fish in polar seas have a kind of antifreeze in their blood called glycoprotein

fish in polar seas have a kind of antifreeze in their blood called glycoprotein

got it from a book: waarom daarom!

The name of Australia comes from "terra australis incognita" translation "unknown land of the south"

The name Australia is derived from the Latin Australis, meaning "Southern". Legends of an "unknown land of the south" (terra australis incognita) date back to Roman times and were commonplace in medieval geography but were not based on any documented knowledge of the continent. In 1521 Spaniards were among the first Europeans to sail the Pacific Ocean. The first use of the word Australia in English was in 1625, in "A note of Australia del Espiritu Santo, written by Master Hakluyt", published by Samuel Purchas in Hakluytus Posthumus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia

Mapmakers insert incorrect entries to see when someone illegal copies their work, they are called "copyright traps"

Fictitious entries, also known as fake entries, Mountweazels, and Nihilartikels, are deliberately incorrect entries or articles in reference works such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, maps and directories. Entries in reference works normally originate from a reliable external source, but no such source exists for a fictitious entry.

Fictitious entries can be humorous hoaxes intended to be more or less quickly recognized as false by the reader or copyright traps deliberately inserted into a work to facilitate detection of copyright infringement or plagiarism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictitious_entry

All male mules and most female mules are infertile

A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse.^[1] Historically, and today in technical jargon, "mule" refers to the infertile offspring of any two animals of different species. Horses and donkeys are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes. Of the two F1 hybrids between these two species, a mule is easier to obtain than a hinny (the offspring of a male horse and a female donkey). All male mules and most female mules are infertile.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mule

Cheerleading was a male sport in the beginning

Princeton graduate Thomas Peebles introduced the idea of organized crowds cheering at football games to the University of Minnesota. However, it was not until 1898 that University of Minnesota student Johnny Campbell directed a crowd in cheering "Rah, Rah, Rah! Sku-u-mar, Hoo-Rah! Hoo-Rah! Varsity! Varsity! Varsity, Minn-e-So-Tah!”, making Campbell the very first cheerleader and November 2, 1898 the official birth date of organized cheerleading. Soon after, the University of Minnesota organized a "yell leader" squad of 6 male students, who still use Campbell's original cheer today^[4] In 1903 the first cheerleading fraternity, Gamma Sigma was founded.^[5] Cheerleading started out as an all-male activity, but females began participating in 1923, due to limited availability of female collegiate sports. At this time, gymnastics, tumbling, and megaphones were incorporated into popular cheers, and are still used today.^[5] Today it is estimated that 97% of cheerleading participants overall are female, but males still make up 50% of cheering squads at the collegiate level. <sup>[6]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheerleading#History</sup>

The largest known organism (a fungal colony) spans 8.9km² (2,200 acres)

Armillaria ostoyae is a fungus commonly known as a Honey mushroom, and sometimes called Shoestring Rot.

This is the most common variant in the western U.S., of the group of species that all used to share the name Armillaria mellea. Armillaria ostoyae is quite common on both hardwood and conifer wood in forests west of the Cascade crest. The mycelium attacks the sapwood and is able to travel great distances under the bark or between trees in the form of black rhizomorphs ("shoestrings").

The disease is of particular interest to forest managers, as the species is highly pathogenic to a number of commercial softwoods, notably Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), true firs (Abies spp.) and Western Hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla). A commonly prescribed treatment is the clearcutting of an infected stand followed by planting with more resistant species such as Western redcedar (thuja plicata) or deciduous seedlings. The removal of stumps (stumping) has been used to prevent contact between infected stumps and newer growth resulting in lower infection rates. However, it is unknown if the lower infection rates will persist as roots of young trees extend closer to the original inoculum from the preceding stand. The use of another fungus, Hypholoma fasciculare has been shown in early experiments to competitively exclude Armillaria ostoyae in both field and laboratory conditions, but further experimentation is required to establish the efficacy of this treatment.

A mushroom of this type in the Malheur National Forest in the Strawberry Mountains of eastern Oregon, U.S. was found to be the largest fungal colony in the world, spanning 8.9 km² (2,200 acres) of area. This organism is estimated to be 2,400 years old. The fungus was written about in the April 2003 issue of the Canadian Journal of Forest Research. While an accurate estimate has not been made, the total mass of the colony may be as much as 605 tons. If this colony is considered a single organism, then it is the largest known organism in the world by area, and rivals the aspen grove "Pando" as the known organism with the highest living biomass.

In 1992, a relative of the Strawberry Mountains clone was discovered in southwest Washington state. It covers about 6 km² (1500 acres).

Another "humongous fungus" is a specimen of Armillaria bulbosa found at a site near Crystal Falls, Michigan covers 0.15 km² (37 acres), and was published in Nature.^[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armillaria_ostoyae

Mc Donald's French fries account for more than one-fourth of all potatoes sold in the U.S.

Today, French fries account for more than one-fourth of all potatoes sold in the U.S. market—over six million pounds of potatoes are processed into frozen fries annually. Twenty-five percent of kids report eating French fries instead of other vegetables, and the average American eats thirty pounds of the greasy things in a year. The potato has come from being reviled to being revered, and is now the second most popular staple food in the world. So the next time someone says, "You want fries with that?", take a moment to remember the long, hard journey of the poor little spud. And answer, "Yes, thank you."

http://www.stim.com/Stim-x/9.2/fries/fries-09.2.html