Five Fun Factiods…

I’ve got nothing today..I’m tired from a deadline at work, and I’m looking forward to the weekend, yet not quite there.  So I’m going to give you some fun random facts that you may or may not know about your body.

My dad came to visit last week, and he brought Maya this book.  He was careful to make sure she knew that HE knew that it was well below her reading level, but that it had a lot of good information, and might be a fun book to have nonetheless.  He couldn’t have been more right, and she has enjoyed regaling us with interesting factoids.  Here we go:

How fast does hair grow on your head?
Nearly 5 inches a year.  Hair grows faster in children than in adults.  It also grows faster in the morning than at night.  And it grows faster in the summer than in the winter.  Diet and health also affect the growth of your hair.  But don’t think haircuts and shaves make hair grow faster.  They don’t make any difference at all.

Why do you get wrinkles after a bath?
Water gets under the skin.  Even though your skin is waterproof, some water does seep through.  The water makes the skin underneath soggy.  The wet part of the skin buckles.  And that makes the wrinkles.

Do you get more bones as you grow older?
No. In fact, babies have more bones than grown ups do!  At birth, you have about 300 bones.  As you get older, some small bones join together to make big ones.  By the time you gratuate from high school, you’ll be down to 206 bones.

How do bones grow?
By layers.  A thin layer of cartilage forms near the end of each bone.  Cartilage is a tough, rubbery material that can bend.  Gradually, the cartilage changes to bone, making the bone longer.  As the bones get longer, they also get thicker.  New layers of cartilage form throughout childhood and the teen years.  When you are age 20 or so, all your cartilage layers will have turned to bone.

What causes stomach rumbles?
Food being digested.  But the sound comes from your small intestine, not your stomach! The small intestine pushes, squeezes, churns, and kneads the mashed up food as it moves along.  All this activity makes a lot of noise.

If you eat at regular times each day, your stomach muscles will start to move on schedule.  This causes stomach rumbles too.  Your stomach may be telling you it’s time to eat!

OK, I could go on with this for hours.  But that’s enough for one day.  You can have more next time I have nothing for a blog post, OK?  Might be sooner than you think. 😉

And if you’ve stuck with this post all of the way to the end, you deserve a prize!  Luckily, I have one for you!  If you have speakers and a sound card and all of that, head on over to Py Korry, and check out his awesome Friday Mix Six!  This week it’s classic rock, so we’ve got some Carlos, some Kinks, Elton John (pre-Nakita), and my first husband, David Bowie!  And more!  It’s a little mixed tape for your listening pleasure.  Enjoy!