TT: Azolla Fern and Lipstick

It's Tidbit Thursday again, so here you go:

• The Azolla fern is the plant that floats on top if the rice patties in Japan and Korea. Underneath the leaves of this beautiful fern, the cyanobacteria called Anabaena flourishes. Because of the amazing ability of this bacteria to fix nitrogen (that means covert pure nitrogen to ammonia), the rice farmers are now able to harvest 3 crops a year! Way to go bacteria!!
• The average woman today uses 6 pounds of lipstick in a year. And you thought the no one still wore lipstick.
• Mark Knopfler, the lead guitarist of Dire Straits, is the guitarist for the music of Princess Bride. Bet you didn't see that one coming.
• One year, 1969, during the draft for the Vietnam war the "mixing pot" for the draft wasn't well mixed and therefore the majority of November and December birthdays were drafted.
• The city of Jericho is the lowest point on Earth not covered by water. Does that add some significance to the story of Jericho?
• In "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Coleridge, which can be construed as a Christ allegory, the lines about him seeing the water snakes and blessing them is reminiscent of Moses and the staff. One has only to look at the snake, believe, and be healed. Interesting.
• 1/3 of the four gospels focuses exclusively on the last week of Christ's mortal life.
• The words "fear not" appear 75x in the New Testament. What do you think they're trying to tell us?
• Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history:Spades - King David, Hearts - Charlemagne, Clubs - Alexander the Great, Diamonds - Julius Caesar.
• And speaking of Caesar... After Julius Caesar, "Caesar" became the official title of the emperor of Rome similar to the "Pharaoh" of Egypt. Caesar translates into other languages including "Kaiser" in German and "Czar" in Russian. Thanks Julius!

Have a great week! Knowledge is out there!