With the high heat and humidity of the last few days, everyone is either thinking about jumping in the water, or having some cool water to drink.
When you are thirsty, it's because you've lost more than 1 percent of the water in your body. There's lots of interesting facts about water that you may find interesting.
"¢ We all know that our bodies are about 70 percent water, but when a baby is born, its body is 80 percent water.
"¢We have heard over and over that we should drink eight cups of water per day, but a person can also drink too much water and get very sick. It causes an imbalance of water in the brain.
"¢ When you exercise really hard, the weight you lose is mostly from water.
"¢ Water in its pure form has a neutral pH of 7.
"¢ Did you know water can dissolve more things than any other liquid?
"¢ Nearly 75 percent of the surface of the Earth is covered with water, but there is more water underground than there is on the surface.
"¢ No new water is ever created, we just keep reusing the same water that was around millions of years ago.
"¢ In the U.S., 346,000 million gallons of water are used every day, and the average person uses between 80 and100 gallons per day.
If you had to guess what consumes the most water, what would you say? It's toilet flushing. Worldwide, only 62 percent of humans have access to good sanitation, and more people own cellphones than have access to toilets.
"¢ Nearly 85 percent of U.S. residents get their water from public water utilities. But even more interesting is that most of our water (80 percent) is used for irrigation and thermoelectric power.
"¢ The Earth contains about 326 million cubic miles of water, a statistic I can't even visualize. But even with so much water, we can only use the fresh water for living. Fresh water only accounts for 3 percent of all the water on earth, and 75 percent of that is frozen in the polar ice caps.
"¢Worldwide, waterborne diseases cause more than 1 million deaths every year, and half of hospitalizations are caused by these diseases.
We are very lucky to have good potable water in our area. To learn more about water, go to your favorite browser and search for "water facts." There's so much to know about water, it will make you thirsty.
New Books
"50 Beautiful Deer-Resistant Plants" by Ruth Clausen contains information on annuals, bulbs, perennials and shrubs that deer don't eat. Information on planting and full-color photos are included. The author also has also listed many companion plants and design tips to make your landscaped areas look their best.
Lucy Scarpelli is designing her summer wardrobe when she meets socialite Rowena Langdon. Rowena is delighted with the designs and invites Lucy to the family mansion in Newport, R.I. Set in 1895, "An Unlikely Suitor" by Nancy Moser finds Lucy, Rowena and Lucy's sister Sofia all falling in love with unlikely prospects. The three become caught up in a web of secrets and the reader wonders if any of them will find happiness in this historical romance novel.
Bill Moore has a great job and has set himself goals to achieve even greater success in the novel "Killer Move" by Michael Marshall. He arrives at work one morning to find a card waiting for him which contains just one word, "MODIFIED." Things in his life begin to deteriorate rapidly after that and he has no idea why. Can he fight back and regain control of his life?
Library Hours: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Friday; 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday; closed Sunday.
Marie Bruni is director of Huntington Memorial Library in Oneonta. Her column appears in the community section of the Daily Star every Thursday. Her columns can be found online at www.thedailystar.com/librarycorner.
