MIRABILIA
What are mirabilia? They're phenomena that inspire wonder, winsome curiosities, small marvels, eccentric enchantments. Here are a few:
* The National Center for Atmospheric Research reports that the average cloud is the same weight as 100 elephants.
* The average river requires a million years to move a grain of sand 100 miles.
* With every dawn, when first light penetrates the sea, many seahorse colonies perform a dance to the sun.
* A seven-year-old Minnesota boy received patent number 6,368,227 for a new method of swinging on a swing.
* Clown fish can alter their gender as their social status rises.
* In the Hindu epic the Mahabharata, the hero and heroine fall in love without ever gazing upon each other, simply by hearing tales about each other's good deeds.
* Twelve percent of the population believes that Joan of Arc was Noah's wife.
* The closest modern relative of the Tyrannosaurus rex may be the chicken.
* Kind people are more likely than mean people to yawn when someone near them does.
* Singing Gregorian chants can cure dyslexia.
* All the gold ever mined could be molded into a 60-foot bust of your mom.
* The moon smells like exploded firecrackers.
* The most frequently shoplifted book in America is the Bible.
* Black sheep have a better sense of smell than white sheep.
* There are about 60,000 miles of blood vessels in your body. Every square inch of your body has an average of 32 million bacteria on it.
* The seeds of some trees are so tightly compacted within their protective covering that only the intense heat of a forest fire can free them, allowing them to sprout.
* Anthropologists say that in every culture in history, children have played the game hide and seek.
* Robust singing skill is correlated with a strong immune system in songbirds. Male birds with the most extensive repertoire of tunes also have the largest spleens, a key measure of immune system health.
* In an apparent attempt to raise their volume above the prevailing human din, some nightingales in big cities have learned to unleash 95-decibel songs, matching the loudness of a chainsaw.
* There is a statistically significant probability of world-class athletes and military leaders being born when Mars is rising in the sky.
* Some piranhas are vegetarians
* In the pueblos of New Mexico, bricks still measure 33 by 15 by 10 centimeters, proportions that almost exactly match those of the bricks used to build Egypt's Temple of Hatshepsut 3,500 years ago.
* Bees perform a valuable service for the flowers from which they steal.
* Revlon makes 177 different shades of lipstick.
* Scientists believe they'll be able to figure out why cancer cells are virtually immortal, and then apply the secret to keeping normal cells alive much longer, thereby dramatically expanding the human life span.
* Thirty-eight percent of North America is wilderness.
* There are about nine million people on earth who were born the same day as you.
* Your body contains so much iron that you could make a spike out of it, and that spike would be strong enough to hold you up.
* Very few raindrops are actually raindrop-shaped. A far greater number take the form of doughnuts
