Fast Facts Answers to Outside the Box Puzzles from page 54 1. Bark(ing) at the moon 2. Tread on thin ice 3. Beneath contempt 4. The cards are stacked against you 5. Look before you leap 6. Own up to it The “A” List of Phobias Among the broad number of phobias, all individual ones fall into four main categories: fears of the natural environment; those that relate to animals; medical treatment; and those involving specific issues. All are defined as irrational fears derived from the Greek word phobos, which means fear or horror. There is also such a thing as a fear of fears − phobophobia. From the overall assortment, here’s an abbreviated list of those that begin with “A.” Acrophobia fear of heights Aerophobia fear of flying Arachnophobia fear of spiders Agoraphobia fear of crowds and open spaces Amaxophobia fear of riding in a car Achluophobia fear of darkness Anthrophobia fear of flowers Astraphobia fear of thunder and lightning Atychiphobia fear of failure Autophobia fear of being alone BrainBank A collection of facts to amp up your storehouse of knowledge. ▶▶More human twins are being born today than ever before. ▶▶“New car smell” is the scent of dozens of chemicals. ▶▶The world wastes about one billion metric tons of food each year. ▶▶Some sea snakes can breathe through their skin. ▶▶Like earthquakes, the moon has moonquakes. ▶▶Humans are the only animals that blush. ▶▶The dot over the lower case “i” and “j” is known as a “tittle.” ▶▶Chewing gum boosts concentration. ▶▶Bees sometimes sting other bees. ▶▶Humans are just one of the estimated 8.7 million known species on earth. ▶▶The legend of the Loch Ness Monster goes back nearly 1,500 years. ▶▶The first Star Wars was expected to be a flop. ▶▶Crows hold grudges. ▶▶The Twitter bird’s official name is Larry. Emily Carr − Iconic CanadianArtist This year marks the 150th anniversary of her 1871 birth in Victoria, B.C. Coincidentally, this was the same year in which British Columbia joined Canada. Carr’s world-renowned works were particularly inspired by the Indigenous people and landscape of the Pacific Northwest Coast. While she enjoyed only limited commercial success during her lifetime, today her paintings fetch millions of dollars in the public auction domain. She was an animal lover, never married and was an environmentalist who championed the preservation of old-growth forests. As one of the country’s pre-eminent artists, she was a prolific writer winning the 1941 Governor General’s Award for Literary Merit in non-fiction. In 1971, Canada Post issued a six-cent stamp marking the 100th anniversary of her birth. MythBusters Here are a few long held beliefs proven to be inaccurate. ▶▶You will not get warts if you touch a toad or a frog. This myth has been around for a long time and is probably related to the fact that these amphibians have warty looking bumps on their skin. ▶▶Lightning never strikes the same place twice. Wrong. It often strikes the same place twice, at least within close proximity. ▶▶It is generally believed that bananas grow on trees. The banana “plant” can grow up to 25 ft. tall, but has no woody fibres. ▶▶The mustard seed is the smallest of seeds. Wrong. Poppy and orchid seeds are smaller. ▶▶It is often touted that humans use only 10 per cent of their brain. The truth is this: it’s non-stop busy every day using 20 per cent of the body’s resources, never actually turning off until death. ▶▶Bulls are angered by the colour red. In fact, bulls and other cattle are partially colour blind and cannot see red. However, they are testy, defensive creatures; when annoyed, it’s their nature to react to a matador’s taunting red cape. ▶▶Dogs’ mouths are cleaner than humans’ mouths. Wrong. A dog’s mouth teems with bacteria and functions as its hands, its washcloth and toilet paper. ▶▶The Great Wall of China is the only man-made structure that can be seen from outer space. False. NASA images have proved that highways, dams, bridges, airports, etc. are likewise distinguishable. ▶▶The “blind as a bat” idiom can be put to rest because it’s false. Bats can actually see three times better than humans. ▶▶The myth that all deserts are hot is untrue. In fact, there are some that experience brutal cold. Known as polar deserts they can, for example, be found in Iran and Greenland. 58 | www.snowbirds.org
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