Interesting Facts about Tornado

Interesting Facts about Tornado

What is a Tornado?

A Tornado is a column of air violently rotating  across the earth's surface.  The column of air most frequently attached to a cloud or thunderstorm overhead, which then extends down to the ground.  Tornadoes can form into any shape, but generally form the shape of a tunnel, narrow near the bottom and larger at the top.

What causes a Tornado?

The most common cause of a tornado is from a thunderstorm.  Tornadoes form when warm, moist air or air from a  thunderstorm meets cooler, dry air creating an unstable atmosphere. After creating an unstable atmosphere, changes in wind direction and wind speed creates a spinning effect near the earth's surface, eventually forming a tunnel of wind that rapidly grows and violently rotates along the earth's surface, destroying homes and uprooting trees that are in it's path.

Where are they  most likely  to  occur?

Tornadoes are likely to occur anywhere in the world, but most tornadoes occur in "Tornado Alley," which stretches from Texas to Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas and into the Dakotas.  The reasoning for "Tornado Alley," is because warm, moist air from the gulf of Mexico mixes with the cooler, dry air from the north creating dangerous tornadoes.  Tornadoes can occur during any time of the year, but typically happen during the spring.

What to do in case of a Tornado-

If you find yourself in danger of a tornado, it's important that you take shelter to protect yourself.   The safest place to be in the case of a tornado is in the basement of your house or the building that you are in.
Do not go near the walls that face in the southern or western directions, this is generally the direction tornadoes move in.  You should seek shelter under a stair case, inside a closet or under a heavy table.  You should also use a heavy blanket or trash can for protection against debris.
You may also seek shelter in the bathtub, in many homes that have been destroyed by tornadoes, the bathtub plumbing is the only thing left standing.  This is because the plumbing is anchored into the ground.  If you driving near a tornado, you should leave your car and find shelter inside, you should not keep driving, you may not know what you may encounter on the road. It's also important to realize that a car cannot outrun a tornado.

15 Facts About Tornadoes

1. In order for a vortex to be classified as a tornado, the violently rotating column of air must be in contact with both the cloud above and the ground below.

2. Though tornadoes do occur on other continents, North America’s geography makes it more vulnerable to them. Bradley Smull, an atmospheric scientist at the National Science Foundation, explained yesterday in a Washington Post online chat: “In particular, the proximity of a major north-south mountain range…and the Gulf of Mexico…all in a latitude range frequented by strong upper-level jetstreams amounts to something of a “perfect storm” for severe (supercell-type) thunderstorm formation.”

3. Tornadoes are rated on the Enhanced F (EF) Scale (the old scale was called the Fujita (F) Scale), which assigns a number (0 to 5) based on estimates of 3-second wind gusts and damage. There have been more than 50 F5/EF5 tornadoes recorded in the United States since 1950.

4. Rain, wind, lightning and/or hail may accompany a tornado, but none of them is a reliable predictor of an oncoming tornado.

5. A tornado can last from a few seconds to more than an hour. On average, they persist for about 10 minutes.

6. It is a myth that a tornado cannot pass over features like valleys, mountains, lakes and rivers. When it passes over a lake or river, a tornado becomes a waterspout.

7. Tornado alley is the region in the middle of the United States where tornadoes are most frequent. However, every U.S. state and every continent (except Antarctica) has experienced a tornado.

8. A tornado watch means that conditions are ripe for a tornado; a warning means that a storm has been spotted on the ground or via radar (and you should take cover immediately).

9. Since the first tornado forecast was made in 1948, tornado warning lead times have been increasing and now average 13 minutes. However, they have a 70 percent false alarm rate, which may lead some people to take them less seriously than they should.

10. Mobile homes aren’t more likely to get hit by a tornado than any other type of building, but their flimsy structure provides little protection against strong winds and flying debris.

11. It’s also a bad idea to take shelter in a car—which can be easily tossed about—or under a bridge, where a person would be vulnerable to flying debris or a bridge collapse.

