Can picking your nose kill you?
Sure picking your nose can kill you, but it's not easy. Truth is, a picking obsession is much more likely to cost you your friends than your life.
The deadly threat of nose picking comes from the fact that the vein that takes blood away from your nose connects with ones that also drain your brain. So if you pick too vigorously, you could break skin and expose your system to the germs on your finger. Those germs could then cause an infection, which might spread through the blood vessels and clog up the vein that drains your brain. As a result, your brain could fill up like a water balloon and you could die.
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Why do cups sweat?
Some people think that the moisture on the outside of a glass of cold beverage comes from inside the glass, but that's just not true. The "sweat" isn't liquid leaking out from inside the glass. It's condensation from the surrounding air.
To understand how this works, you need to know that cold air holds less water vapor than warmer air. When you have a cold beverage in your glass, the beverage cools the air around the outside of the glass. That causes the air around the glass to let go of its water. It's this condensation that causes the moisture that you see.
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Why is a wedding ring worn on the ring finger?
The Western practice of wearing a wedding ring on the third finger (not including the thumb) began in Greece in the third century B.C. The Greeks believed that there was a vein, named the "vein of love," that ran from what we now call the ring finger directly to the heart. As a result, they placed the ring that symbolized love on that finger.
Later, the Romans, adopting Greek science, copied the custom and took it one step further. Roman physicians used their ring fingers to stir medicine, believing that since the ring finger was connected to the heart, it could detect toxicity.
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Where did the whole business of the stork delivering babies come from?
To avoid the details of conception and childbirth, Scandinavian mothers used to tell their children that the stork delivered babies. The stork was a natural choice for the Scandinavians. Many houses had storks' nests on them, which gave the story credibility in children's eyes.
Further adding to the appeal of the stork, is the bird's fidelity. Not only do storks return year after year to the same nests, but they are monogamous too. Storks also take care of their elderly or sick parents, an added benefit for parents trying to develop similar traits in their children.
In the 19th century, Hans Christian Andersen popularized the Scandinavian legend by including it in his fairy tales, and in the 20th century, cartoons helped introduce it to children.