Page 55 - Best of the Month

Bats represent 20% of all mammals!

Bats get a bad reputation. Due to their nocturnal nature and their association with vampires, some people may be afraid of them. And since they can fly, thye may be mistaken for birds. Bats are actually fairly harmless mammals though. They actually make up 20% of all mammal species worldwide. There are about 1,240 species.

These are divided into two suborders: The largely fruit-eating megabats and the echolocating microbats. As noted before, bats are fairly harmless. Seventy percent of them are insectivores Most of the rest are fruit-eaters, and a few feed on animals, such as the fish-eating bat. And vampire bats do in fact drink the blood of animals.

These 1,240 species are scattered throughout the world. They perform vital ecological functions such as pollinating flowers and dispersing seeds. They are also important in eating insects and reducing the need of pesticides. So all in all, bats are helpful creatures.

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There's a ladder on the side of a Jerusalem temple that has remained there since the 18th century!

It's known as the immovable ladder because it is understood that no cleric of the six ecumenical Christian order may move, rearrange or alter it without the consent of all six orders. The ladder is made of cedar wood and it was first mentioned in 1757; it has remained on the side of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher since at least then.

The ladder has some symbolism. Pope Paul VI ordered in 1964 that the ladder will remain in place until the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church reach a state of ecumenism, That is, when both churches reunite as one.

Despite the moniker, though, the ladder has been moved a couple of times. Once in 1997, it went missing for weeks and it was thought that it was moved on a prank. In 2009 it was moved to the side against another window for a short period of time.

Read more about it at the source.

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An Argentinian town was completely lost to a lake and it came back in 2009!

In the 1920s, a tourist town called Villa Epecuen was established along the shore of a lake by the same name. It's located about 600km southwest of the Argentinian capital of Buenos Aires.

The Lake is remarkable for it's high salt content. In fact it has 10 times higher salt content than any ocean. The therapeutic powers of this water have been known for centuries and are said to cure many diseases.

On November 1985, higher than usual rainfall broke the rock and earth dam that protected the town and inundated it with up to 4 feet of water. Bu 1993, the whole town was submerged in 10 meters of water.

Nearly 25 years later, in 2009, the wet weather reversed and the waters receded. The village began to surface. However, only 1 person has moved back. 81-year-old Pablo Novak says he is OK there by himself and that he remembers the golden days of the town back in the 60s.

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Learn why you can't have breakfast at McDonald's all day

It’s noon and you just want an Egg McMuffin. Too bad. McDonalds stopped serving them at 11:00 AM. You may have wondered why fast food restaurants don’t serve breakfast all day. Who doesn’t love breakfast for dinner or for lunch for that matter?

It turns out there is a legitimate reason these chains deprive us of egg sandwich dinners. The grill temperature required to cook beef patties, which of course are the base of McDonald’s famous burgers, is quite different than the grill temperature required to cook an egg. In order to increase the efficiency of this “fast” food establishment, they can’t be splitting grills.

In some cities, such as Hong Kong, McMuffin sandwiches are actually served all day. This is because of the prominence of the egg in other meals besides breakfast in these countries. So next time you’re craving an Egg McMuffin in the evening, consider a trip to China.

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Every U.S. Treasurer since 1949 has been a woman!

The Treasurer of the United States was initially trusted with managing and keeping track of the government's funds. This task however, has been split among many organizations and the Treasurer oversees the actions of those organizations.

Harry S. Truman, in 1949, appointed the first female Treasurer, Georgia Neese Clark. Since Truman, every United States Treasurer has been a woman! Another growing trend involving the United States Treasurer is that the past SIX treasurers have all been hispanic!

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