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Astronauts can grow an inch or so during their time in space.. --NEXT—- Video games began to make their first appearance as early as the 1960s with an electronic version of table tennis. --NEXT—- Kite Flying was banned in Japan in 1760 as too many people preferred to fly kites than work! During the American Civil War , they used kites to deliver letters and newspapers. Large kites were banned in East Germany because of the possibility of man being lifted over the Berlin Wall. --NEXT—- People once believed that hippos sweat blood. The belief arose from the fact that hippo’s skin secretes a sticky pink fluid that protects the animal from dehydration and sunburn. Did you know that a hippo’s yawn is not a sign of sleepiness of boredom, but actually a gesture of threat ? --NEXT—- In fiction , mice are often portrayed as loving cheese , but in reality most mice do not particularly like cheese. They prefer foods in their natural diet. --NEXT—- The tomato belongs to the same family as the potato , pepper , eggplant and petunia. Tomato juice is the official state beverage of Ohio. --NEXT—- In Russia , there is still a popular belief that if a back cat crosses a person’s path in the street , that person should either choose a different path or cross it holding a button in his or her fingers. It could be the button on that person’s jacket , pants or shirt. --NEXT—- There are over 9,00,000 cars on Mumbai’s roads. Experts say that 1,00,000 new cars will be added every year. --NEXT—- The word SCUBA is an acronym for self contained underwater breathing underwater breathing apparatus but it is now commonly used to refer to scuba equipment or scuba apparatus. --NEXT—- Most birds that sleep on trees don’t use a nest unless they have eggs or young chicks. They simply lock their feet around a branch and hand on – special tendon in their legs is automatically tight when they are at rest, so they won’t let go and fall off. Even animals like to take naps. Rabbits take many naps during the day while ostriches never sleep more than 15 minutes at a time. --NEXT—- Orangutans get their names from the Malay and Indonesian phrase ‘orang hutan’ meaning ‘person of the forest’. --NEXT—- Orangutans are unique in the ape world. The four kinds of great apes are gorillas , chimpanzees , bonobos and orangutans. Only the orangtun comes from Asia while all the others come from Africa. --NEXT—- An Orangutan’s feet are designed much like hands for climbing. They have long arms for reaching and long , strong hands and feet and flexible hips for holding on in any direction. --NEXT—- The two separate species of orangutan are the Sumatran orangutan and Bornean orangutan. --NEXT—- The Orangutan is the official state animal of Sabah in Malaysia. --NEXT—- Orangutans are highly intelligent and have the ability to reason and think. They are one our closest relatives , sharing 97 percent of our DNA. --NEXT—- Orangutans are only found on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. --NEXT—- The orangutan is the largest tree living mamman in the world. The rest of the apes do climb and build sleeping nests in the trees, but mainly spend their lives on the ground. --NEXT—- Flies are attracted by movement more than they are by colour. They have a great sense of smell – and can identify odours from a distance of over 750 yards. If a single garbage can is not emptied , it can be the breeding ground for more than 30,000 flies. --NEXT—- Mel Blanc the man who supplied voice for Bugs Bunny was allergic to Carrots. --NEXT—- Football evolved from games played in Europe. It is believed that the ancient Roman game Harpastum , has a lot in common with modern football. According to ancient texts , it was also more violent than the way it is played today. --NEXT—- Leaves have a special chemical called chlorophyll than can turn sunlight into a type of energy that trees and plants use to turn air and water into useable food. Air enters the tree thorough tiny openings on the underside of the leaf. Water and minerals in the soil get sucked b\in by the tree’s roots, which may be underground and far from the tree’s trunk. --NEXT—- Many stars are between one billion and 10 billion years old. Some stars may even be close 13.7 billion years old – the observed age of the universe. --NEXT—- The easiest way to tell of an animal is carnivore of herbivore is by looking at the eye !! Hunting animals have eyes located in the front of their heads ( dogs , tigers , owls) so they can focus on the prey they are stalking. Herbivores have eyes on the side of their heads ( rabbits , deer etc) so they can see hunders coming at them from all directions. --NEXT—- The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace during the mid-Ming and Qing dynasties. Located close to the centre of Beijing , it is now called the Palace Museum. Its grounds cover 720,000 square meters. It has 800 buildings and 8000 rooms. It is surrounded by a six metre deep moat. --NEXT—- Coughing during an injection can lessen the pain of the needle stick. How ? A sudden , temporary increase in pressure in your chest and spinal canal , distracts the pain conducting structures of the spinal cord. --NEXT—- Rabbits are born blind while hares can see from the time of birth. --NEXT—- Male rabbits are called bucks , females are called does. --NEXT—- There is only one breed of domestic rabbit that changes colour. They are the Champagne D’Argent , which are born black and change to a dull