinating features of the exhibit, growing in a variety of erratic shapes that create an appealing climbing framework for the playful bonobos.

  More questions? Try these websites.

  MAPQUEST

  http://www.mapquest.com/

  This is a fascinating and useful site for the traveler. I suggest you start by clicking on TripQuest. You can enter your home address and the address of where you want to go. When you select Calculate Directions, you’ll see a map marked with a driving route along with written driving directions. You can also select Door-to-Door Options to see the shortest or the fastest route, or things you’d like to avoid, such as frontage roads. If you’re making a longer trip, select City to City.

  This site also has trip and moving guides.

  FIND LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE

  http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/gazetteer

  Simply enter the name of a city or a zip code to find its latitude and longitude, population, and zip codes. This site also provides links to census tables for that city.

  FOREIGN LANGUAGES FOR TRAVELERS

  http://www.travlang.com/languages/Index.html

  This is a wonderful site if you’re planning a trip to a foreign country. Select the language you speak and then choose the language of the country you’re going to visit. At this point you have many options.

  For instance, you can click on Basic Words to see both the English and foreign language equivalents. You can also listen to them if you have a Real Audio player (if not, you can download the player free of charge).

  You can also enter a word or phrase in English and see the translation.

  There are also links to dictionaries, such as an English-to-Spanish dictionary, as well as other information pages.

  AUSTRALIAN DICTIONARY

  http://www.auatralia-online.com/dictionaussie.html

  If you want to know what “fair dinkum,” “winge,” or “crack a tinnie” means, this dictionary will help you out. It also mentions more understandable Australian expressions such as “havagoodweegend.”

  United States

  What is the average height of a person in the United States? (Are people in other countries looking down on us?)

  The average height for a U.S. male is 5 feet 9 inches, while the average height for a female is 5 feet 4 inches. Although U.S. residents are taller than they were 100 years ago, we are no longer the tallest people in the world. On the average, people in Sweden are about half an inch taller, while the Dutch and Norwegians are a full inch taller.

  Authorities do not know for sure why we have been surpassed in height. Although we are the most advanced nation in the world when it comes to medical technology and knowledge of nutrition, some scientists think that much of our population either does not fully understand good nutrition or does not have adequate health care, or both.

  Even with a knowledge of good nutrition, many people simply do not eat properly. Perhaps that is why over one third of the population over 20 years of age is overweight.

  In spite of the fact that we are no longer the tallest people and tend to be overweight, the average life expectancy in this country has increased to 79 years, from 75. This is encouraging compared to the poor citizens of Botswana who have a life expectancy of only 40 years, but it’s not nearly as good as the lucky citizens of Andorra who can plan to live until they are almost 87. In fact, you can expect to live until 80 or older in Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Canada, England, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Holland, Norway, Sweden, and many of the island nations such as Palau, the Republic of Fiji, and the Federated States of Micronesia.

  FACTOIDS

  The tallest man in the world was Robert Pershing Wadlow of Alton, Illinois. He was just slightly over 8 feet 11 inches tall.

  The average height of a Pygmy is 4 feet 6 inches.

  In the ancient world, people from civilized countries such as Egypt and Greece were shorter than the invading barbarians. The population centers of modern civilization are home to the descendants of the barbarians.

  The average female from the Scandinavian countries is taller than the average Asian male.

  Chang, an 8-foot giant who lived in England, had a 5-foot-high table in his home. The doors of his house were enlarged until they nearly reached the ceiling and special high windows were installed. It is rumored that when he strolled through the village at night, he would light his cigar from the gas streetlights.

>   DID YOU KNOW?

  Many people believe that in past centuries people were smaller. This belief is usually based on a number of premises such as shorter armor, lower doorways, and low ceilings belowdecks on a ship.

  However, if we look at historical figures we find that Charles II was over 6 feet tall as was Mary, Queen of Scots.

  We are accustomed to seeing 8-foot ceilings in our homes. When we see an older house with 6- or 7-foot ceilings we assume that it’s because people were shorter then. However, ceilings were not lower because people were smaller. Ceilings were lower in order to save heat and reduce drafts.

  Because Charles II’s suit of armor could only fit a man 5 feet tall, people assume that he was short. This isn’t true. He was over 6 feet tall. The suit of armor was made for him when he was still an adolescent.

  Perhaps maintaining that people centuries ago were shorter in stature gives us a sense of superiority. But like it or not, they were not much shorter than us.

  Who was the youngest American to go up in space? (This lady went into orbit.)

  The youngest astronaut from the United States was Sally Ride. She was 32 years and 23 days old when she took off on Space Shuttle Challenger (flight STS-7) in June 1983.

  The oldest astronaut to fly in space was John Glenn, who was 77 when he flew on Space Shuttle Discovery (flight STS-95) on October 29, 1998. He was also the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the earth, which he did on February 20, 1962.