Friday, January 26, 2007

I'm either brave... or foolish

Friday, the end of the week, what better way could there be to celebrate than to take 4 little boys to check out Grossology, The (Impolite) Science of the Human Body?
Complete with a burp machine, and a large scale replica of human skin so you can fully appreciate the disgustingness of blisters and scabs, woo hoo, good times!
I can hardly tell you how excited I am about this.
Here is some gross trivia to take you through the weekend, enjoy!

• Seventy out of 100 people admit to picking their nose. Three out of those seventy admit to eating their boogers.
• Thomas Crapper was an Englishman who invented the shut-off for clean water entering the toilet tank in the 1800s. The word "crap" comes from Crapper.
• Your large intestine is about five feet long.
• In a study of people who do not speak English, researchers read a list of words and asked the people to choose which words they thought sounded pretty. Diarrhea was one word that most people chose.
• Fresh urine is cleaner than spit or the skin on your face because healthy pee is not home to bacteria.
• The lineup at men's and women's washrooms vary because of the length of time it takes us to pee: men average 45 seconds; women spend about 79 seconds.
• Every day you make four to eight cups of urine. The amount depends on how hot it is outside, what you eat and how much you drink.
• You make about one quart of saliva each day. Every day about one liter of saliva enters your mouth. If you were a hay-eating cow, it would be about 190 liters every day.
• You swallow about one quart of snot every day.
• Ear wax naturally dries up and forms little balls that drop out when we yawn, chew or swallow. • Ear wax coats the inside of the ear canal to trap any nasty stuff like dirt, dust and bugs that get into your ear. People who live in big cities make more ear wax.
• The skin is the largest organ of the body. You shed skin every day to produce a whole new layer of skin every 28 days.
• About ten billion tiny scales of skin rub off your body every day. In a lifetime, you could fill eight five-pound flour bags with dead skin.
• Your mouth is the most unsanitary part of your whole body. More than 100,000,000 micro-creatures live there at any one time.
• Feet sweat because there are about 250,000 pores on their soles that squirt a quarter cup of liquid each day.
• At birth you have 350 bones in your body. You now have 206 bones. What happened to the rest? They fused to other bones to make larger bones.
• Normal breathing sucks air into the nose at 4 mph (6 kph). A good sensory sniff is 20 mph (32 kph). A sneeze will shoot out of the nose at 100 mph (160 kph).
• Vomiting removes liquid from you body, so it's important that you replace the lost liquid by sipping on water, tea, juice or bouillon.
• Many cultures still use urine to tan leather.
• Your bladder can hold about two cups of urine comfortably.
• Your nostrils take turns inhaling. You breathe through one nostril for three to four hours and then switch to the other one.
• It is better to breathe through your nose than your mouth. Only air going through the nose is cleaned, warmed and moistened before it reaches your lungs.
• Your nose can sense smell best when you are 10 years old. That's probably why kids notice gross smells faster than adults.
• Carrying your skin around can be a lot of work. The average adult's skin weighs about seven pounds (about 3.2 kilograms).

15 comments:

Breazy said...

There was actually a study done not too long ago and once completed they said that eating your boogers only gives you calcium.. I say I will just stick with milk thank you !

Hmmm the ear wax thing is odd because my kids and I have always had more ear wax than normal.

I have heard that if you don't close your eyes when you sneeze that it could actually blow your eyeballs out!LOL! don't know if that one is true but I am not willing to give it a try !

Thanks for the fun facts and have fun today . Have a good weekend too!

S said...

Ok Ewwwww I am so glad I have a girl...if she wants gross, she can get it elsewhere...
Have so much fun!

lime said...

allow me to add....

the first morning urine of little boys was prized by london indigo dyers of the 19th century as it had the highest concentration of ammonia which was necessary for dye setting.

the average sneeze contains enough germs to infect the entire population of bolivia. i learned this as a child and was always very worried abotu bolivia when i sneezed as a result.

i also think cerumen (the medicla term for earwax) is a particualrly sonorous word. it rolls of the tongue so nicely.

Anonymous said...

That was one of the coolest blog posts EVER!
/Vera

egan said...

I heard about this exhibit today. I'm not sure why I wasn't invited to be a specimen.

Logophile said...

Breazy~ Yeah, I am so NOT going to advertise that. EOW. I tell the Things "Don't touch your mucus membranes!!"

Susie~ Yeah, well, it was actually very interesting and not TOO nasty gross.

Lime~ I knew I could depend on you to stay with the tone of the post :p excellent additions, thank you

Vera~ As you know, I live to please :>

Egan~ You are waaaaaay too cute, and your nose looks nothing like a faucet

Stephanie said...

OMG - I never noticed the nostrils took turns.

So ... I'm actually 7 pounds lighter??

Anonymous said...

Our skin is our biography, writ in scar and crease upon our living flesh.

Anonymous said...

This sounds like an exhibit my boys would have LOVED as youngsters. They used to love coming to my lab and looking at slides of various organs especially brains. Boys just do gross such fine justice.

Minka said...

79 seconds? You can bet that I am gonna check on that. No surprise guys take a shorter time, their bladder can hold less and they go more often but each time with less than a female would squeeze per sitting. Believe you me I know :)
Had a weigh in today...I guess my skin gained some over the last weeks. That skin!

Logophile said...

Snav~ I didn't realize that either, I actually checked :p

Somewhere Joe~ Very true

Claire~ OOOOO, brains, those ARE cool, and firm yet squooshy.

Minka~ I have one little boy that doesn't go often but its impressive when he does and one teaspoon bladder boy, he DEFINITELY doesn't take very long.

Tom & Icy said...

I don't know about humans, but for us dogs, we pee a lot faster when it is cold outside.

Jacob said...

Both of my nostrils are clear today. Unusual event for me. I agree with the potty mouth part too. Quite the party going on in there. Not to mention what comes out of it. I need to save profanity for special occasions. I tend to give it away all too easily. Headed for the airport. What a beautiful day. Hope yours and Egan's is as crisp and clear as here. ciao4niao

Logophile said...

Icy~ It sure cuts down on exploration time!

Gawpo~ You have a party? in your....mouth?

DaMasta said...

I'm breathing from my right nostril right now. And I just took a big breath of cold air thru my lungs.. AAAAAHHHHH!