FACTS ABOUT THE WORLD
SIMPLE FACTS YOU DIDNT KNOW
All right, you're scuba diving in the ocean, observing the vibrant corals and colorful fish swimming by. Suddenly, a massive shadow looms above you. You glance upward and spot a colossal creature approaching. Its mouth is a gaping abyss. But don't panic, just remain still and everything will be fine. This magnificent creature is a basking shark, one of the awe-inspiring sea monsters that poses no real threat to anyone. Basking sharks, like baleen whales, are filter feeders. They open their enormous mouths to consume plankton and lack teeth.
Now, imagine it's late at night in the Central American jungle. You're out in the wilderness to observe birds when you hear the flapping of wings. Excitedly, you peer through your night vision goggles only to come face to face with a creature straight out of your worst nightmares. But hold back your scream, as it's completely harmless. It's a wrinkle-faced bat, a fruit bat to be precise. The wrinkles on their faces aid them in collecting fruit pieces and juice for later snacks. Interestingly, they were given the Latin name "centuro senx" due to their resemblance to 100-year-old humans strolling around.
Now, picture yourself in a Nepali National Park, deciding to freshen up by washing your face in a nearby river. Suddenly, you freeze in terror as you lock eyes with a crocodile just a few feet away. However, you can breathe a sigh of relief as it raises its snout above the water. It's a gharial, a reptile with a long and narrow snout that efficiently catches fish but prevents it from hunting any other prey. Despite being carnivores, gharials are quite shy and will slither away upon encountering humans. With only a thousand of these crocodilians left in the world, it's best to let them be, especially if it's a female.
Lastly, imagine digging your garden in the backyard and spotting movement on your shovel. Upon closer inspection, you drop the tool in horror as you come across a small creature that resembles a hostile alien scurrying into a burrow. But fret not, it's just a star-nosed mole. These critters have unique snouts with peculiar sensory appendages.That lady from China who achieved the Guinness World Records for having the longest hair ever in 2004 had hair that measured a little over 18 ft 5 in long. It's truly impressive! But did you know that nails can also grow incredibly long? Some of the longest nails in the world belong to a man from India, with a combined length of 29 ft 10 in. That's almost as long as a London double decker bus! However, he decided to cut them off in 2018. Talk about nailing it!
Nails not only help us catch small objects and peel stickers off, but they also serve a purpose in providing a rigid structure for us to press against. Without this structure, we wouldn't be able to understand how firmly we should hold things.
Speaking of growth, it's not just hair and nails that can grow. Your liver, the largest internal organ by mass, has the incredible ability to fully regenerate from just 51% of its original mass back to its full size. However, constant damage to the liver can result in scars.
Moving on to organs, did you know that the skin is the largest organ in your entire body? It makes up more than 15% of your total body weight. In fact, you lose around 30,000 to 40,000 skin cells every single minute, adding up to 9 lbs of skin cells in a year. So, that dust in your house? Now you know where some of it comes from!
When it comes to taste, it's not just your tongue that plays a role. Your nose is also critical in the taste perception process. In fact, it's often said that the nose is responsible for 75 to 95% of your taste perception. Next time you eat, try holding your nose and see how it affects your ability to taste. It might be a bit blander!
Speaking of taste buds, they won't work properly if your mouth is too dry. Saliva plays a crucial role in enhancing taste. It contains enzymes, which are complex protein molecules that start breaking down your food as soon as it enters your mouth.
Did you know that people can distinguish more than a trillion smells? It's true! In fact, studies have shown that we tend to remember odors better than sounds or images. That's why certain smells can evoke distant memories.
Lastly, when you're asleep, you don't perceive any odors. Your sense of smell takes a break during sleep.