silver. --NEXT—- Because it eyes are on the side of its head , a rabbit can see behing itself without turning its head. --NEXT—- Rabbits have between 26 and 28 teeth. Yes , they also have molars. --NEXT—- Rabbits digest their food twice for two reasons. This is because they don’t get all the nutrients the first time around and because they need a high bacterial count in their stomach , which they get from ( that’s right) , poop. They dip their head down and come up munching contentedly. --NEXT—- According to folkfore in USA , a rabbit’s foot is said to bring luck. People would frequently carry one as amulet ,which often made into a keychain. This practice comes from the system of African-American folk magic called ‘hoodoo’. --NEXT—- Rabbits with white fur and pink eyes are called albinos. --NEXT—- The word ‘eureka’ is said to have been the exclamation Greek mathematician Archimedes used when he discovered a way to tell if gold was pure. It comes from the Greek word , ‘heureka’ , which means ‘I have found’ in Greek. It seems that Archimedes was about to go in for a bath , when he came up with a solution. He was so thrilled that he ran down the streets shouting “Heureka!”. --NEXT—- The first photograph took over 8 hours to expose. --NEXT—- From all the oxygen that a human breathes, twenty percent goes to the brain. --NEXT—- The average lifespan of a human taste bud is ten days. --NEXT—- From the age of thirty , humans gradually begin to shrink in size. --NEXT—- The levels of the giant Victorian water lily is more than seven feet wide. --NEXT—- Bamboos can grow a metre a day. --NEXT—- In the beginning of summer , the female silk work lays 500 eggs. --NEXT—- An owl can rotate its head at 180 degrees. --NEXT—- It’s not possible for anything to survive on the moon because there is no air. --NEXT—- If we could fly to the sun in a jet plane , traveling at 1,000 km an hour , the journey would take 17 years. --NEXT—- The temperature at the very core of the sun is said to be about 15,000,000 degrees Celsius. --NEXT—- During a solar eclipse, the shadows of leaves make the same crescent shape of the eclipsing sun. The image is made by light passing through tiny holes in the leaves. --NEXT—- Monks in the 16th century recorded seeing a giant explosion on the side of the moon. It most likely was a large meteor that slammed into the Moon and left a large crater. --NEXT—- Stars viewed through even the largest telescopes look like points of light. But astronomers using the Hubble telescope to photograph a start called Betelegeuse ( Pronounced ‘ beetle jooze) , have noe been able to see the surface of the star. Betelgeuse is giant red star. It’s the largest known start in out galaxy. --NEXT—- Not all stars are found inside galaxies. Astronomers have found stars moving between the galaxies, which are millions are light years apart. These stars may even have planets, possibly with intelligent life on them. If they do , these beings would see a lonely sky with just one star ( its own sun ) and a few faint galaxies. --NEXT—- The farthese you can see with the naked eye is 2.4 million light years away ! ( 140,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles) . That’s the distance to the giant Andromeda Galaxy. You can see it as a dim , gray ‘cloud’ in a clear night. --NEXT—- Around 3500 BC sundials were used to tell the time. The shadow of a stick that was fixed into the ground was watched under the sun to tell the hour of the day. BY 1400 BC, the Egyptians used the ‘clepsydras’ or a ‘water clock’ . This was a stone container with a small hole in the bottom with graduated markings on the inside. As water dripped out , the water level dropped , showing the hour markings. Later , candles were used in China to mark the time. It wasn’t until 1285 AD that the mechanical clock came into existence. --NEXT—- In early civilizations , the people did not understand the science behind an eclipse. They would use myths to explain the phenomemon. In Hindu , mythology , two demons , Rahu and Ketu were believed to be responsible for the eclipse. Ancient Chinese believed that a solar eclipse was caused by a dog biting off the sun. They would make lots of noise , banging pots and pans , in order to drive away the dog. --NEXT—- Shimla derives its name from ‘Shyamala’ – the goddess Kali , whose temple existed in the dense forest that covered Jakhu Hill in the early 19th century. --NEXT—- Ooty also known as Udagamandalam is the ‘ Queen of hill stations’ and the capital of Nilgiris district. --NEXT—- Manali literally means the ‘Home of Manu’. Manu is the mythological character who is supposed to have survived when the world was drowned in the flood. He then came to manali and recreated human life. Thus , the area of manali is sacred to Hindus. --NEXT—- Tungston is used to make the filament that is used in most light bulbs. --NEXT—- The dance form Kuchipudi originated from Andhra Pradesh. --NEXT—- In the Asterix comics, Obelix fell into a cauldron full of magic potion which gave him superhuman strength. --NEXT—- In South American country Brazil you find a tribe called the Kamayura. --NEXT—- Hanuman is the presiding deity at the Sankat Mochan Temple in Varanasi. --NEXT—- New Delhi hosted the first Asian Games in 1951. --NEXT—- In Japnese , Chopsticks the eating utensils are called ‘Hashi’. --NEXT—- Alexander the great who invaded India in 326 BC was the ruler of Macedonia. --NEXT—- The footballer Edson Arantes do Nascimento is better known as ‘Pele’. --NEXT—- Dust