...........and the winners are (drum roll)
Accylass, Bernie Katex and Panther Well done all, Apparently, pet dogs were banned in Iceland but are now allowed. I can only assume that it was to protect the working dogs from rabies, perhaps someone out there knows?
All the others as far as I know are correct, here are a few comments and the web sites they come from.......
Medical mysteries - information on MedicineNet.com
"Similar to the reflex that occurs when your knee kicks after it's hit with a medical hammer, or the way your hand pulls away from something hot when you burn it, closing your eyes when you sneeze is a powerful reflex," says Smart, who is also a spokesman for the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. "You can try and force yourself to keep your eyes open when you sneeze, but it's hard to do."
http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/kun...h_faq.html#Q13
Q13: Lara Beatty of Calgary, Canada writes:
A friend and I were discussing cockroaches the other day, and she claims that a cockroach can live for about 6 years without it's head. Is this a true fact?
A: Lara,
Not true, but your friend is correct that a cockroach could live a long time, perhaps a month, without its head. The only reason we need our head for basic survival is:
(1) We breath through our mouth or nose and the breathing rhythm is controlled in our brain. Cutting off our head would interfere with breathing although that could be maintained with a respirator.
(2) Cutting off our head could lead to blood loss and a drop in blood pressure which would result in death due to lack of blood transport of oxygen and nutrition to our tissues.
(3) Cutting off our head would prevent us from eating and we would die of starvation pretty quickly.
All of these reasons for dying are not present in cockroaches and many insects in general:
(1) Cockroaches breath through spiracles which are in each body segment and the blood does not carry oxygen to the tissues. The spiracles deliver air to each cell of the body through a set of tubes called tracheae. The brain does not control the breathing through the spiracles.
(2) The cockroach does not have blood pressure the way a mammal does and so cutting off the head does not lead to uncontrolled bleeding.
(3) The cockroach is a poikilotherm or cold blooded animal. They need much less food and a one day meal would be enough to last them a whole month as long as they were not extremely active. Without a head the cockroach would just sit around without doing anything much.
All this along with a cool temperature could allow the cockroach to last about a month without need for their head, as long as they did not get infected with a mold, bacterium or virus, which could kill them prematurely.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/05/sc...=1&oref=slogin
Dolphins had already been known to exhibit unusual resting behavior: they sleep with one eye open. At any time only one brain hemisphere shows activity that is characteristic of a certain kind of sleep.
In Ohio: A Fowl Spectacle - TIME
Contestants are divided among four categories according to weight, and prizes of $25, $10 and $5 are awarded for the longest flights in each class, along with bright blue, red and yellow ribbons. Any chicken flying farther than the "world's record" —297 ft. 2 in., set in 1977 by a Japanese blacktail bantam named Kung Flewk —receives a cash prize of $500. What makes it fun is the unpredictability of the chickens. Some fly straight and true, or reasonably so, like Kung Flewk. Some refuse to fly at all, even with encouragement from a plunger. Some shift into reverse on takeoff. Since chickens are not natural aviators at the best of times, in a brisk breeze they can be pitiful to behold.
Finding out if women blink as much as or more than men - Vision - Helium - by Erik Van Tongerloo
Do you think that it is possible to measure all these facts in statistic details? I don't believe it but if you do research they will tell you that woman blink twice as much as men but I have my doubts about this.
Before anyone jumps in with contradictory information, I acknowledge that just because it is on the net it is not necessarily true. for instance, slugs having 4 noses? that is open to interpretation depending how you define "nose"
Thank you all for joining in the fun