Archive for September, 2008
Question Asked: Are Hair And Eyelashes Made Of The Same Thing?
Apparently, you folks are on an eyelash kick as of late. Twelve days ago, I answered Why Do We Have Eyelashes? And today, we’ve got another eyelash question. Strange, but okay.
Technically, at the root of things, yes, they’re the same thing.
Eyelashes are a thicker form of hair. The same type of hardened protein that grows on your head, just a little bit thicker.
Question Asked: Why Do We Celebrate Birthdays?
Besides getting awesome gifts, and taking a day off of work? There’s a good reason why we celebrate birthdays.
A “birthday” is the day we celebrate the birth of someone, on the annual anniversary of the date that person was born.
Its origin is said to have come from Europe. From Wikipedia:
It is thought the large-scale celebration of birthdays in Europe began with the non-Christian cult of Mithras, which originated in Persia, and was spread by soldiers throughout the Roman Empire. Such celebrations were uncommon previously so practices from other contexts such as the Saturnalia were adapted for birthdays.
I tried to find some information on when the first documented birthday was, but all the search results were links to kids’ first birthday party supplies.
I think, secretly, we celebrate birthdays because it’s fun, and it’s an excuse to get together with family, and enjoy ourselves.
Question Asked: Can Animals Communicate With Other Species of Animal?
While there’s no real way to know the answer, since we can’t effectively understand what animals are saying in their own animal language.
We can assume, probably pretty safely, that animals can talk to other animals of the same species. Ie; my parakeet can talk to other parakeets, and presumably other types of birds, as well.
However, my parakeet probably can’t communicate with my neighbor’s dog, or the chipmunk that likes to hang out under my car.
Think of it this way: animals have a language, much like people speak a language. Unless you understand French, or Spanish or whatever, you can’t communicate effectively with someone who only speaks that language. I assume it’s the same thing with animals.
However, in the case of a parakeet talking with a parrot, or dove, or whathaveyou. It’s more similar to the same language, but a different dialect. While Spanish is always Spanish, there’s hundreds of different dialects of the Spanish language. If you speak one, you can probably effectively communicate with someone who speaks another. While science doesn’t prove or disprove my theory, they don’t do much else to explain anything to do with animals’ communications.
Question Asked: What Could I Buy With A Billion Dollars?
People often underestimate the amount of money that a billion dollars is. Presumably because when you say “one billion dollars”, your brain processes the “one” part first. And since one’s a small number, your brain doesn’t comprehend how much money it really is. Let me write it out for you, so you can see how big of a number if really is:
$1,000,000,000.00
With a billion dollars, you could buy the following:
- 100 $10million homes.
- 1000 $1million homes.
- 2,857 Lamborghini Murcielagos
- 5,263 Ferrari F430s
- 22,223 Acura TLs
- 2,500,000 PlayStation 3 80GB
- 3,333,444 60GB Xbox 360s
- 4,000,160 Nintendo Wiis
- 500,000 52″ Sony LCD Tvs
- 100 Islands off the coast of Florida
- A 4,201 acre Island in South America (and still have $989million left over)
- 3.58 Boeing 777 Jets
- 17.5 Boeing 737 Jets
- 2,972 Bars of Gold (enough to build a fort with!)
- 200,400,801 Soccer Balls
- 800,000,000 Baseballs
- 40,000 Years worth of Season Tickets to the Red Sox
- 100,000,000,000 Pennies
- 3,333,444 iPhones
- 2,500,062 80GB iPods
The numbers could go on forever. The answer, however, is a lot of stuff.
Question Asked: Where Do Eye Boogers Come From?
Something’s occured to me, in the few months I’ve been answering questions on this site… people ask some really strange questions. But alas, I said I’d answer, and I will.
Believe it or not, there’s actually part of your body that creates these eye boogers (or whatever nickname you’ve got for them.) The plica semilunaris is the part of your body that creates these early morning eye boogers.
The eye booger, itself, isn’t actually created though. The plica semilunaris creates a substance that catches the junk (dust, dirt, insects, etc) that fall into your eye while you sleep. That’s why it always ends up in the corner of your eye; because your eye is closed, it can’t get in.
Think of it this way - during the day, your eye lashes protect your eyes, because you’re blinking a lot. During the night, your eye lashes take a break, and the plica semilunaris takes over.
Gross, but true.