and smoke from volcanoes or forest fires can make the sun and moon appear green or blue. --NEXT—- The human eye can detect 10 million different shades of colour. --NEXT—- Most tropical marine fish could survive in a tank filled with human blood. --NEXT—- The flying snake of Java and Malaysia is able to flatten itself out like a ribbon and sail like a glider from tree to tree. --NEXT—- Elephants have been found swimming miles away from the shore of the Indian Ocean. --NEXT—- The Sahara desert is expanding half a mile south every year. --NEXT—- The right lung takes in more air than the left lung. --NEXT—- Badminton first originated in Pune, India. --NEXT—- Polar Bears can eat as many as 86 penguins in a single sitting. --NEXT—- Dinosaurs were reptiles and were hatched from eggs. --NEXT—- Adult blue whales are bigger than any other dinosaur ever was. --NEXT—- No one knows exactly what noises dinosaur made. --NEXT—- Some dinosaurs were as tall as a five-storey building, and there were others no bigger than a chicken. --NEXT—- Dinosaurs lived on land. No dinosaur lived in the water, they couldn’t fly either. --NEXT—- Scientists aren’t sure what colour dinosaurs were. Some think dinosaurs might have been as colourful as many birds are today. --NEXT—- Dinosaurs sometimes had accidents, and fossil bones have been found with fractures in them. --NEXT—- Sharks can smell one drop of blood in 100 litres of water. --NEXT—- If a shark loses a tooth, it will be replaced by a new one in less than 24 hours. --NEXT—- About 50,000 of the cells in your body will die and be replaced with new cells while you are reading this sentence. --NEXT—- Dead leaf, paper kite, Julia, sailor, blue striped crow and great egg fly are all names of butterflies. --NEXT—- Most people blink bout 25 times in a minute. --NEXT—- Chocolate contains a caffeine- like stimulant called theobromine and it can boost low blood-sugar levels. Chocolate is also a good source of chromium, which helps to control blood sugar. --NEXT—- Humans use more than 70 muscles to say one word. --NEXT—- In Europe in 16th and 17th centuries, heels on shoes were always coloured red. --NEXT—- A newly hatched baby snake can do everything that a grown up snake can do. --NEXT—- Snakes have no eyelids and are deaf. --NEXT—- A snake is cold-blooded. Its body is as warm or cold as the air around it. --NEXT—- Snakes only eat live food. Even though most snakes have over 200 teeth, they don’t chew their food but swallow it whole. This is because the teeth point backwards. --NEXT—- Snakes help farmers as they eat rats, mice and insects that destroy crops. --NEXT—- Snakes move by using special muscles attached to their ribs. If you put a snake on a smooth piece of glass, it will not be able to move because there is nothing to grab onto. --NEXT—- The ancient Greeks chewed mastic gum (pronounced ‘mas-tee-ka’).its the resin from the bark of the mastic tree. In fact, Grecian women chewed it to clean their teeth and sweeten their breath around the 2nd century BC, the Mayans of central America enjoyed chewing chicle- the sap of the Sapodilla tree. The American Indians of New England were meanwhile chewing gum made from the resin of spruce trees. During the early 19th century in America, paraffin wax gum became popular. Modern day gum products as we know them became popular in 1869, when the Mexican general, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, was searching for a substitute for rubber band. He thought chicle would work. He contacted American inventor Thomas Adams, who experimented with chicle but found it unsuitable a as rubber base. When Adams noticed a girl chewing paraffin- based gum, he realized the chicle was superior to all other gum bases available and produced some chicle-based gum. He persuaded a local druggist to stock it. --NEXT—- Did you know that the Sun gives off a stream of electrically- charged particles called solar winds. Every second, the sun pumps more than a million tonnes of material into the solar wind. The wind is not uniform, and is always directed away from the sun. The speed of a solar wind can vary from 200 km’s to 800 km’s. --NEXT—- The word petroleum comes from the Latin words meaning ‘rock’ and ’oil’. --NEXT—- The name of the Dennis’ dog in the comic series Dennis the Menace is Ruff. --NEXT—- The name of the bank in the Harry Potter book which can be found in Diagon Ally is Gringotts Bank. --NEXT—- Embroidery form of art is Chikankari. --NEXT—- Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi was known as Manikarnika in her childhood. --NEXT—- DJ, Hitesh, and Gary are the members of Euphoria musical group of India. --NEXT—- We come across to the Duckworth Lewis system in cricket to decide the winner. --NEXT—- The lion is the only animal of the cat family to live in groups called prides. --NEXT—- The duodenum, jejunum and ileum make up small intestine of the human body. --NEXT—- Diamond is sometimes described as a ‘clear precious stone of pure carbon, the hardest substance known’. --NEXT—- Jupiter is much smaller than the Sun. if the sun was the size of a basketball, one foot across, Jupiter would be the size of a table tennis ball one inch across. Wonder where Earth would be? --NEXT—- Danish pastry in Denmark is known as Vienna bread- Wienerbrod, in Danish. --NEXT—- An obsolete term for a foolish, talkative person is ‘blatherskite’. --NEXT—- Sharks never stop moving, even when they sleep or rest. --NEXT—- A group of foxes is called a skulk. --NEXT—- Forget-me-not