Random Trivia and useless facts

Following is a veritable cesspool of trivial items to use in pick-up lines in bars, to fill awkward silences in credit committee meetings, and to forward (via email) to the spam filters of your many friends. Here goes:

Most people dream about 5 times during each 8-hour period of sleep. Based on this number, people have about 1,825 dreams every year.

An average yawn lasts about 6 seconds. At a networking event, the average yawn generally last approximately 5 minutes.

The distance separating two neurons at a synapse is 20-40 nanometers. (1 nanometer is equal to one-billionth of a meter.)

People typically blink about 15 times per minute. If you are awake for 16 hours each day, then you blink approximately 14,400 each day!

Bicycle helmets reduce the risk for head injury by as much as 85% and reduce the risk for brain injury by as much as 88%.

Percentage of total cerebral cortex volume (human): frontal lobe = 41%; temporal lobe = 22%; parietal lobe = 19%; occipital lobe = 18%. People can distinguish between 3,000 and 10,000 different smells. One of them is Rick Itzkowich.

Schizophrenia affects about 1 out of every 100 people. What’s your excuse?

Bees and butterflies can see ultraviolet light, but they seldom use tanning beds or decorate their homes with Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplin posters.

Each year in the United States, about 200,000 people require hospitalization for head injury and 52,000 people die due to head injuries. Another 1.74 million people have mild traumatic brain injury that requires them to visit a doctor or disables them for at least one day.

Caffeine is on the International Olympic Committee list of prohibited substances. Athletes who test positive for more than 12 micrograms of caffeine per milliliter of urine may be banned from the Olympic Games. This level of caffeine may be reached by drinking 4 or 5 cups of coffee. (Note: Caffeine was removed from the list of prohibited substances in 2004!)

Fevers are controlled by the part of the brain called the hypothalamus. The highest body temperature ever recorded was 115 degrees F (46.1 degrees C.) Body temperatures of 109 degrees F (42.8 degrees C) can be fatal.

There are about 300 million neurons in the octopus brain. (The human brain has about 100 billion neurons.)

The human cerebellum weighs about 150 grams. (Total brain weight is about 1,400 grams.)

Epilepsy affects about 2.5 million people in the US.

The channel catfish has 100,000 taste buds on the outside of its body.

The human hypothalamus weighs about 4 grams.

A giraffe sleeps only two hours each day.

The adult human spinal cord weighs about 35 grams (0.1 lb).

There are about 1,200,000 nerve fibers in each human optic nerve.

The human eyeball is 24.5 mm (~ 1 in) long.

The brain of a cat weighs about 30 grams. (Remember, an adult human brain weighs about 1,400 grams or 3 lb.).