There's "cough" (which rhymes with "off"), "enough" (which rhymes with "stuff"), "dough" (which rhymes with "no"), "through" (which rhymes with "do"), "thought" (which sounds like "awe"), "plough" (an alternative spelling of "plow"), "hiccough" (an alternative spelling of "hiccup"), "hough" (an alternative spelling of "hock"), "lough" (an alternative spelling of "loch"), and "thorough" (which has a different pronunciation in the UK than it does in American English).
Try this sentence: "A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."
Thursday, August 19, 2010
In Japan they have square watermelons....
They get square watermelons by growing them inside of square glass cases. That way they can fit easily into a refrigerator, and you can stack things on them. Square watermelons are expensive though (10,000 yen or about $82). Compare that to regular round watermelons which cost about $15-20 in Japan.
FUN FACT: Yawning is contagious
Yawning is contagious - even thinking about yawning is enough. After reading this fact, there is a 50% chance you will yawn.
Research shows that 11-week-old fetuses yawn. Yawns become contagious to people between the first and second years of life. When one person in a group yawns, over half of the people in the group will yawn within 5 minutes, and the rest will at least be tempted to yawn. Even animals yawn when they see another animal yawn. The average duration of a yawn is about 6 seconds, and guys yawn for longer than girls.
Cracking your knuckles.....
Cracking your knuckles does not actually hurt your bones or cause arthritis. The sound you hear is just gas bubbles bursting. Cracking your knuckles (or any of your joints) can have therapeutic benefits. When you crack one of your joints you are pulling the bones that are connected at the joint apart from each other. This process stimulates your tendons, relaxes your muscles, and loosens your joints. Chiropractors do this for spinal joints when your back is sore and stiff, but you can do this on your own for your knuckles, toes, knees, neck, etc.
Unfortunately, there can be too much of a good thing. Cracking your knuckles will never lead to arthritis (despite what your mom keeps telling you), but scientists have discovered that it can cause tissue damage in the affected joints. Knuckle-cracking pulls your finger bones apart which stretches your ligaments. Too much stretching of your ligaments will cause damage to your fingers akin to the arm injuries sustained by a baseball pitcher who throws too many pitches. In addition to making your hand really sore, this ligament damage can also result in reduced grip strength.
How does this work? Your joints, the places in your body where you can bend, are where your bones intersect and are held together by ligaments. These joints are surrounded by a liquid called synovial fluid. When you stretch your ligaments by pulling the bones apart to crack your knuckles a gas in the synovial fluid escapes and turns into a bubble. This process is called cavitation. Cavitation ends when the bubble eventually bursts, producing that popping sound we know and love. After that, your joints won't be able to crack for another 25-30 minutes while the gas gets reabsorbed into the synovial fluid.
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