pollen grains are so small that 10,000 of them can fit on the head of a pin. --NEXT—- Male lions can sleep for 20 hours a day. --NEXT—- A lemon contains more sugar than a strawberry. --NEXT—- Our lungs contain over 300 million air sacs (aveoli) and have an average of fifty-litre air capacity. --NEXT—- There are 27 bones in each hand. --NEXT—- The femur (thigh bone) is the longest and strongest bone in the body. The smallest is the stirrup bone in the ear. --NEXT—- The Disneyland Paris, the park’s famous Sleeping Beauty castle is known as Le Chateau de la Belle au Bois Dormant. --NEXT—- The winged hat worn by the ancient Greek god Hermes (or, in Roman mythology Mercury) is called a ‘petasos’. --NEXT—- You cannot sneeze with your eyes open. Try it. --NEXT—- The first accurate drawing of the heart, brain and other parts of the human body were made by the artist Leonardo da Vinci of Italy around 1500 AD. He was an expert in dissecting dead bodies. --NEXT—- The three toed sloth found in tropical America can swim easily, but it can only drag itself across bare ground. --NEXT—- Pollen grains are so tiny and uniform they have been used to calibrate instruments that measure in thousandths of an inch. Forget-me-not pollen grains are so small that 10000 can fit on the head of a pin. --NEXT—- Queen Victoria was the last teenager to rule England. --NEXT—- A worm has no arms, legs or eyes. --NEXT—- There are approximately 2700 different kinds of earthworms. --NEXT—- Worms live where there is food, moisture, oxygen and a favourable temperature. --NEXT—- In one acre of land, there can be more than a million earthworms. --NEXT—- The largest earthworm ever found was in South Africa and measured 22 feet from its nose to the tip of its tail. --NEXT—- Charles Darwin spent 39 years studying earthworms more than 100 years ago. --NEXT—- Baby worms hatch from cocoons smaller than a grain of size. --NEXT—- The Australian Gippsland earthworm can grow to 12 feet in length and can weigh a little than a pound. --NEXT—- Even though worms don’t have eyes, they can sense a light, especially the front. They move away from light and will become paralysed if exposed to it for too long (approximately an hour). --NEXT—- Gumboots are also called Wellington boots and were made popular by Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington (Britain). In fact, it became very fashionable to wear gumboots in early 19th century England. It seems that Wellesley asked his shoemaker, Hoby, to modify the 18th century tasseled boot that was popular at that time, these boots were first made of leather. In 1852, Hiram Hutchinson met Charles Goodyear who had just invented the vulcanization process for natural rubber. Hutchinson used to manufacture footwear- gumboots became waterproof. The boot also get its name from the welly boot dance, which was performed by African miners. --NEXT—- Ever wondered how birds manage to fly in the rains without hurting their eyes? Birds have a special third eyelid called the nictitating membrane, under their regular eyelids. It’s transparent in most birds, and is drawn across the eye to moisten or clean it. Nictitating membranes are found in crocodiles, lizards, birds, frogs, most species of sharks, and some species of mammals. In humans it is useless pink lump in the inner corner of the eyes. For s it has been rendered redundant by evolution. --NEXT—- The word ‘monsoon’ is said to have originated from the Arabic word ‘Mausim’ which means ‘season’. --NEXT—- The maximum speed that raindrops can fall at is around 18mph, depending on their size. --NEXT—- Ancient umbrellas, invented about 4000 years ago, were designed only to provide shade from the sun. The Chinese were the first to waterproof their umbrellas for use against rain. They waxed and laquered their paper parasols in order to use them for the rain. --NEXT—- At birth white whales are black in colour. --NEXT—- Frogs cannot survive in salty water. --NEXT—- An Eagle can kill big animals like deer with his feet and can carry them from one place to another with his feet. --NEXT—- An ostrich eye is bigger than its brain. --NEXT—- An ostrich can kick a lion with his feet. --NEXT—- Peanuts are ingredients of dynamite. --NEXT—- Almonds belong to the peach family. --NEXT—- The highest recorded air temperature was 58 degree Celsius at Al-Aziziyah, Libiya. --NEXT—- Lowest recorded air temperature was -84.4 degree at Vostok station, Antarctica. --NEXT—- The human heart pumps about 2000 gallons of blood every day. --NEXT—- There is a giant mushroom in Oregon that is over 2400 years old, and covers more than three square miles of land. The amazing part is that it’s still growing. --NEXT—- A company in Taiwan makes dinnerware from wheat, so that you can eat your plate. --NEXT—- In ancient Rome it was considered a sign of leadership to be born with a crooked nose. --NEXT—- A group of kangaroos is a called a mob. --NEXT—- In ancient Japan, public contests were held to see who could fart the loudest and the longest. --NEXT—- The best time for a person to buy shoes is in the afternoon. This is because the foot tends to swell a bit around this time. --NEXT—- In 1980, the city of Detroit presented Saddam Hussein with the key to the city. --NEXT—- It’s against the law to pawn your dentures is Las Vegas. --NEXT—- In Holland, you ca be fined for not using a shopping basket at a grocery store! --NEXT—- It is illegal to hunt camels in the state of Arizona. --NEXT—- In Australia it is illegal to roam the