12. The single deadliest tornado killed 695 people in Missouri, Illinois and Indiana on March 18, 1925. The series of tornadoes that struck Tuscaloosa, Alabama and other Southern states in April 2011 set a new record. According to NOAA, there were 312 recorded tornadoes that touched down from 8 a.m. on April 27 through 8 a.m. on April 28. The death toll these storms was over 250 people, and did not break the 1925 record mentioned above.

13. A tornado that struck Washington, D.C. on August 25, 1814, is credited with driving the British invaders out of the city and preventing them from carrying out further destruction. They had burned the White House and much of the city the day before.

14. The city of Greensburg, Kansas was flattened by a tornado in 2007, but instead of abandoning the town, the people are rebuilding with an emphasis on green technology.

15. In 2009 and 2010, more than 100 scientists participated in VORTEX2 (funded by the National Science Foundation and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), which set out to track tornadoes as they formed and moved across the landscape. The V2 researchers are trying to answer many basic questions about tornadoes, such as how, when and why they form, how strong the winds get near the ground, how they do damage, and how predictions can be improved. During the two years, they collected data from dozens of storms and tornadoes. In order for a vortex to be classified as a tornado, the violently rotating column of air must be in contact with both the cloud above and the ground below.

The Forbidden City

Interesting Facts About The Forbidden City

The Forbidden City occupies 720,000 square meters (7,747,200 square feet / 180 acres). The Topkapi Palace in Istanbul measures 700,000 square meters; the Vatican measures 440,000 square meters; and the Kremlin measures 275,000 square meters.

There are 9,999 rooms in this series of exquisite palaces inside the City. Nine is a lucky number for the Chinese. (Some books quote 8886 rooms — but this does not include antechambers.)

The walls are 32 feet high (10 meters). The surrounding drainage moat is 165 feet wide (50 meters). The main part of the city was constructed over 14 years (1407-1420) using 200,000 laborers. Building materials were shipped over thousands of miles from all parts of China using the network of canals constructed in the 6th and 7th centuries.

All of the buildings are made from painted wood. To deal with the fire risk, giant bronze cauldrons filled with water were placed at intervals throughout the Palace.

At the end of the 18th century approximately 9000 people lived within the Forbidden City, composed of guards, servants, eunuchs, concubines, civil servants and the Royal Family.

The inner sanctum rooms were forbidden to women except to the Empress on her wedding day.

The tradition of castrating male servants dates back over two thousand years. The Qing Dynasty started with 9000 eunuchs, reducing to about 1500 in 1908. Their testicles were mummified and stored in jars, to be buried with them after their death. Many eunuchs were harshly treated, or executed at whim. Corruption, power struggles and personal vendettas flourished.

Emperors were entitled to several wives and many concubines. (Qianlong had two official wives and 29 concubines). Concubines were well-educated women selected from the best Manchu families. Nightly, the Emperor would decide which concubine would visit him that evening. She would then be stripped, bathed and depilated before being carried to his chamber. The wife or a concubine that was chosen by the emporer was brought into his room naked all the way from her room. This was not done to make her horney bu8t to make sure that she is not carrying a weapon. The number of times a concubine was chosen secured her social standing.

Depending upon status, each rank would dine from "color-coded" plates, cups and bowls. Only the Emperor and Empress were entitled to use real gold or "radiant yellow" porcelain. Over 3000 pieces of gold and silver plate were held in Qing kitchens during the 18th century.

The Emperor's choice of successor was usually kept secret until after his death, when it was verified by bringing together a document held by the emperor with a document previously concealed in a sealed box.

Ministers and officials had to prostrate themselves on the floor before reporting to the Emperor.

No one was allowed to see the emporer's face in the whole dynesty except from a very few people. The panelty for seeing the emporer's face was none other than death.

The Supreme Harmony Hall of the Forbidden City was attacked by fire and struck by lightening many times.

Manchu women did not bind their feet, but wore shoes mounted on six- to eight-inch platforms, giving them the tottering gait considered seductive.

