By Sam Wein

The retina of the human eye has 137 million cells - 100 for seeing black and white, and 7 million more to see colors.

• Snails move at 0.000362005 mph.

• Locke, a town near Sacramento, is the only town in the world outside of China built entirely for Chinese immigrants by Chinese immigrants.

• The Grand Canyon is not the deepest canyon in the United States. Hell’s Canyon on the Idaho/Oregon border is 2,200 feet deeper.

• Mother’s Day, originated by Miss Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia, Pa., was celebrated for the first time on May 10, 1908.

• In 1760, Joseph Merlin, a Belgian musician, invented roller skates and first demonstrated them at a ball by skating across the room while playing the violin.

• In ancient Sparta, a town drunk was an elected official who was required to get intoxicated every day and reel through the streets as an object lesson for the young citizenry.

• The original “Winnie the Pooh” was a bear from White River, Canada, named after the city of Winnipeg.

• Ketchup was originally a medicine and was patented under the name ” Doctor Miles’ Compound Extract of Tomato.”

• Flutes used by Inca chieftains were made from the arms and shinbones of captured foes.

• More than 40,000 mites live in an ounce of mattress dust. That’s more than 2 million insects on an average bed.

• Wolffia, only 1/25th of an inch long, is the smallest flowering plant in nature.

• In his book “The New Atlantis,” written in 1626, Francis Bacon described people traveling in an airplane and submarines, and using telephones.

Wein is a published author and Los Altos resident.