There are birds that migrate from Australia (in the winter) to the Aleutian Islands (Alaska, in the summer). That’s a distance of over 10,000 miles.

Dude- I’ve heard of flying south for the winter, but I think you are taking things to extremes.

But these birds are all about extremes- they can dive up to 130 feet under the water in search for food.

I can see it now- Mountain Dew and Vans Shoes sponsor the X-Treme Bird challenge, a joint project of Animal Planet and ESPN 11.

Source: Planet Earth on The Discovery Channel

If you are like me, you’ve picked up a sand dollar on vacation somewhere, and it looked something like this.

It probably had some nice little card attached to it that explained the supposed religious significance of the 5 points, etc. And you may or may not have broken it open to see the “doves” inside.

But, if you are like me, you had no idea that sand dollars are really sea urchins. And really, they look like this:

The nice white keepsake is what is left after a giant starfish swims over the live sand dollar, expands its stomach to envelope the creature, and then liquefies all of the live cells. The remaining white shell is actually an exoskeleton. The doves are, to simplify it greatly, kind of like teeth.

I think I liked it better in the gift shop. Sea Urchin. Ewww.

Source: Planet Earth on The Discovery Channel

Algae is responsible for producing 3/4 of the oxygen in the atmosphere. Algae is not responsible for producing the Oxygen network. That’s NBC Universal.

Source: Planet Earth on The Discovery Channel

The Discovery Channel (at least in its older incarnation) was famous for scenes of animals, ahem, breeding. It’s always a bit… unsettling, but today’s segment on frogs would make late night Cinemax actresses blush. Read on if you dare… you’ve been warned.

You see, for certain types of frogs, notably leap frogs, consent to the act is not so necessary. The male frogs are all in a tree. The loudest (therefore most desirable) male frog is at the top of the tree. The lesser desirable male frogs are lower down in the tree.

The female frogs climb the tree, in an attempt to get to the top to mate with the alpha frog. But on their way up, the beta frogs engage in activities that would get the attention of the team from JungleLaw: SVU. Yep, they just hop on (pun intended) and start going at it, while the female tries to continue climbing to the top.

Another beta frog already on your woman? No prob. Just jump on. The more the merrier. Yep. Froggy menage a trois.

I told you it was disturbing. Don’t blame me. I just report the facts.

Source: Planet Earth on The Discovery Channel

A frog’s ears are tuned so that they can only hear the sound of their own species. So when a big group of frogs are croaking, they can only hear some of the chorus.

Source: Planet Earth on The Discovery Channel

Naval Air Station Lakehurst was the site of The Hindenburg disaster in 1937. It was also the site of the Heli-Stat crash in 1986.

The Heli-Stat was an experimental aircraft developed for the U.S. Forestry Service. The purpose was to lift large amounts of wood from forests. The idea for the Heli-Stat was actually patented in 1961, but it took until the 80’s to get someone crazy enough to build it. Fortunately, that crazy entity was the Federal Government, so we all got to pitch in for this one.

The design has to be one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen. 4 Helicopters strapped to the bottom of a giant helium blimp. Why anyone thought this thing would end up in anything besides disaster is beyond me. A slight breeze knocked the helicopter blades into the blimp, which caused a cascading disaster. Who knew spinning helicopter blades could poke a hole in a blimp?

Here’s a picture of the monstrosity. I actually found video of the crash here. Not the greatest quality, but you get the point.

Source: Discovery Channel and a Time Magazine article from 1986

I discovered yesterday that a lot more goes into toothpaste that I originally thought. Limestone, rock salt, silica, saccharin, glycerin , sodium fluoride, chalk, and baking soda could all be scrubbing your teeth. Makes me regret eating a small tube of Crest Kids toothpaste on a dare when I was in middle school. Stupid kids… but I digress.

The roman’s toothpaste included urine, so I guess chalk is better than that. The Chinese were warned in 2007 that antifreeze was being used to produce their toothpaste. Not surprising- the Chinese seem to enjoy poisoning everything.

Mint flavored toothpaste is the most popular, but there are other bizarre flavors like bourbon, pine, apricot, etc.

Source: How it’s Made or similar Discovery Channel or Science Channel type show, some help from wiki and this site was remarkably helpful in my quest to find more details on what toothpaste is made of.

Is a theme park located in Hershey, PA.

It has several roller coasters. The most x-treme is called Fahrenheit. It features a 97° drop, which means that it doesn’t just go straight down, it actually goes 7 extra degrees backwards. This produces a G-Force rating of about 4, which is equal to what an Apollo Rocket produces.

If you are not familiar with Hershey, PA, it’s the only place on earth where the street lights are shaped like Hershey Kisses.

Source: Discovery Channel, then the Hershey Park website for follow up

Kangaroos live in Australia. And it gets really hot in Australia. Like 120° F Hot. And sometimes there isn’t very much water.

So fortunately, pregnant kangaroos have the ability to slow down embryo development during a drought.

Other kangaroo fun facts:

• They lick themselves to cool down. Their blood vessels are close to their skin, and when the saliva evaporates it cools the blood underneath, which in turn cools down their whole bodies. It’s true. I saw thermal camera footage to prove it.
• The soil a few inches down is significantly cooler than the topsoil. So in addition to licking themselves, they dig down a few inches and lay in the cooler dirt.

Source: Planet Earth on The Discovery Channel

Not like Michael Phelps swim, but enough to do the job.

Source: Planet Earth on The Discovery Channel