There were alot of shemales in the Forbidden City who worked there. At one time there were 70,000 shemales in the forbidden city. They were not shemales naturally but males used to get themselves operated to live in the Forbidden City. Sometimes parents also turned their boy into a shemale by getting him operated without his consent. Though with the passage of time number of shemales kept on reducing and the last emporer had just 1500 of them in the Forbidden City.

Instead of jousting with lances, Chinese courtiers took part in the competitive sport of poetry composition.

Portraits have a special significance in China because of the widespread practice of ancestor worship.

"The Last Emperor", familiarly known as Puyi, succeeded to the throne when he was not even three years old. He was forced to abdicate in February 1912, but was held in the Forbidden City until 1924. During those years he had a British tutor, Reginald Johnston, who gave him his first bicycle.

Puyi once said that he was weeping when he first sat on that huge throne. People in his palace whispered that weeping is a bad omen and it proved to be a bad omen as he was forced to abdicate three years later. This ended the 2000 years old rule.

Puyi was imprisoned for a total of 15 years, first in Russia and then in China.

The forbidden city might have still been forbidden for the general public if the last emporer Puyi would not have planned to go back to the forbidden city. It was converted into The Palace Museum by the government to stop him from going back to the forbidden city.

The Palace Museum holds close to 50,000 items of paintings. Of these, more than 400 date from before the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). This is the largest such collection in China and includes some of the rarest and most valuable paintings in Chinese history.

The Palace Museum has one of the largest collections of mechanical timepieces of the 18th and 19th centuries in the world, with more than 1000 pieces.

The Palace Museum's bronze collection dates from the early Shang Dynasty (founded c. 1766 BC). Of the almost 10,000 pieces held, about 1600 are inscribed items from the pre-Qin period (to 221 BC). A significant part of the collection is ceremonial bronzeware from the imperial court, including complete sets of musical instruments used by the imperial orchestras.

The articrafts of the Palace Museum were moved away from the museum because of the Japanese invasion on China in 1933. Later they were restored to the Palace Museum and surprisingly it is claimed that none of the articrafts were lost or destroyed, though some of them are now in taiwan but not destroyed.(Some historians disagree with this and they are of the view that some articrafts were lost.)

The Palace Museum holds 340,000 pieces of ceramics and porcelain. These include imperial collections from the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty, as well as pieces commissioned by the Palace, and, sometimes, by the Emperor personally. This collection is notable because it derives from the imperial collection, and thus represents the best of porcelain production in China. The Palace Museum holds about 320,000 pieces of porcelain from the imperial collection. The rest are almost all held in the National Palace Museum in Taipei and the Nanjing Museum.

The Palace Museum has one of the largest collections of mechanical timepieces of the 18th and 19th centuries in the world, with more than 1000 pieces. The collection contains both Chinese- and foreign-made pieces.

The first mechanical clock was brought to the Forbidden City by a priest in 1601.

The biggest time piece in the Palace Museum is more than 2 meters long.

Interesting Facts about Tsunami

Interesting Facts about Tsunami

• On July 12, 1993 a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in the Sea of Japan produced tsunami that totally destroyed the southern half of Okushiri Island. Waves were greater than 30 feet and some could have been 100 feet. The earthquake was about 50 miles offshore and the tsunami arrived within minutes. 120 people died.
• The states most at risk for Tsunami are California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington. Hawaii is at greatest risk and they have about 1 tsunami a year and a dangerous tsunami about every 7 years.
• On March 28, 1964 an extremely large earthquake (magnitude 8.4) struck Alaska. It caused tsunami waves that were very destructive in southeastern Alaska, in Vancouver Island, Canada, and in the States of Washington, California and Hawaii. Waves ranged in size from 6 to 21 feet. The tsunami killed more than 120 people and damages costing more than $106 million. It was the costliest tsunami ever to strike the Western United States and Canada.
• Although a large asteroid impact is highly unlikely, scientists studying the possibility have decided that a moderately large asteroid or about 5-6 km in diameter falling in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, would generate a tsunami that would travel all the way to the Appalachian Mountains in the upper two-thirds of the United States. Coastal cities would be wiped out by such a tsunami.
• Nuclear explosions could possible create tsunami but none have ever been generated from testing yet. Furthermore, such testing is currently banned by international treaty.