streets wearing black clothes, felt shoes and black shoe polish on your face as these items are tools of a cat burglar. --NEXT—- In Thailand, it is illegal to leave your house if you are not wearing underwear. --NEXT—- In Florida, a special law prohibits unmarried woman from parachuting on Sunday or she shall risk arrest, fine, and/ or jailing. --NEXT—- Worms can be quite big. The Oregon worm grows 2-3 feet long, and it gives off the smell of lilies when you touch it. It was last spotted in the 1980’s. The giant gippsland found in Australia can grow to 3 feet and can stretch up to 10 feet. In New Zealand, you’ll find the north Auckland worm grows 4 1/2 feet long and gives of light at night. The South African giant earthworm can grow up to 22 feet. It is the largest earthworm known. --NEXT—- A toy balloon is a hallow container which is often made of plastic or natural, biodegradable rubber. --NEXT—- Balloons are usually filled by using one’s breath, pump, or a pressurised gas tank. --NEXT—- By filling a balloon with a gas lighter than air, such as helium, the balloon can be made to float. --NEXT—- Helium is the preferred gas for floating balloons, because it is inert and will not catch fire. --NEXT—- Jupiter encompasses more matter than all the other planets in the solar system combined. --NEXT—- The Maple Leaf for Ever is the patriotic song of Canada. --NEXT—- In the Archie comic series the surname of Archie is Andrews. --NEXT—- In the book Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea you would come across a character called Captain Nemo. --NEXT—- The name Hippopotamus comes from the Greek words which mean ‘river horse’. --NEXT—- Christmas tree lights were first mass- produced for the US marketing 1890. --NEXT—- A person who is skilled in preparing Turkish coffee is called a ‘kahveci’. --NEXT—- A ton of paper that is recycled saves about 17 trees. --NEXT—- It’s said that sharks can smell even a single drop of blood mixed in 3.5 lakh metre cube of water. --NEXT—- A TV screen shows 24 pictures a second. Because a fly sees 200 images a second, it would see TV images as still pictures with darkness in between. --NEXT—- Because of thermal expansion the Eiffel Tower is 15 centimeters taller during summer. --NEXT—- The biggest Hippo tooth ever found was one metre long. --NEXT—- The mosquito can carry blood twice its own weight. --NEXT—- The breadfruit tree, (artocarpus altilis), and evergreen tree, is a native of Java, Indonesia. The name comes from the fleshy fruit which tastes like bread. --NEXT—- The British heard of the fruit and sent Captain William Bligh in 1789 to Tahjti to bring it back. They thought it would be cheap food for the slaves working in plantations there. (At that time slavery was rampant). The captain and his crew set sail on HMS Bounty. They loaded the saplings on the ship. On the way back, the captain had to ration out the drinking water to his crew, as the plants needed a lot of fresh water. The crew agitated, and set the captain with the saplings adrift. The captain somehow survived but the saplings died. --NEXT—- The breadfruit tree grows to a height 60-80 feet. It has dark green robed leaves like fans. --NEXT—- The wood is sturdy and is used to make drum canoes and surfboards. --NEXT—- In Hawaii, the tree is known as ‘Ulu’. People believed that the war God, ‘kuka’, buried himself in the ground during a famine. Later he sprouted as a breadfruit tree so that the people could be saved. --NEXT—- Do dogs laugh? Do they have a sense of humour? According to a study, the huffing noises a dog makes could very well be laughter. And one dog can recognize when another is laughing. Scientists found that dogs react differently to growls and threats, but when another dog is laughing (huffing), the reaction is positive. However no one knows yet whether dogs have a sense of humour. --NEXT—- Almost all civilizations played a version of football- the Chinese, the Egyptians, Greeks and even Vikings. For example, the Chinese played a version of football at least 2000 years ago. In South and Central America, a game is called ‘Tlatchi’ – similar to football- once flourished. The ancient Greeks and Romans used football games to sharpen warriors for battle. Roman games like ‘Harpastum’ or ‘Paganika’, which had elements for kicking or running with the ball, spread all over Europe --NEXT—- The word Tragedy is believed to be derived from the Greek words meaning “Goat Song”. --NEXT—- The very first bomb dropped by the Allies during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo. --NEXT—- Two dogs survived the sinking of the Titanic. Margaret Hays took her Pomeranian with her in lifeboat No. 7 and Henry Sleeper took his Pekinese , Sun Yat Sen on boat No. 3 --NEXT—- The first hard drive available for Apple ( The Computer) had a capacity of five megabytes. --NEXT—- The northernmost McDonald’s outlet is located on the Artic Circle in Rovaniemi , Finland , while the southernmost is located in Invercargill , New Zealand. --NEXT—- The world’s first e-mail message was believed to be sent in 1971 by Ray Tomlinson. --NEXT—- In ancient Greece the word ‘idiot’ meant a private citizen or layman. --NEXT—- An Elephant can see water up to three miles away. --NEXT—- A dog’s nose is so sensitive that it can tell the difference between a tub of water and a tub of water with a teaspoon of salt in it. --NEXT—- After cats eat , they usually tend to bathe themselves. This is because their instinct tells them to get the food scent off them so