Post a random fact!

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Earth is almost a sphere.

For tomato stuff:

Tomatoes that are commercially grown are harvested when they are still green so they don't overripen before they hit the markets. To make them red, they are gassed to ethylene, a gas fruits naturally produce as they ripen.

If you wonder why store-brought tomatoes tend to suck: Tomatoes for commercial sale are not graded by quality or taste, but how firm they are. Firm tomatoes survive shipping better and look nicer in the produce aisle. The commerical term of a ideally firm tomato is "bullet-proof."

Refridgerating tomatoes deactivates the enzyme that produces its flavor. Once deactivated, the enzyme doesn't re-active and the tomatoes begins to lose its flavor.

Oh one more thing:

Tomatoes that are grown to be canned are allowed to ripen on the vine and then harvested and quickly processed. This is why canned tomatoes tend to be a better quality tomato than what you can find in the produce aisle.

Don't be fooled by "on the vine" tomatoes either. Those too are harvested green and gased like any other tomato on the aisle.

Everyone knows Coca-Cola used to have coca leaves in...

What they may not realise is that it still has! (the cocaine is removed in an offshore processing plant beforehand)
In the past, Coca has been removed completely from the drink, but as the resultant product lacked the distinctive taste, popularity suffered. The 'its the real thing' ad campaign marked the return to the old coca formula after a period of absence in which Pepsi had started to take over the market.

Coca-Cola international is infamous for its lack of ethics, and has actually had its trade union reps in South America assassinated.

The majority of Cocoa (chocolate) is harvested by slaves, people who have been abducted, taken to farms far into the wilderness where escape is futile and violently forced to work for sustenance.

Fancy hand-made carpets from East Asia are very often produced by abducted children who hardly ever see daylight.

sorry - the next one will be fun i promise!

The oarfish is an very odd deep ocean fish that grows to 20 to 40 feet in length. Specimens as long as 50 feet and weighing 600 pounds have been reported. They are the longest bony fish we know of.

Little in known about the oarfish, although because it appears in nearly all oceans of the world, researchers believe the population of oarfish in the oceans is "abundant." They are considered inedible because their deep-sea adapted flesh is very gelatious, and they prey on smaller deep sea critters, like jelly fish, small fish and plankton, so commercial fishing poses little threat to them.

Its ribbon-like, serpentine body, odd head, metallic blue-silver scales and striking red crest make this fish very unique. In fact, it is classified in its own genus and family. It resembles drawings of legendary sea monsters and has long be the subject of mariner folklore. It rarely is seen, and most sighting are of sick, injured or dying oarfish come to the surface or wash ashore.

Countershading is a type of camouflage seen is fish and other marine animals were the top side of the animal is dark and the bottom is white or pale. When viewed from above the animal blends in better witht eh darker depths, and when viewed from above, the animal is less visible in teh light filtering down from the surface.

The great white shark and killer whale are two well-known examples of animals that have countershading coloration.

Oooh Cade started a new trend and I like it! A Fact AND a Visual!! !! !

Whale sharks are the biggest sharks and they eat (drum roll) plankton! (And yes they are really in the shark family)

With some of these freaky animals I like to post a pic. Somehow just words alone doesn't do them justice.

Whale sharks aren't just the biggest shark - they're the biggest lving fish! Oarfish may get as long as a whale shark, but they aren't nearly as massive.

Whale sharks are strictly filter feeders and lack teeth. They are very mellow and harmless to humans. They have been known to congregate in great herds.

The second largest shark is the basking shark. They can get over 30 feet long, most specimans found int eh wild are under 25 feet (which is still huge). It too is a harmless filter feeder, although not quite as photogenic as the whale shark:

Peahi aka Jaws is considered one of the largest waves in the world, sometimes reaching 100 feet: