It doesn’t take much to find all types of trivia these days, but I found this information on a print out that they give the customers at the coffee store that I go to once in a while. I don’t drink coffee, but once in a while I’ll treat myself to a nice hot mocha with whipped cream. It’s a nice quiet little place and I love that they have things for their customers to read and contemplate.
Shocking: An electric eel has a current-producing organ that can generate an average charge of 350 volts. The rivers of Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and Peru are where you’ll find an eel that produces the greatest shock – from 400 to 650 volts.
Devoted daddy: The male emperor penguin shares incubating duties with the female when she lays her one large egg. Later, the female is away feeding when the egg hatches, so the male feeds the baby by regurgitating a milky substance.
Always the name: A nine-banded armadillo has an unusual claim to fame. It almost always gives birth to quadruplets of the same sex, resulting from the fact one egg usually divides into four parts.
The mile: It was Queen Elizabeth I who decided a statute mile should be 5,280 feet or 1,609 meters. It was based on walking distance established by the Romans, who said 1,000 paces made up a land mile.
Waking early: In 1787, Levi Hutchins of Concord, New Hampshire, came up with one of the earliest versions of an alarm clock. For the rest of us, it might not have been too attractive. It could only ring at one time – 4a.m.
Taken from Coffee News “News to be enjoyed over coffee”