that predators will not smell the food and come after them. --NEXT—- Kilauea ( in Hawaii) is generally regarded as the world’s most active volcano. It has has been in a near-continuous eruption since 1983. --NEXT—- The rock debris carried by a lateral blast of Mount St. Helens in USA travelled as fast as 250 miles per hour. --NEXT—- The largest known volcano in our solar system is said to be Olympus Mons on the planet mars. This volcano is ( 27 km) tall and over 320 miles ( 520 km) across. --NEXT—- Volcanoes are like giant safety valves that release the pressure that builds up inside the Earth. --NEXT—- The name ‘Volcano’ has its origin from the name of Vulcan , the god of fire in Roman mythology. --NEXT—- Hawaii was formed by five volcanoes. --NEXT—- More than 80% of the Earth’s surface is volcanic in origin. The sea floor and some mountains were formed by countless volcanic eruptions. --NEXT—- There are more than 500 active volcanoes in the world. More than half of these are part of the ‘Ring of Fire’ , a region that encircles the Pacific Ocean. --NEXT—- The first ferries wheel was designed by George W Ferris in 1893. He built the Ferris wheel for the Chicago World Fair to mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s landing in America. The fair organizers wanted something that would rival the Eiffel Tower in Paris , built by Gustave Eiffel for the Paris World Fair in 1889. The idea came to Farris quite suddenly while he was having dinner. He quickly scrbbled the design for the wheel on a napkin. The first ferris wheel had two 140 foot steel towers that supported the wheel. Two 1000 horsepower reversible engines powered the ride. Thirty six wooden cars held up to 60 riders each. The ride was priced at 50 cents and made $726,805.50 ( Rs. 33,820.593) during the fair. --NEXT—- In Japan , the ‘fugu’ or spiny puffer fish is considered a rare delicacy. But theirs is a catch. Its liver and intestines contain a powerful neurotoxin. Even a drop of this toxin is deadly , and the slightest contamination during preparation means that the person who eats it could die. Restaurants who serve the spiny puffer fish must have ‘Fugu certified’ chefs who are required to undergo an exam in order to get the license. During the exam , which has only a 25% pass rate , the chef must prepare and then eat a meal of puffer fish. Despite these precautions , some 100-200 people get poisoned every year. --NEXT—- The word ‘palindrome’ is derived from the Greek word ‘palindromos’ meaning running back again. --NEXT—- The longest palindrome in the Oxford English dictionary is the 12-letter word ‘tattarrattat’, a nonce word ( invented for a particular event or occasion) meaning rat-a-tat. --NEXT—- In the novel Holes by Louis Sachar ( which has been made into a film by Walt Disney Pictures) , the main character is named Stanley Yelnats , as are his father and grandfather. --NEXT—- The name “Motocross” is a contraction derived from the words “Motorcycle” and “Cross Country”. --NEXT—- In south Africa Diamonds were first discovered in the mid 1860s in the mines of Nicolas and Deiderick de Beers. --NEXT—- The young Kangaroo or joey is born at a very immature stage when it is only about two centimeters long and weighs less than a gram. --NEXT—- Disney’s 1995 production , “Toy Story “ was the fist feature film to be generated entirely on computer. --NEXT—- The Modern Russian ruler , Peter the Great , taxed men with beards. --NEXT—- Hawaii is moving towards Hapan at four inches every year. --NEXT—- Fleas can jump 130 times higher than their own weight. In human terms this is equal to a six foot person jumping 780 feet into the air. --NEXT—- The Earth weights 6.6 sextillion tons . --NEXT—- A person walking into a crowded room produces extra heat equivalent to turning on two 60-Watt light bulbs. --NEXT—- In ancient Greece, yo-yos were made of wood , metal and terracotta. Both halves were decorated with pictures of gods. Around 1800 the yo-yo came to Europe from the Orient. In the Philippines around 1500 , the yo-yo was used as a weapon for hunting animals and against enemies. --NEXT—- Yo-Yo means “come-come” in the native Filipino language of Tapalog. --NEXT—- The box turtle (Terrapene) from America gets its name from its unique ability to withdraw its entire body within its box like shell. The shell can withstand a weight 200 times greater than its own. The would be the equivalent of a human supporting two elephants. --NEXT—- A turtle bones are fused to its shell. It would be impossible for a real turtle to crawl out of its shell , the way cartoon turtles do. --NEXT—- Some people like to eat green sea turtles. They make a special soup of it. Now this turtle is endangered. --NEXT—- Sea turtles migrate - some swim hundreds of miles from feeding areas to nesting areas. --NEXT—- Leatherback turtles can be found in every ocean around the world. They can be up to two meters in length. --NEXT—- The top shell of a turtle is called the carapace while the bottom shell is called the plastron. The scales over the top and bottom shells as called scutes. --NEXT—- Fingernails and toenails grow from a point near the roots below the skin, at the base of the nail where it is very thin. While in colour and half moon in shape , this semi circle is named the ‘lunula’ and comprises a group of cells that manufacture keratin – a dead , hoof like protein. The protein produced gathers and merges with the nail plate , the dead armour that protects the soft and tender nail bed underneath