 What causes a tsunami?

When an undersea earthquake or other major disturbance causes a section of the ocean floor to suddenly rise or sink, the mass of water above the affected area also rises or sinks. This unexpected movement of the water creates a series of powerful waves.
Undersea earthquakes that cause massive changes to the ocean floor and the displacement of a large volume of water are the most common cause of a tsunami.
Tsunami can also be caused by other undersea events such as volcanoes or landslides
A tsunami can also be caused from events above the ocean floor. These events could include a meteorite crashing into the ocean, major landslides near a coastline or material from an erupting volcano forming a landslide. The impacts of tsunami triggered this way tend to be localised.
More than 75 per cent of tsunami are caused by undersea earthquakes.

Where do tsunami occur?

Most tsunami occur in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The boundary of the Pacific Ocean experiences frequent earthquakes. This boundary is commonly known as the Ring of Fire. There are two major subduction zones in the Indian Ocean that can also generate tsunami.
Subduction zone earthquakes are the most common source of destructive tsunami. These earthquakes are generated when two tectonic plates meet and one goes under the other, usually at a rate measured in centimetres. The sinking (subducting) plate drags against the upper plate, causing flexing. Continued stress on the plate boundary results in the upper plate rebounding to its original position, displacing the sea water above.
The Questacon Tsunami show includes a demonstration of this process (between the 8 and 16 minute mark).

Sumatra earthquake and tsunami, 26 December 2004

In the case of the December 2004 earthquake off Indonesia, the tsunami was generated 10 minutes after the event when the displaced sea surface spread outward from the epicentre as a tsunami. In this illustration, the red arrows indicate the direction in which the upper plate is deformed due to drag and release of the lower plate. (Copyright Geoscience Australia)

A Tsunami can really move!

In the deep water of the ocean, the waves that are created have a large wavelength but are not usually bigger than one metre tall. A tsunami wave may be hundreds of kilometres in length and it moves at a high speed across great distances without losing much of its energy.
Tsunami waves move out from where a large body of water has been disturbed, similar to the way ripples move away from the place where a rock has been dropped into a pond.
In the open ocean, a tsunami can travel as fast as 950 kilometres per hour, which can be represented by the speed of a passenger jet. It loses speed as it approaches land, but it does not lose much of its energy. As it slows down, the height of the waves build.

How big is a tsunami?

In the open ocean it can be difficult to notice a tsunami wave. However, as a tsunami wave approaches land and moves into more shallow water, the leading edge of the wave slows down but the back of the wave is still travelling at its original speed. This causes the water to bunch up and increase the wave height. This is known as ‘shoaling’. When it reaches land, it may behave like a series of breaking waves or a large, powerful wave.
The tremendous energy of the wave can cause great quantities of water to surge inland, far beyond where even the highest of tides would commonly reach.
Some of the largest tsunami waves have been generated by the volcanic eruption of Krakatoa in 1883. This tsunami reached a height of 37 m. In 1737, a tsunami was estimated to be 64 m high as it struck Cape Lopatka in northeast Russia.

Tsunami waves are different from normal waves

Tsunami are different from normal waves. Normal waves are generated by the wind and it is only the water near the surface that is moving. In a tsunami all the water from surface to sea bed is moving and the movement has been generated by something (usually an earthquake) that has displaced water. In the open ocean, tsunami create little movement and little threat to shipping.
When a tsunami wave reaches the shore, its wavelength might be more than 100 km.  Tsunami can last for several hours or even days depending on location. This is much different to the waves that we are used to seeing at the beach. Typical ocean waves usually last for less than a minute and have a wavelength of 100 m.
The energy behind a tsunami can strip sand off beaches, undermine trees, and crush buildings.
People and boats are powerless against the force of a tsunami. The amount of water carried inland is capable of inundating vast areas of normally dry land.

