Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Attack of the Factoids Read Online Free

giraffes are ruminants, which means they have four compartments in their stomachs and they regurgitate and chew their cud.
    A giraffe tongue measures about 2 feet long and is blue-black in color. Scientists think that might be so their tongues don’t get sunburned.
    A giraffe’s legs are taller than the average human adult.
    Giraffes have seven vertebrae in their necks—the same as every mammal.
    A giraffe newborn falls from a height of about 6½ feet. Luckily, it’s already about 6 feet tall at birth, so the fall isn’t really that bad.
    Male giraffes are often at more risk from predators than females, even though they’re larger, because they spend a lot of time alone and are easy to sneak up on.
    The giraffe has only one known relative: the okapi, a mammal native to rain forests in central Africa. Okapis somewhat resemble giraffes, but have black and white striped legs and short necks.
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    Apples float in water, but pears don’t.

Up & Autumn!
    Autumn (aka, fall) is the only season that has two names.
    The autumnal equinox (September 22 or 23, depending on the year) is one of the two days each year that the entire world gets a day split into exactly half sun and half dark. It even happens at the North and South Poles…sort of. At the poles, the sun skims the horizon, beginning six months of uninterrupted daylight or darkness.
    In 1908 Archibald Joyce wrote his popular waltz “Songe d’Autome” (“Dream of Autumn”) in a slightly melancholic minor key. Maybe it was that calming, nostalgic sadness that inspired the Titanic ’s eight-member band to play it as the ship floundered.
    Certain autumn things like football and the Thanksgiving harvest festival make sense. But why do new cars come out then? That was President Franklin Roosevelt’s idea during the Great Depression. He asked carmakers to shift the new car season from January so that auto workers would be working instead of laid off during the holiday season.
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    TWO FIRSTS IN SPACE
    First toys: Eleven simple toys, like a top, a yo-yo, a flipping bear, and a jump rope, went up on April 12, 1985.
    First human: Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who orbited the Earth on April 12, 1961.

The Average Canadian…
    â€¦ receives 200 e-mails a week.
    â€¦spends about $2.50 per week on condiments.
    â€¦spends about one week each year waiting in line—nearly half an hour a day.
    â€¦trusts firefighters more than pharmacists, doctors, or EMTs.
    â€¦would stay on the job, even if he or she got a windfall of money.
    â€¦checks food labels for fiber, vitamins, calories, and fat.
    â€¦man is 5'9" and weighs 182 pounds.
    â€¦works 36.6 hours per week and makes about $38,700 a year.
    â€¦household spends $2,200 a year on cell phone and Internet services.
    â€¦household has $40,000 more in net worth than the average U.S. household.

Neither Cocoa, Nor A Nut
    Coconut milk can be used in place of blood plasma in emergencies.
    The average mature coconut weighs about 2.5 pounds.
    Nearly 150 people die every year from being hit on the head by falling coconuts.
    A well-fertilized coconut palm can produce up to 75 fruits a year, but 30 is average.
    Technically, coconut isn’t just a fruit; it’s a “fibrous drupe.” Drupes are fruits that contain pits, like peaches, mangoes, apricots, nectarines, and plums.
    To produce fruit, coconut palms need a lot of sun, a lot of rain and humidity, and heat—no colder than 54°F, but ideally 68–90°F. Even one night below freezing can kill a tree.
    The brown fiber on the outside of coconuts is called “coir.” It’s strong and resistant to salt water. So it’s used for ropes, fishing nets, upholstery and mattress filler, doormats, sacks, carpets, floor tiles, and brushes.

Tooth or Consequences
    About 40 percent of American men do not brush their teeth every day.
    If you’re