Funny facts about the world around us

1. Fact

Bananas are radioactive

You may have read about everyday objects setting off radiation alarms at border crossings between the US and Canada and Mexico. Newsweek has an article describing how medical radiation treatments (e.g., bone scans) may lead to traveling delays when they trigger radiation sensors. When the sensors are tripped, border officials conduct more intensive inspections to make sure you aren't carrying nuclear weapons. There are other ways to set off the alarms. Do you carry kitty litter in your car to help provide traction in icy weather or to absorb oil? It's slightly radioactive. Do you have tile or granite in your vehicle for a home improvement project? It has a relatively high radiation signature. Do you have a lot of bananas? They are also slightly radioactive.

It's pretty easy to understand why tile, granite, and kitty litter are radioactive. They contain low levels of minerals that naturally decay. Bananas are radioactive for a similar reason. The fruit contains high levels of potassium. Radioactive K-40 has an isotopic abundance of 0.01% and a half-life of 1.25 billion years. The average banana contains around 450 mg of potassium and will experience about 14 decays each second. It's no big deal. You already have potassium in your body, 0.01% as K-40. You are fine. Your body can handle low levels of radioactivity. The element is essential for proper nutrition. If you have a banana in your car for your lunch you aren't going to set off a Geiger counter. If you carry a produce truck full of them, you might encounter some problems. Ditto for a truck of potatoes or potassium fertilizer.

I guess my point is that radiation is all around you. After I read the Newsweek article I clicked off-site for more information and I found concern (panic?) over bananas being radioactive. Are they radioactive? Kinda. If you set a banana on a detector you won't hear mad clicking. It won't glow in the dark when you turn out the lights. There is a perception that radiation is bad, bad, bad. It's just a part of life. Bricks are radioactive. Anything containing carbon (you) is slightly radioactive. Bananas are radioactive and it's no big thing. Well... except maybe to Homeland Security.

No one ever developed radiation sickness from eating bananas.

But...

By some studies, you will certainly die from radiation poisoning if you are able to eat 10,000,000 bananas at once. You may also witness chronic symptoms if you eat 274 bananas a day for seven years.




Only 10 million bananas at once...

2. Fact

Liberation Organization of the Garden Gnomes exists

German garden gnomes were introduced to England in 1847 by Sir Charles Isham (1819-1903), a vegetarian spiritualist who hoped that his 21 porcelain Gnomen-figuren would attract real gnomes to his garden in Northamptonshire. Only one of Isham’s gnomes, “Lampy”, survives: it is insured for £1 million. “Seeing and hearing gnomes is not mental delusion,” he wrote, “but extension of faculty.”

Terracotta gnomes were first made in Germany in the 1870s. They always wear red caps because that was the style of German miners. Gnomes are banned from the Chelsea Flower Show (as are balloons, bunting and flags – nude nymphs and cherubs are judged on a case-by-case basis). Gnome liberationists have been active since the Seventies in various countries: in Britain is GOLF, the Garden Ornament Liberation Front. Liberated gnomes are taken abroad, photographed in exotic places, and returned, sometimes accompanied by a new girlfriend.

3. Fact

Chocolate was once used as currency.

Source:

http://archive.fieldmuseum.org/Chocolate/history_mesoamerican7.html

4. Fact

According to Guinness World Records, the largest snowflakes on record were 15 inches (38 cm) in diameter and 8 inches thick. They fell on Fort Keogh, in eastern Montana on 28 January 1887. Nearby ranchers described the flakes as "larger than milk pans” and measured them; “8 inches thick”.


A single snowstorm can drop 39 million tons of snow, carrying the energy equivalent to 120 atom bombs!




Snow comes in a variety of colors, yellow, orange, green and even purple. Actually, it’s colorless but it can contain dust or algae that give it different colors. Orange snow fell over Siberia in 2007 and pink snow (watermelon snow) covered Krasnodar (Russia) in 2010. Watermelon snow is common in mountains and has a sweet smell and taste.


Source: http://www.almanac.com/blog/weather-blog/weird-snow

Bananas contain a natural chemical which can make a person happy.

Bananas contain a natural chemical called Serotonin which makes you happy. The same chemical is used in Prozac, which is a medicine that depressed people take to feel better. The same goes with smiling. When you smile, you actually feel happier.

So I guess everyone should eat bananas but not too many.

Thanks for some interesting tidbits, Saliha.

buzzard767 said:

So I guess everyone should eat bananas but not too many.

Click to expand...

Yes, not 10 million at once. You could then "explode" to the happiness.

What was the world’s most searched recipe at this year?

Pancakes

was the world's most searched recipe in 2014