Case studies

Chile tsunami 27 Feb 2010

This tsunami followed an earthquake measuring 8.8 on the Richter Scale. The epicentre of the earthquake was 115 km NNE of Concepcion. The epicentre of this quake was 230 km north of the largest earthquake ever recorded (9.5 in 1960). This quake was the result of movement between the Nazca Plate on the eastern side of the Pacific Ocean and the South American Plate. The first waves hit about 34 minutes after the earthquake. Properties and businesses were damaged and over 200 lives were lost.

Samoa tsunami 29 September 2009

At 6.49am an earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter Scale triggered this tsunami. The earthquake epicentre was located on the Pacific tectonic plate near its boundary with the Australian Plate approximately 200 km south of Samoa. Dozens of magnitude 4 and 5 aftershocks followed the initial earthquake, continuing through the next day. This area, near the Tonga Trench, is one of the most active earthquake regions in the world. The tsunami struck the islands of Savi’i, Upola, and Tutuila minutes later with waves that were approximately 3 m high. Smaller tsunami hit other Pacific islands farther away from the earthquake’s epicentre. The tsunami caused a great amount of damage to property and the natural environment and caused the death of over 100 people.

Solomon Islands tsunami 2 April 2007

On 2 April 2007 an earthquake measuring 8.1 on the Richter Scale had its epicentre 350 km NW of Honiara. The earthquake occurred in shallow water in the early morning and was quickly followed by a tsunami. The waves were up to 10 m high. Over 50 deaths were reported and thousands were left homeless. A tsunami warning was issued for Australia and Alaska 15 minutes after the earthquake.

Indian Ocean tsunami, 26 December 2004

This event was one of the most devastating caused by a natural hazard in recent years. The earthquake that triggered the tsunami occurred west of the Indonesian island of Sumatra and measured 9.0 on the Richter Scale, making it the largest earthquake worldwide in 40 years. The death toll in March 2005 was over 273 000 people, with many still missing.

Papua New Guinea tsunami 17 July 1998

An earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter Scale just off the northern coast generated a destructive tsunami. Waves up to 10 m high hit the villages in the Aitape region extremely quickly. More than 2000 people were killed and there was great damage to buildings and farmland.

Interesting Facts About Earth

Interesting Facts About Earth

You've lived on Planet Earth all your life, but how much do you really know about the ground underneath your feet? You probably have lots of interesting facts about Earth rattling around your brain already, but here are 10 more interesting Earth facts that you may, or may not know.

Plate tectonics keep the planet comfortable
Earth is the only planet in the Solar System with plate tectonics. The outer crust of the Earth is broken up into regions known as tectonic plates. These are floating on top of the magma interior of the Earth and can move against one another. When two plates collide, one plate can go underneath another.

This process is very important. When microscopic plants in the ocean die, they fall to the bottom of the ocean. Over long periods of time, the remnants of this life, rich in carbon, are carried back into the interior of the Earth and recycled. This pulls carbon out of the atmosphere, which makes sure we don't get a runaway greenhouse effect, like what happened on Venus.


Without the plate tectonics, there'd be no way to recycle this carbon, and the Earth would overheat.

Earth is almost a sphere

The Earth's shape could be described as an oblate spheroid. It's kind of like a sphere, but the Earth's rotation causes the equator to bulge out . What this means is that the measurement from pole to pole is about 43 km less than the diameter of Earth across the equator.

Even though the tallest mountain on Earth is Mount Everest, the feature that's furthest from the center of the Earth is actually Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador.

Earth is mostly iron, oxygen and silicon

If you could separate the Earth out into piles of material, you'd get 32.1 % iron, 30.1% oxygen, 15.1% silicon, and 13.9% magnesium. Of course, most of this iron is actually down at the core of the Earth. If you could actually get down and sample the core, it would be 88% iron. 47% of the Earth's crust consists of oxygen.

