AWESOME FACTS ABOUT EVERYTHING CLXXXI
1. Jose Rizal (1861-1896) is the "George Washington" of the Philippines. A patriot, physician, and man of letters, his writings inspired the Philippine national movement against Spanish colonial rule. Executed by firing squad at age 35, his death (considered a martyrdom) sparked the Philippine Revolution of 1896.
2. There is a good reason footballs are sometimes called pigskins. The original ones were made of inflated pig bladders.
3. St. Patrick received sainthood for his miracle of driving all the snakes out of Ireland.
4. There really is such a thing as a snail's pace. It's 0.03 miles per hour. At that rate, it would take a snail 33 hour to go one mile.
5. If you have 3 quarters, 4 dimes, and 4 pennies, you have $1.19 and cannot make change for one dollar.
6. The temperature at Earth's core is 10,00 degrees F - about the same as the surface of the sun. The temperature of the sun's core is a staggering 27,000,000 degrees F. At this heat and pressure, nuclear fusion takes place, driving the engine of our solar system.
7. An estimated 25% of phone calls are spam.
8. Forbes Magazine considers the Avon Lady "the original side hustle."
9. In Major League Baseball, the off season between the World Series and spring training is called the Hot Stove. This is the period when teams make their trades, free agent signings, and contract extensions. The term goes back to the early days of baseball - when fans would sit around actual hot stoves in the winter to keep warm and discuss and speculate on their favorite teams.
10. In L. Frank Baum's original 1900 novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Dorothy Gale wears enchanted silver shoes. The famous ruby red slippers were an invention created later by MGM for the iconic 1939 film adaptation to take advantage of Technicolor.