and pushes the entire nail up and out. --NEXT—- Sugar maples , found in temperate forests are commonly tapped for their sap , which is then boiled and made into maple syrup , many of you have this with panaches. The woodpecker loves making its home at the maple tree. --NEXT—- The one animal that can be found easily in a boreal forest is the snowshoe hare. Their population varies every year, depending on availability of food. The population of carnivorous animals like the lynx will also change with that of the snowshoe hare. --NEXT—- Three horror film stars Peter Cushing , Christopher Lee and Vincent Price were all born on the 27th of May. --NEXT—- The phrase ‘piece of cake’ is now used to talk about something that’s easy to do. The meaning came from the early Egyptians , where cake was a synonym for something good or easy?. Mummies were often placed in their graves with a doggie bag of cakes and ale. Some people believe that the phrase originated from the tradition of giving cakes as prizes in rural competitions in the USA. --NEXT—- The Moon is the second brightest in the sky after the Sun , but it not a star , it is a satellite. --NEXT—- The oldest rocks found in the lunar highlands are about 4,400 million year old. --NEXT—- More than 4.5 billion years ago , the surface of the Moon was a liquid magma ocean. --NEXT—- Scientists think that lunar rocks contain a component called KREEP , which contains Potassium(K) , Rare Earth Elements (REE) such as samarium and phosphorus (P) – unlike anything found on Earth. --NEXT—- Unlike the Earth , the Moon has a feeble magnetic field. --NEXT—- The ancient Greeks and Romans favoured marriages during the full moon. --NEXT—- The Moon rotates around the Earth in an oval path. When it’s closest to the Earth , it called ‘perigee’ and when farthest , it’s called ‘apogee’. --NEXT—- The temperature on the Moon reaches 243° F ( 117° C) at midday on the lunar equator. At night it falls to -261°F (162° C). --NEXT—- The common cold is the most common illness in the world. --NEXT—- There are about two million sweat glands in the average human body. --NEXT—- The silk worm has 11 brains. --NEXT—- It takes about 50 hours for a snake to digest one frog. --NEXT—- Grasshoppers sing by scraping a row of pegs on their hing legs against their wing or body or by snapping their hing wings while flying. --NEXT—- The swan has over 25,000 feathers in its body. --NEXT—- The game of Marbles was first introduced in Britain by the Romans. --NEXT—- The first flush toilet was invented by John Harrington , but it didn’t catch on until 1850 when homes started having running water. --NEXT—- The human head contains 22 bones , consisting the cranium and the facial bones. --NEXT—- The first decimal system was introduced in the 4th century BC by the Sumerians of Mesopotamia , to whom the invention of writing is also credited. --NEXT—- The adult human eyeball weighs an ounce and measures about one inch ( 2.5 cm) in diameter. Of its total surface area , only one-sixth is exposed - the front portion. --NEXT—- If a diamond is placed in an oven and the temperature is raised to about 763 degrees Celsius , it will simply vanish , without even ash remaining . Only a little carbon will have been released. --NEXT—- Peanuts grow in a fascinating manner. They actually start out as an above-ground flower , but eventually make their way underground , where the peanut matures. --NEXT—- Ancient Greeks believed the walnut and its shell resembled a human’s skull and brains. In medieval times , they thought it had healing properties for headaches. --NEXT—- In ancient times , walnut oil was prized as a drying agent for paint. Michelangelo even used it to paint the Sistine Chapel in Rome. --NEXT—- Peanut’s aren’t even nuts. They are legumes and a member of the pea family !. --NEXT—- It takes a pistachio tree about seven years to bear its first fruit. --NEXT—- Peanuts have been to space. Astronaut Allen B Shepard took the tasty treat on his Apollo mission to the moon. --NEXT—- Cashews are actually related to the poison ivy! Their inside shell contains a poisonous resin related to the poison ivy family , known as cashew balm which must be carefully removed before the nut can be consumed. --NEXT—- Today we throw rice and birdseed , but once upon a time the Romans showered newlyweds with almonds for good luck. --NEXT—- Hair is the fastest growing tissue in our body. Second only to the bone marrow. The average lifespan of human hair is three to seven years. A person’s genes determine the hair , skin and eye colour from before his or her birth. The determinants for hair colour are known as melanocytes. These cells form the natural hair colours or pigments , and distinguish between black , black and red. Depending on the percentage of each pigment , a person has blonde , brown , red or black hair. --NEXT—- If you lived on the planet Mercury your birthday would come around every eighty eight years. --NEXT—- There were working parachutes in China as early as the 12th century. Leonardo da Vinci sketched a parachute around 1480. The first known parachute was made in 1617 in Venice by the Croatian inventor Faust Vranic. --NEXT—- In 1938 , the first superhero comic , Superman was published, marking the beginning of the golden age of comic books. --NEXT—- Buck Rogers and Tarzan were amongst the first comics that were not ‘comic’ , but action adventure. They were launched in 1929. And with more and more comics of different kinds being published after that