70% of the Earth's surface is covered in water

When astronauts first went into the space, they looked back at the Earth with human eyes for the first time, and called our home the Blue Planet. And it's no surprise. 70% of our planet is covered with oceans. The remaining 30% is the solid ground, rising above sea level.

The Earth's atmosphere extends out to 10,000 km

The atmosphere is thickest within the first 50 km or so, but it actually reaches out to about 10,000 km above the surface of the planet. This outermost layer of the atmosphere is called the exosphere, and starts about 500 km above the surface of the Earth. As we said, it goes all the way up to 10,000 km above the surface. At this point, free-moving particles can actually escape the pull of Earth's gravity, and be blown away by the Sun's solar wind.

But this high atmosphere is extremely thin. The bulk of the Earth's atmosphere is down near the Earth itself. In fact, 75% of the Earth's atmosphere is contained within the first 11 km above the planet's surface.

The Earth's molten iron core creates a magnetic field

The Earth is like a great big magnet, with poles at the top and bottom of the planet, near to the actual geographic poles. This magnetic field extends from the surface of the Earth out thousands of kilometers - a region called the magnetosphere.

Be grateful for the magnetosphere. Without it particles from the Sun's solar wind would hit the Earth directly, exposing the surface of the planet to significant amounts of radiation. Instead, the magnetosphere channels the solar wind around the Earth, protecting us from harm.

Scientists think that the magnetic field is generated by the molten outer core of the Earth, where heat creates convection motions of conducting materials. This generates electric currents that create the magnetic field.

Earth doesn't take 24 hours to rotate on its axis

It's actually 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds. This is the amount of time it takes for the Earth to completely rotate around its axis; astronomers call this a sidereal day. Now wait a second, that means a day is 4 minutes shorter than we think it is. You'd think that time would add up, day by day, and within a few months, day would be night, and night would be day.

Remember that the Earth orbits around the Sun. Every day, the Sun moves compared to the background stars by about 1A^° - about the size of the Moon in the sky. And so, if you add up that little motion from the Sun that we see because the Earth is orbiting around it, as well as the rotation on its axis, you get a total of 24 hours. Now that sounds like the day we know.

A year on Earth isn't 365 days

It's actually 365.2564 days. It's this extra .2564 days that creates the need for leap years. That's why we tack on an extra day in February every year divisible by 4 - 2004, 2008, etc - unless it's divisible by 100 (1900, 2100, etc)… unless it's divisible by 400 (1600, 2000, etc).

Earth has 1 moon and 2 co-orbital satellites

As you're probably aware, Earth has 1 moon (The Moon). But did you know there are 2 additional asteroids locked into a co-orbital orbits with Earth? They're called 3753 Cruithne and 2002 AA29. We won't go into too much detail about the Moon, I'm sure you've heard all about it.

3753 Cruithne is 5 km across, and sometimes called Earth's second moon. It doesn't actually orbit the Earth, but has a synchronized orbit with our home planet. It has an orbit that makes it look like it's following the Earth in orbit, but it's actually following its own, distinct path around the Sun.

2002 AA29 is only 60 meters across, and makes a horseshoe orbit around the Earth that brings it close to the planet every 95 years. In about 600 years, it will appear to circle Earth in a quasi-satellite orbit. Scientists have suggested that it might make a good target for a space exploration mission.

Earth is the only planet known to have life

We've discovered past evidence of water on Mars, and the building blocks of life on Saturn's moon Titan. We can see amino acids in nebulae in deep space. But Earth is the only place life has actually been discovered.

But if there's life on other planets, scientists are building the experiments that will help find it. A new rover called the Mars Science Laboratory will be heading to Mars in the next few years, equipped with experiments that can detect life in the soil on the Red Planet. Giant radio dishes scan distant stars, listening for the characteristic signals of intelligent life reaching out across interstellar space. And new space telescopes, such as the European Space Agency's Darwin mission might be powerful enough to sense the presence of life on other worlds.

