SCUBA, as in scuba diving, is actually an acronym for Self-contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.

I love going self-contained underwater breathing apparatus diving so I can look at all the fish.

Freshwater fish use osmosis to drink water, that is, they absorb the water through their skin.  Saltwater fish actively drink water through their mouths so their gills can remove the salt.   Salmon can do both, because they are both freshwater and saltwater fish.

And that’s why salmon are the best.

I’ve been swimming at Walden Pond a lot recently.  It’s a pretty good sized body of water.  So I was wondering why it was still considered a “pond” instead of a “lake.”  Currently, there is no official definition that separates a pond and a lake.  Typically it just comes down to size, but as with Walden Pond, it really doesn’t matter (just like this information).

I like lakes more though.

The jellyfish turritopsis nutricula has the ability to revert from a state of sexual maturity to the immature polyp stage.  It is the only known example of a creature capable of reaching sexual maturity then returning to being sexually immature.  Thus, this jellyfish has been deemed immortal.  However, it is impossible to estimate the age of a specimen because of this ability to cycle through life stages.

About every week, SmartestYear does a post that proves that I, too, can revert to sexual immaturity.

Stetson helped popularize the “ten gallon” hat, but that doesn’t help me understand why these cowboy hats are considered ten gallon.  There are two common explanations.  The first, which is likely false, is that it refers to the hat’s ability to hold water (however, a real “ten gallon” hat only holds about three quarts).  The most widely accepted theory is that it is a language mix-up.  Cowboy hats came to Texas by way of Mexico.  In Spanish, galón means “braid.”  Some vaqueros wore as many as ten braids on their hats.  Do you realize how stupid everyone would look if the cowboy hats held 10 gallons of water?  Well, not everybody…most people don’t wear cowboy hats.  But if we did it, it would be like walking around with water-cooler jugs on our heads.  

Saturday night, I was hanging in my room with some friends.  Just being cool.  And one of my friends tells us all to guess how many gallons are in a square foot of water.  We all guessed low.  The answer is 7.481 gallons of water in a square foot!  That seems like a lot.  I have really cool friends….

It’s just nice to have someone teach me a fact so I don’t have to go to wikipedia…I mean the library.