Factoids!

[Danielle]

I need just this post to become a member! Hooray!

-A tiny grain of zircon found in Northwestern Australia appears, at 4.3 billion years of age, to be the oldest known solid on planet Earth.

SOURCE: Nature Jan. 11, 2001

-From the smallest microprocessor to the biggest mainframe, the average American depends on over 264 computers per day.

SOURCE: Counting Down to Y2K

-The Kiwi, national bird of New Zealand, can't fly, lives in a hole in the ground, is almost blind and lays only one egg each year. Yet it has survived for 70 million years.

SOURCE: San Diego Zoo

-The three wealthiest people (and their families) in the world have more assets than the combined wealth of the 48 poorest countries.

SOURCE: United Nations

[Inque]

You get paid money from the US Government to live in Alaska.

[don Jaime]

...if you call that living.

(according to my brother, who was stationed at Eielson, and his oldest son was born in Fairbanks.)

[Sharklady]

Alaska isn't so bad from June to July.

Admittedly, I've never been there in the winter months (all the rest of 'em), and I understand it's a lot harder to like, then.

[DR. BELCH]

Alaska is mostly desert, I've heard--remember, deserts aren't always hot, just waterless. Not exactly my pick for prime real estate or a vacation hotspot (no pun intended).
However, its climate is horticulturally ideal and its growing season lasts months on end (I read that in Boy's Life, if you must know). I've heard that cabbages up there can grow up to sixty pounds! Now all I need is an industrial-sized cast-iron pot, plenty of fresh water, and about twenty pounds of cornbread.

[Sharklady]

Desert it may be, but God was on a scenery binge when He made that place (I have the photos to prove it- if I ever get hold of a scanner I'll share them. I even have one featuring those notorious cabbages.) The wildlife viewing can be spectacular, the hiking and fishing are world-class, and there's those Northern Lights.

I really ought to get back there someday.

Tho not in January.

[DR. BELCH]

I journeyed through Arizona twelve years ago and was smitten with the desert between Phoenix and Flagstaff. Beautiful yet cruel, the land is sweltering in the day, frigid at night--like a lover's changing moods.
My group drove straight through without stopping and I didn't get a lot of pictures. Someday I plan to go back to AZ, stop the car, and walk around a bit to snap closeups--particularly the cacti and Joshua trees.
Useless fact: I saw real palm trees for the first time in my life in Phoenix; this was spring of 1985.
The 60-pound Alaskan cabbages are real? For years I thought they were something fabricated by a "Dink and Duff" artist for a good sight gag. Are they breedable en masse? Shipping a few dozen of those could put a good-sized dent in world hunger.

[Sharklady]

Yes, tho they don't invariably reach sixty pounds, those Alaskan cabbages do get pretty durned big. It's because they're a) tolerant of cooler temperatures, and b) get over twenty hours of sunlight a day in the Summer months. So they just grow and grow.

Unfortunately, they aren't the solution to world hunger because most places on earth can't provide 'em with those particular environmental conditions. And, being produce, they don't ship all that well. But there's no denying they do make quite impressive displays.

I'll see about borrowing a scanner so's I can show you one of those monsters.