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MYTHS AND TRUTH ABOUT SPACE
Now, as much as we enjoy epic SpaceBattles with blasters cutting through the black void and causing cheerful booms, that's not exactly what happens when something explodes in the big black space. Space is basically a vacuum, meaning it has no oxygen. And oxygen is essential for any burning process here on Earth. You might argue that stars can burn and explode into Supernova, but that's not exactly true either. Stars don't rely on oxygen, so they're not burning. There are constant thermonuclear reactions going on inside them. So, a spaceship can only explode like that if it has a nuclear power plant installed in it. If it doesn't, then the only special effect you get is a brief flash that disappears quickly. Liquid oxygen, which is often on board spaceships, burns out very quickly in the vacuum of outer space. As for the boom, oxygen plays a crucial role here too. Sound only travels through air molecules bumping into each other. Since there's no air in space, the whole scene would be silent. And that's not a bad thing either. Just imagine how deafening the sun would be if sound could travel in space. Despite what many sci-fi directors want us to believe, there's no dark side to the Moon. Our satellite is tidally locked with Earth, meaning it's always turned towards us with one side while the other always looks away. The sun is much farther from us than the moon, and we're both turning round and round, warming and lighting this side and that. In turn, it means that once in every short while, the Moon is lit by the Sun from either side. It's just that we can't see it from where we are. While things appear weightless in outer space, there's actual gravity all over the place. It becomes weaker the further you get from a heavy object like our planet, but it's still there. In fact, there's not a single place in the universe that isn't affected by the gravity of this or that cosmic object. Everything that has mass has gravity as well, yes, even you and me. But space objects are so massive that they tug smaller things towards them. That's why the planets of the solar system orbit the sun.Stronger gravity implies that celestial bodies can maintain stable rings after their formation. Some experts speculate that Earth may have had a ring system in the past, possibly formed from a collision with a Mars-sized object. This collision could have created a dense ring of debris around our planet, which eventually coalesced to form what we now know as the Moon. Additionally, scientists propose the existence of a mysterious planet, referred to as Planet 9, lurking at the outer edges of our solar system beyond Neptune. If Planet 9 does exist, it is believed to be similar to Uranus or Neptune but approximately ten times more massive than Earth. It likely orbits the Sun at a distance about 20 times farther than Neptune. Another intriguing theory suggests that Planet 9 could potentially be a black hole the size of a grapefruit, warping space similar to a large planet. Contrary to previous beliefs, water is actually quite abundant in our solar system. It can be found in asteroids, comets, craters on the Moon and Mercury, and even at the poles of Mars, mostly hidden beneath layers of ice and the planet's dusty surface. Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, is considered the most promising candidate for hosting life outside of Earth. It is believed to have a vast ocean of liquid water beneath its frozen surface, potentially containing twice as much water as all of Earth's oceans combined. Despite being significantly farther from the Sun than Earth, Neptune surprisingly emits more heat than it receives. It also exhibits greater atmospheric activity compared to its neighboring planet, Uranus, even though Uranus is closer to the Sun. The reason behind Neptune's extremely strong winds remains unknown.On May 20th, the docking with the station was successfully completed. Alongside another engineer named Serge, they diligently carried out their space duties. They embarked on multiple spacewalks, conducted repairs, took care of the station, and even conducted scientific experiments. Living in space became more manageable with company and a lot of work. However, things took a turn for the worse on the day Serge was supposed to return home. According to the mission plan, the mission was meant to last for 5 months, and a new astronaut was scheduled to replace the old ones. The transport ship finally docked with the station on October 10th, but only one astronaut returned to Earth. Serge was left alone at the mere station, continuing his work as the sole flight engineer of the crew. The station couldn't remain empty, so they had to send someone to replace Serge. Although he wasn't prepared for such a long stay in space and hadn't trained for it, there was no other choice. One month passed, and Sergey was informed that he would soon return home. However, an unexpected turn of events occurred. They contacted Sergey and informed him that he couldn't return because the country that promised to bring him home no longer existed. Meanwhile, a major crisis unfolded in Russia, making the cosmonaut's return impossible due to lack of funds. Just imagine the condition Serge found himself in - hundreds of miles away from home, alone in the vastness of outer space, with no idea how many days he had left to endure. The days passed slowly, turning into weeks, and then into months. It would have been much easier if being in space didn't harm one's health. However, in the conditions of zero gravity, the human body suffers significant damage. The muscles weaken due to the lack of necessary load, leading to atrophy. Although astronauts perform daily exercises, it is insufficient to maintain their physical condition. Additionally, the bones start to weaken, leaving the person feeling weak. Even after six months of such a life, it takes a considerable amount of time for an astronaut to regain their previous physical shape upon returning home. Furthermore, there are numerous other challenges to overcome.
By cecil Wekesa3 months ago in Earth
One of the Crazy Things Rich People Do That's Scary To Think About
They impress us, and sometimes they scare us, but the ultra-rich are always interesting. Some of their famous activities include buying yachts too big to move through channels, buying ridiculously priced cars that could feed the homeless of New York for weeks, and their expensive tastes in sex workers.
By Jason Ray Morton 3 days ago in FYI
The Legend of Hanuman Jayanti: A Tale of Devotion and Courage
In the ancient land of Bharatavarsha, where legends intertwine with history, there lived a divine being whose name echoed through the ages: Hanuman, the mighty vanara warrior, beloved devotee of Lord Rama, and embodiment of courage, loyalty, and selflessness. On the auspicious occasion of Hanuman Jayanti, let us embark on a journey through the timeless tale of Hanuman's devotion and the significance of this sacred day.
By WILLIAM DIAGO RODRIGUES6 days ago in FYI
Spectating
I can't imagine dying like this, in a place like this; on a cold, dirty pavement with rush hour traffic screaming by and a crowd looking on while paramedics struggle to find space to move. Who could? Deep down we all think there should be a reason, a moment of clarity... or a family presence, at least. For this man, this boy, the rail thin woman lighting a cigarette in a faux fur jacket will have to do - she's been here since the start, her eyes tracking the movement of my shoulders as we fight to keep him on the right side of the line.
By S. A. Crawford4 days ago in Fiction
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