Things I learned lately 28 January

• An owl's eyes are large in order to improve their efficiency, especially under low light conditions. In fact, the eyes are so well developed, that they are not eye balls as such, but elongated tubes. They are held in place by bony structures in the skull called Sclerotic rings. For this reason, an owl cannot roll or move its eyes - it can only look straight ahead!
• You know that feeling like you’re falling you get when you’re falling asleep? That happens because sometimes your muscles relax and your heart rate slows down too quickly that your body thinks you’re dying. So, it gives you that falling sensation which jolts you awake.
  
  
  
• Buying a car and financing it over 7 years is a horrible idea, because you'll be in negative equity long before you even get close to paying off the loan.
• The Oka-Hudson ferry, which is now self-propelled, used to be a barge towed by a towing boat. Before it converted in 2008, it was the last towed barge ferry in Canada.
• When Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs first opened in 1916, the owner hired people to dress as doctors and eat hot dogs outside his shop, to convince people his hot dogs were healthy.
• Certain oak tree populations will synchronize to produce almost no acorns, only to rain them down excessively the following year, known as a "mast" year. The year preceding the mast year is thought to starve off the mammal populations feeding on the acorns.
• Appian Way, one of the original Roman roads of the ancient republic, built in 312BC, is still in use today.
• The amount of garlic flavour is dependent on when you add the garlic. Add it early for light flavour, add it late for bold flavour.
• In the Netherlands, the disabled get money from the government to spend on 12 prostitutes per year.
• If you try to grab the brain in its natural state, it will fall apart. When you see scientists pick up a brain, they've used chemicals to harden it.