Just The Facts

A lone seagull roosts on a small post, the remnants of a once-lively dock, now ruined by storms. This gull, staring upon the debris, finds himself seeking a purpose - something more than simply scrounging for fish and scraps. Something that will give his life meaning.

But where shall he begin his search?

"This adventure only accepts suggestions in the form of facts, of which the following sentences are examples!"

"'Blog' is a portmanteau of the words 'web' and 'log'"

"After water and tea, beer is the third most popular drink worldwide"

"Lonesome George is the name of the last known remaining Pinta Island Tortoise"

The seagull flies east, a decision that seems as arbitrary as the wind blowing. But he does not expect to find purpose by remaining here.

He flies for hours, until evening falls. He needs a place to roost. Seeing some lights nearby, he heads for them, arriving at a small coastal village.

As he draws nearer, the seagull realizes that the lights are, in fact, spotlights. They illuminate an outdoor arena, with a wrestling ring in the center.

It seems a match is underway. Two masked wrestlers are fighting, one of them much larger than the other. The larger wrestler soon gains the upper hand, and pushes his opponent against the ropes, then lifts him up and drops him out of the ring.

"And once again, El Niño is the winner!" a voice announces. The seagull looks up, and sees a loudspeaker amidst all the lights. "Does anyone else dare to face the undefeated champion of the ring?"

The crowd cheers wildly. Three masked men, all much smaller than the champion, slowly make their way to the edge of the ring. They stare at each other, nervously, each of them hoping one of the others will go first.

One has a blue mask, one has a green mask, and one has a red mask. The seagull watches them, and then looks at El Niño's smug expression.

The seagull realizes that this is a man who enjoys nothing more than crushing the spirit, if not the body, of his opponent. He is, in short, a bully. And these three masked men are afraid to become his prey.

But, the seagull can see something else in their faces. A sense of hope. Each of these prospective wrestlers has a reason for challenging this giant of a man, something very important to them.

The seagull cannot help but wonder - if he were to help one of these men achieve his goal, would that bring the seagull closer to finding an objective of his own?

But which of the three should he help? And how?

"I See Red" was the second Split Enz song to achieve a top 20 chart position, peaking at #15 in Australia and #43 in the band's native New Zealand.

In 1856, President of the United States of America James Buchanan passed the Guano Islands Act, allowing citizens of the USA to claim possession of islands containing guano deposits.

The miracle of the gulls is often credited by Latter-day Saints ("Mormons") for saving the Mormon pioneers' first harvest in Utah. According to Mormon folklore, seagulls miraculously saved the 1848 crops by eating thousands of insects that were devouring their fields.

:When Marshall is standing on the roof, about to jump, during Ted's surprise party in the Season 4 episode The Leap, snow can be seen on the streets below even though it is April and everybody is wearing short sleeves and summer clothing.

: I not only starred in, but also co-wrote and helped produce the Muppets movie!

The seagull has made his decision. He flies down and perches on the shoulder of the wrestler in the red mask, then squawks in as encouraging a manner as he can.

There is a pause among the three men as they stare at the gull. Finally, the man in the green mask speaks.

"It is a sign from the heavens, brother," he says quietly. "You are the one who will defeat El Niño."

"Agreed, brother," the blue-masked man adds. "Ever since the seagulls saved our great-grandfather's farm from locusts one hundred years ago, they have been our family's symbol. There can be no clearer sign that you are our family's champion."

The red-masked man sighs.

"Very well, brothers. I will step forward. I will face him. For our family's honor."

He holds out his finger, and the seagull perches on it to stare him in the face.

"And for the seagull."

The man in the red mask steps forward into the ring, and the seagull flies high into the air to watch. El Niño looks at his opponent and sneers.

"You think yourself a match for El Niño?" he says with a disdainful laugh. "You are pathetic! A weakling!"

"I will defeat you, El Niño!" the man in the red mask shouts. "Unlike you, I fight for honor, not glory! I swear that tonight I will defeat you! For my brothers! For my family!"

He raises his eyes to the sky.

"For the seagulls!"

El Niño laughs.

"Seagulls? How fitting, that a puny man like you should fight for such a puny creature. I have had enough of your pathetic words! El Niño will see how you fight!"

"So you shall, El Niño. So you shall."

The seagull watches as the match begins. He sees that El Niño has great strength, but the wrestler in the red mask has an incredible spirit.

He watches as the two wrestlers rush towards each other. Though he knows little of the sport, he cannot help but wonder just how the smaller wrestler will fight.

The total number of human beings born between the years of 50,000 BCE and 8,000 BCE is estimated at around 1,137,789,769; less then the current populations of both China and India.

The concept of zero as a number and not merely a symbol for separation is attributed to India, where, by the 9th century AD, practical calculations were carried out using zero, which was treated like any other number, even in case of division.

: While one of the more fragile bones in the body, the hyoid bone is typically not susceptible to fracture due to its position in the throat. A fractured hyoid is often indicative of throttling or strangulation.


: Statistically, a sternal fracture occurs in approximately five to eight percent of people who undergo significant blunt force chest trauma.

In developing countries where agriculture forms a large part of the economy, extreme weather caused by El Niño tends to be detrimental to citizen livelihoods.

Due to a complicated relationship between the ocean and the atmosphere, the increased temperatures caused by El Niño eventually lead to a drop in temperatures some 3-5 years later. This phenomenon is known as La Niña.

The surface area of an average-sized brick is 79 cm squared.

The seagull soon gets his answer, as El Niño and his opponent close in on each other. El Niño's hands go straight for the red-masked wrestler's throat...

And then he ducks. El Niño's strike misses entirely, and the smaller man slips away.

"You challenge El Niño to a fight, yet you run like a coward?" El Niño growls. "How pathetic!"

The red-masked wrestler says nothing. But there is a smile on his lips.

El Niño charges at him again, but the man quickly leaps to the side, and El Niño falls flat on the ground. The large wrestler quickly picks himself up, visibly annoyed.

"You cannot hide forever, you pathetic little flea," he snarls. "El Niño will crush you!"

The fight continues in this vein for some time - the smaller wrestler never makes a single attack, but none of El Niño's strikes can hit him. The crowd is now standing up, and booing El Niño every time he misses.

But the seagull, with his keen eyes, can see El Niño sweating heavily. And he realizes that this is the smaller wrestler's plan - he does not neat to outfight El Niño, but rather, he need simply outlast him.

The seagull is not the only one to realize this plan, however. In the stands, one man near the front row reaches into his coat and pulls out a brick. He holds it up, watching the ring closely, waiting for the right moment to strike.

That moment soon comes as El Niño falls to the ground again. The man sees that the red-masked wrestler is facing away from him. He smirks, and flings his brick towards the back of the challenger's head. The great El Niño shall never be defeated.

Unknown to the brick-hurler, however, the seagull overhead saw his throw. The bird moves quickly to save the wrestler.

The average airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow is roughly 11 meters per second.

: Avian bones are siginfcantly more brittle than mammilan bones and thus more prone to fracture.

: Ruben Studdard served as spokesperson for the grassroots health-education program "Be Sickle Smart", an advocacy group aimed at increasing awareness in iron overdose in people with sickle cell disease.

Mass-produced concrete bricks undergo vibration after pouring, to disperse air bubbles in the foam. If this step is omitted, it results in lighter but more structurally fragile bricks.

Brick is a 2005 American neo-noir film written and directed by Rian Johnson. The film's narrative centers on a hardboiled detective story that takes place in a Californian suburb.