Seven fact Sunday! 1. The actor who played Wedge Antilles in Star Wars, Denis Lawson, was the only rebel pilot in the original trilogy to survive both attacks on the Death Star. He’s also Ewan McGregor’s uncle. 2. Dérive is a French noun that can be literally translated to “drift.” It means a spontaneous journey where the traveler leaves their life behind for a time to let the spirit of the landscape and architecture attract and move them. 3. Contrary to depictions in science fiction, the human body can briefly survive in outer space unprotected. Rather than inflating like a balloon, the human skin doubles in size, and the body more resembles that of a body builder. 4. The term for animals that walk on their toes rather than the soles of their feet like humans is “digitigrade.” For example: birds, dogs, and cats. 5. Lb is an abbreviation of the Latin word libra. The primary meaning of libra was balance or scales (as in the astrological sign), but it also stood for the ancient Roman unit of measure libra pondo, meaning “a pound by weight.” We got the word “pound” in English from the pondo part of the libra pondo but our abbreviation comes from the libra. 6. Psilocybin, the naturally occurring compound that causes the euphoria and psychedelic trips associated with shrooms, can be found in over 200 species of mushrooms, most of which grow wild in Mexico. 7. In Roman numerals, a dot indicated an uncia, or "twelfth." This is the source of the English words inch and ounce; dots were repeated for fractions up to five twelfths.
Posted on: Sun, 11 Aug 2013 20:08:37 +0000
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