Chapter 49 - Random Facts 2

Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town is a 1970 stop motion television special, made by Rankin-Bass. The film stars actor Fred Astaire as the narrator S.D. Kluger, Mickey Rooney as Kris Kringle/Santa Claus, Keenan Wynn as the Winter Warlock, and Paul Frees in various roles.

Whales have nostrils called blowholes. Over millions of years of evolution whales and dolphins nostrils moved to the top of their head. This allows them to breath by surfacing instead of them sticking their whole head out of the water. The first thing a newborn dolphin must do is to go to the surface to breathe.

John Lennon signed the paperwork that officially broke up the Beatles at the Polynesian Resort on December 29, 1974. John, Julian, and I (May Pang) left New York the following day to spend Christmas in Florida.

In contrast to the fruit fly that has one eightieth the body size and flaps its wings 200 times each second, the much larger honey bee flaps its wings 230 times every second.

This results in an oval ring around each magnetic pole where auroras occur. The north pole aurora is called the aurora borealis and the aurora at the south pole is called the aurora australis. Depending on the level of recent solar activity, there may or may not be visible auroral activity all the way around the ring.

The cracking sound a bullwhip makes when properly wielded is, in fact, a small sonic boom. The end of the whip, known as the "cracker", moves faster than the speed of sound, thus creating a sonic boom. The whip is probably the first human invention to break the sound barrier.

Wasps and many bees can sting more than once because they are able to pull out their stinger without injuring themselves. Only honey bees have special hooks on their stinger that keep the stinger in the skin after a person is stung. The stinger gets torn out of the bee's body as it tries to fly away.

The SMS concept was developed in the Franco-German GSM cooperation in 1984 by Friedhelm Hillebrand and Bernard Ghillebaert. The first text message was sent in 1992 from Neil Papworth, a former developer at Sema Group Telecoms.

New York Jets (1960-Present) Nickname: Named in 1963 after the Jets that flew overhead at Shea Stadium, their home starting in 1964 from nearby LaGuardia Airport. It also gave them a name that rhymes with Mets, who they shared Shea Stadium with at the time.

Comprised of 31 states and one federal district, the nation of Mexico is home to the world's largest population of Spanish speakers. From the temples of Chichen Itza, to the beaches of Cancun or the bustle of Mexico City, Mexico boasts a diverse landscape and rich history.

Earth's magnetic field is mostly caused by electric currents in the liquid outer core, which is composed of conductive, molten iron. Loops of currents in the constantly moving, liquid iron create magnetic fields. From afar, the Earth looks like a big magnet with a north and south pole like any other magnet.