the term ‘comics’ came to mean any story that was drawn and not written. --NEXT—- The famous comic , The adventures of TinTin was created by Georges Reni. He wrote under the pen name Herge. --NEXT—- An ‘Oxymoron’ is a literary figure of speech.Oxymoron is a greek term derived from ‘oxy’ (Sharp) and ‘moros’ ( dull or dumb). Oxymoron is the singular form and oxymora , the plural form. --NEXT—- Adult dragonflies have an lifespan of one to four weeks. They are often gobbled up by birds, and many young adults get tangled up in spiders web’s. --NEXT—- The kiwi is the only known bird to have external nostrils at the base of its long beak. A kiwi’s sense of smell is very finely tuned. --NEXT—- Newborn dolphins and killer whales do not sleep for a whole month after birth. Neither do their mothers , who stay awake to keep an eye on their offspring. --NEXT—- If you keep a goldfish in a dark room , it will eventually turn white. --NEXT—- It is impossible to sneeze with your eyes open. --NEXT—- A group of geese on the ground is a gaggle , a group of geese in the air is a skein !! --NEXT—- The placement of a donkey’s eyes in its head enables it to see all four feet at all times !!! --NEXT—- The Putty-like modelling material plasticine , is made from calcium salts , petroleum jelly and aliphatic acids. In 1987, plasticine was formulated by an art teacher called William Harbutt from England. Harbutt wanted a non-drying clay to be used by his sculpture students. A patent for plasticine was awarded in 1899, and in 1900, it was commercially produced in a factory in Bathampton. Originally it was grey, but when sold to the public , it came in four colors and was soon available in a wide variety of bright colors. Today plasticine is also used in an animation technique known as Claymation. --NEXT—- The loading goal scorer at every FIFA World Cup is awarded the Golden Shoe. --NEXT—- FIFA World Cup Trophy is 36cm high and weighs 6,175 gms. --NEXT—- The highest position any Asian team has ever achieved is fourth , South Lorea achieved this feat at the 2002 FIFA World Cup. --NEXT—- It’s believed that turtles can recognize faces. --NEXT—- An ant can lift 50 times its own weight and can pull 30 times its own weight. --NEXT—- The only marsupial with a pouch on its back is the bandicoot. --NEXT—- Ferrets sleep for about 20 hours a day. --NEXT—- Since 1600, 109 species and subspecies of birds have become extinct. --NEXT—- On an average , a hedgehog’s heart beats 300 times a minute. --NEXT—- All elephants walk on tip-toe , because the back portion of their foot is made up of fat and no bone. --NEXT—- The sea wasp is half an inch long at best and one of the more deadly jellyfish known to man. --NEXT—- A large swarm of locusts can eat 80,000 tons of corn in a day. --NEXT—- A baby eel is called an elver and baby oyster is called a spat. --NEXT—- Dogs were one of the fist animals doemisticated by humans. --NEXT—- The world’s first dog show was held in Britain in 1859. --NEXT—- One of the smallest dogs to be recorded in the Guiness Records is ‘Big Boss’ – a Yorkshire terrier that was just 4.7 inches tall. --NEXT—- Chow-chows have blue-black tounges. --NEXT—- If you look at your dog while it’s sleeping, you’ll sometimes see its eyes move and twitch under its eyelids. We do this too when we dream. We can’t be sure , but some researches believe that dogs definitely dream. Wish we could ask them? --NEXT—- Even though the Basenji is a dog , it licks itself clean like a cat. --NEXT—- Did you know that you can tell the temperature by listening to the chirping of a cricket? To get a rough idea of the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit , count the number of chirps in 15 seconds and then add 37. The number you get will be an approximation of the outside temperature. --NEXT—- In the late 19th century , people used a kind of rudimentary chalk which was probably a mixture of charcoal and oil. Later , the oil was substituted with wax. But it was Edwin Binney and Harold Smith who developed the first wax crayons. They researched a lot on how to make these crayons non-toxic, and they called their crayons crayola. Crayola comes from the French word for chalk (‘craie’) and ‘ola’ from the world ‘oleaginous’ , meaning oily. The first Crayon box was made in 1903 , and costed a nickel. It contained eight colours – black , blue , brown , green , orange , red , violet and yellow. --NEXT—- Upon it’s completion , the lighthouse at Alexandria – commonly estimated to have been about 400 feet high – was one of the tallest structures on Earth. --NEXT—- The Egyptian pyramids are the oldest and only surviving members of the ancient wonders. --NEXT—- At approximately 120 feet , the bronze Colossus of Rhodes , a wonder of the ancient world , stood almost as high as the statue of Liberty in the United states. --NEXT—- The Zodiac sign Gemini is represented by Twins. --NEXT—- The word “Lakshadweep” in Sanskrit menas ‘Hundred Thousand Islands’. --NEXT—- The superhero BATMAN is owner of the Wayne Enterprises. --NEXT—- “QUITO” is the capitol of Ecuador. --NEXT—- The feature called “Syahi” is found on the musical instrument ‘Tabla’. --NEXT—- A bibliophile is a collector of “Books”. --NEXT—- In High Jump the Fosbury Flop is prevalent. --NEXT—- Lion is the only animal which belongs to the cat family and lives in groups. --NEXT—- Sumitra was the mother of Shatrughna is ‘The Ramayana’. --NEXT—- George Fayne and Bess Marvin are the companions for the literary character Nancy Drew. --NEXT—-