Daytona Beach Road Course was a race track that was instrumental in the formation of NASCAR. It originally became famous as the location where fifteen world land speed records were set. Daytona Beach's wide beach and smoothly packed sands at low tide were opened to drivers for many years.

As the Olympic games draw to a close, let's look at some of the more interesting things about the city of Beijing. It is China’s second-most populous city after Shanghai, estimated at 20.4 million people. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the world. The first city erected on the spot, Jicheng, was founded in 1045 BC and was the capital of the Ji Kingdom.

The original Naval Construction Battalion 133 was commissioned at Camp Perry, Williamsburg, Virginia in 1943. They rebuilt the air station, docks and more in Hawaii and then they moved onto Iwo Jima landing with the first waves, suffering the largest casualties of any Seabee unit in history. The invasion of Iwo Jima began on February 19, 1945. Its important to remember, given time change and the international date line, the first waves started landing February 18th, 1945 around 7pm EST. They have yet to receive the Presidential Unit Citation for their bravery on Iwo Jima.

The Kelpies stand 100ft tall & weigh 300 tonnes each. The works of art have become iconic after being modelled on icons of times gone by, with names from mythological transforming beasts, that possess the strength & endurance of 100 horses.

Interesting Things with JC #184: "Blue Whale Heartbeat" - A 2019 study unveiled surprising facts about the heartbeat of the blue whale, Earth's largest animal.

Nicolaus Copernicus was a 16th century Renaissance-era world famous Polish astronomer, who proposed that the Sun is the center of the solar system and that the planets circle the Sun. Copernicus also noted that Earth turns once daily on its own axis and that very slow long-term changes in the direction of this axis account for the precession of the equinoxes.

The Library of Congress in Washington DC is essentially both the national library of the U.S. and the country's oldest federal cultural institution. Though it consists of only three buildings, it is the largest library in the world with more than 170 million items.

The Library’s African and Middle Eastern Division holds 600,000 volumes in the non-Roman script languages of the region. The oldest written material in the Library is a cuneiform tablet dating from 2040 B.C.

With 491 kilometers of coastline, Poland is one of the most unique surfing countries in the world. The nation has no access to the ocean, only skirted by the frigid Baltic Sea. In order to get waves for surfing, Polish riders have to wait for strong onshore winds to build swell, followed by a brief period of cross or offshore winds.

In Poland, the wind comes from a westerly direction roughly two-thirds of the time - spring and autumn storms provide particularly good surfing conditions.

Depending on your beats per minute, your heart beats about 100,000 to 115,000 times a day. There are 60,000 miles of blood vessels in your body. That's enough to go around the world twice! A normal heart pumps about 4 tablespoons of blood with each beat.

China officially ended its one-child policy on January 1, 2016, with the signing into law of a bill allowing all married couples to have a second child as it attempted to cope with an ageing population and shrinking workforce.

Mary Sawyer, an 11-year-old girl in Boston, was followed to school one day in 1817 by her pet lamb, and she remembered her lamb all her life. The hand-reared lamb had little affection for its fellow sheep, preferring horses and cows as companions. But above all, the sheep loved Mary. It's attachment to Mary was similar to that of a lamb to it's own mother.

On January 1, 1892, Annie Moore, a 17 year old girl from County Cork, Ireland, made headlines as the first immigrant to be processed at Ellis Island. She is honored by statues on both sides of the Atlantic at Ellis Island National Monument, New York Harbor and at the Cobh Heritage Centre, County Cork, Ireland.

After you enjoy this podcast, please visit AnnieMoore.net to learn more.

The peanut is a member of the bean or legume family and not a nut, studies suggest that people who eat peanuts or tree nuts frequently have lower rates of heart disease compared with people who don't eat them. While almonds grow on trees, they're actually not a nut either... They're a seed found inside the almond fruit!... But that's an interesting story for another time.

Please visit peanut-institute.com for more information on this amazing bean!!!

Lobsters have blue blood. Due to the presence of copper in the Hymocyanins, they give the color of the lobster blood bluish color. Invertebrates, like snails and spiders, also have blue blood due to hemocyanin. Did you know lobster blood is critical in emerging medical research?

The bowl had to contain 100 grams of pasta (uncooked weight) and at least 50 grams of sauce.

Every noodle entering the mouth had to be delivered via fork. You could use fingers to push noodles onto the fork, but could not lift or otherwise manipulate the bowl to facilitate noodle consumption.

26.69 seconds later, setting a Guinness World Record, Michelle Lesco easily surpassed the old mark of 41 seconds set four years ago by Canadian Pete Czerwinski for pasta eating.

Known as the Pearl of the Indian Ocean, 40 miles off the coast of southeast India in the Indian Ocean within the Bay of Bengal. Sri Lanka is 25,332 mi², just slightly larger than the US state of West Virginia. Scholars actually believe that Sri Lanka and India were once connected by a land bridge thousands of years ago, but it has since been washed into the ocean.

Buddhism is Sri Lanka's major religion, practiced by over 70% of the population. Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity make up the remainder. If you're looking for one of the most diverse, highest concentration of cultural spots within a small area, look no further than Sri Lanka.

The SS Richard Montgomery is an American warship from the second world war that sunk in the river Thames just outside of London. Her cargo contains 1400 tonnes of dynamite and other explosives. If the ship ever explodes, it will take the city with it. On board is an assortment of more than 9,000 US-made explosives (around 1,400 tones). These include 286 giant 2,000lb ‘blockbuster’ bombs, 4,439 1,000lb devices and more than 2,500 cluster bombs. Cluster bombs would have been transported with their fuses in place, leaving them more prone to accidental detonation.

On February 3rd, 1863 Samuel Clemens used the pen name Mark Twain for the first time in a Virginia City newspaper, the "Territorial Enterprise". Before using the pen name Mark Twain, Samuel Clemens had previously used the names “Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass”, “Sieur Louis de Conte”, “John Snook” and just “Josh”.

Groundhogs are the largest species in the squirrel family. Other names for groundhogs include woodchucks, whistle-pigs and land-beavers. On average groundhogs are 20" long with 6-7" tail, and weigh about 6-12 lbs. Their average lifespan in the Wild is 3-6 years.

Let's learn more!

The Chinese New Year, or Lunar New Year, is always celebrated on the second new moon after the Winter Solstice. In 2022 this falls on February 1st, when we will usher in the Year of the Water Tiger.

In ancient times, the Chinese legend goes, the Jade Emperor held a race among all the animals. The 12 first animals to cross the finish line would get to be honored forever as the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac.

Tigers are known as a symbol of strength and bravery, and people born in the year of the Tiger are said to have these traits as well. 2022 is going to be a good year for Tigers to get married, fall in love, or get promoted!