But for now, Earth is the only place we know where there's life. Now that is an interesting fact.

50 interesting facts

50 interesting facts

1 - Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

2 - Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

3 - There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

4 - The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.

5 - A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

6 - There are more chickens than people in the world.

7 - The longest one-syllable word in the English language is "screeched."

8 - On a Canadian two-dollar bill, the flag flying over then Parliament building is an American flag.

9 - All of the clocks in the movie "Pulp Fiction" are stuck on 4:20.

10 - No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple.

11 - "Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".

12 - Almonds are a member of the peach family.

13 - There are only 4 words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.

14 - A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

15 - An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

16 - Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

17 - In most advertisements, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10.

18 - Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.

19 - The characters Bert & Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life."

20 - A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.

21 - A goldfish has a memory span of 3 seconds.

22 - It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

23 - The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.

24 - In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.

25 - The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

26 - The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.

27 - There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball.

28 - The average human eats 8 spiders in their lifetime at night.

29 - A cockroach can live nine days without its head before it starves to death.

30 - A polar bear's skin is black. Its fur is not white, but actually clear.

31 - Elvis had a twin brother named Aaron, who died at birth, which is why Elvis' middle name was spelled Aron: in honor of his brother. It is also misspelled on his tomb stone.

32 - Donald Duck comics were banned in Finland because he doesn't wear pants.

33 - More people are killed by donkeys annually than are killed in plane crashes.
34 - Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand.

35 - Shakespeare invented the words "assassination" and "bump."

36 - Marilyn Monroe had 6 toes on one foot.

37 - If you keep a goldfish in the dark room, it will eventually turn white.

38 - Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

39 - Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people do.

40 - The sentence "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter in the English language.

41 - The names of the continents all end with the same letter with which they start.

42 - TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters on only one row of the keyboard.

43 - The word racecar and kayak are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left.

44 - A snail can sleep for 3 years.

45 - American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class.

46 - The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

47 - Vatican City is the smallest country in the world with a population of 1,000 and a size of 108.7 acres.

48 - "I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.

49 - No president of the United states was an only child.
And last and definitely most important:

50 - The average chocolate bar has 8 insects' legs in it.

pyramids on the Antarctic?

News:
pyramids on the Antarctic? 
Three ancient pyramids have been discovered in the Antarctic by a team of American and European scientists.
if the researchers prove the pyramids are man-made structures, the discovery may bring about the biggest revision of human history ever made.

An Indonesian photographer's pictures of a frog

An Indonesian photographer's pictures of a frog who remembered to bring an umbrella have gone viral as viewers marvel at the little fellow's resourcefulness. 

Ethiopian Welo Opal

Ethiopian Welo Opal New gem found looks like the ocean in rock 

The world's longest lasting light bulb

The world's longest lasting light bulb is at least 110 years old and is still glowing.

The Centennial Light is the world's longest-lasting light bulb. It is at 4550 East Avenue, Livermore, California, and maintained by the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department

As of April 2010, Bill Gates had donated $36,854,000,000 in his lifetime!

As of April 2010, Bill Gates had donated $36,854,000,000 in his lifetime! That's more than half of his total net worth! 

If you had as much money as Bill Gates - be honest with yourself. Would you donate over 36 BILLION dollars, or would you buy yourself at least 25 different types of Lamborghinis?

Well, if you're Bill Gates - you can probably do both of those things as his total net worth is somewhere between $53 BILLION and $58 BILLION. That's more money than you will ever see in your entire life.

Now, we should specify that 'net worth' isn't actually how much money he has in his bank account, but it's more how much him and all of his assets such as shares in companies are worth. Think of it as if he were to sell everything he owns, how much money would he have in his bank account?

A large portion of his charitable donations are for universities and colleges to give as bursaries to students that excel above and beyond, but for an entire breakdown of what he has donated to

illustrating blood vessels in human heart . .

illustrating blood vessels in human heart . .

Picture illustrating blood vessels in human heart . .