Dumb Facts » Plants

• The hurricane plant has holes in its leaves, which keep it from being destroyed by wind.
• The canopy of a rainforest is so thick, only one percent of sunlight reaches the ground.
• A living tree never stops growing.
• 40% of prescripition drugs dispensed in the U.S. have active ingredients derived from plants, animals or microorganisms, many of them from forests.
• A banana is about 75 percent water.
• The world’s fastest-growing plant is the giant water lily, which grows almost a foot a day.
• Researchers recently sprouted a lotus seed known to be 1,288 years old, making it the oldest seed ever germinated.
• The Venus flytrap takes less than half a second to slam shut on an insect.
• A single large tree can release up to 400 gallons of water into the atmosphere each day.
• Rafflesia flowers attract pollinating flies by looking and smelling like rotten meat.
• One acre of trees absorbs enough carbon dioxide per year to match that emitted by driving a car 26,000 miles.
• The world’s largest flower is the Rafflesia arnoldi. It can grow to the size of an umbrella.
• The saguaro cactus of the Arizona Desert grows less than one inch in it’s first 10 years.
• In the 1800′s an Eggplant was known as a “mad apple” and believed to be poisonous.
• One cord of wood can make 7 and a half million toothpicks.

Dumb Facts » English

• The shortest complete sentence in the English language is “I am.”
• The most used letter in the English alphabet is ‘E’, and ‘Q’ is the least used!
• Floccinaucinihilipilification, the declaration of an item being useless, is the longest non-medical term in the English language.
• Goddessship is the only word in the English language with a triple letter.
• The sentence “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” uses every letter of the alphabet!
• The sentence “Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs” uses every letter of the alphabet and uses the least letters to do so!
• The world’s longest-named lake has 45 letters (Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg).
• In the U.S. there are 18 doctors called Dr. Doctor, and one called Dr. Surgeon. There is also a dermatologist named Dr. Rash, a psychiatrist called Dr. Couch and an anesthesiologist named Dr. Gass.
• “Rhythm” is the longest English word without a vowel.
• The longest word in the English language is ‘pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis’ which describes a lung disease caused by breathing in particles of volcanic matter or a similar fine dust.
• “Jack” is the most common name in nursery rhymes.
• In the English language there are only three words that have a letter that repeats six times. Degenerescence (six e’s), Indivisibility (six i’s), and nonannouncement (six n’s).
• The only three words in the English language to have 2 consecutive u’s is vacuum, residuum, and continuum.
• The very first dictionary “The American” took Noah Webster 20 years to put together.
• The word “alphabet” is derived from the first two letters in the Greek alphabet: “alpha” and “beta”.

Lateral Thinking-

 

Many years ago in a small Indian village,

A farmer had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to a village moneylender. The Moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the farmer’s beautiful Daughter. So he proposed a bargain.He said he would forgo the farmer’s debt if he could marry his Daughter. Both the farmer and his daughter were horrified by the Proposal.So the cunning money-lender suggested that they let Providence decide the matter. He told them that he would put a black Pebble and a white pebble into an empty money bag. Then the girl would have to pick one pebble from the bag. 

1) If she picked the black pebble, she would become his wife and her father’s debt would be forgiven. 

2) If she picked the white pebble she need not marry him and her father’s debt would still be forgiven.

3) But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into Jail.
They were standing on a pebble strewn path in the farmer’s field. As They talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles. As he Picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two Black pebbles and put them into the bag. 

He then asked the girl to pick A pebble from the bag. 
Now, imagine that you were standing in the field. What would you have Done if you were the girl? If you had to advise her, what would you Have told her? 
Careful analysis would produce three possibilities: 
1. The girl should refuse to take a pebble.
2. The girl should show that there were two black pebbles in the bag And expose the money-lender as a cheat. 
3. The girl should pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order To save her father from his debt and imprisonment.
Take a moment to ponder over the story. The above story is used with The hope that it will make us appreciate the difference between lateral And logical thinking. 
The girl’s dilemma cannot be solved with Traditional logical thinking. Think of the consequences if she chooses The above logical answers.
What would you recommend to the Girl to do?
Try to answer before scrolling down.
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Well, here is what she did …. 
The girl put her hand into the moneybag and drew out a pebble. Without Looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path Where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles. 
“Oh, how clumsy of me,” she said. “But never mind, if you look into the Bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I Picked.” 
Since the remaining pebble is black, it must be assumed that she had Picked the white one. And since the money-lender dared not admit his Dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into An extremely advantageous one. 
MORAL OF THE STORY: -

Most complex problems do have a solution. It is only that we don’t Attempt to think.