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9 Feb 2010
Fact of the day
Nostradamus wrote 942 quatrains (4 line long poems) in his lifetime which he organised into centuries. Many people believe that he could predict the future and that these poems contain cryptic information about future events.
Random Facts
Salt, called sodium chloride by chemists, has been such an important element of life that it has been the subject of many stories, fables and folktales (such as "Salt on a Magpie's Tail" from Sweden) and is frequently referenced in fairy tales. Charles Dickens penned a Victorian era Ghost Story "To Be Taken With A Grain of Salt."
In 1936 a landslide into Leon Lake, Norway, created a splash wave 230 feet high, and at Cape Lopatka on the Kamchatka Peninsula, a tsunami wave 210 feet high broke on the coast in 1737.
In 1879, W. H. Preece, then Post Office Assistant Engineer in Chief, testified to a House of Commons Committee that, whatever the situation in the USA, Britain had little use of the telephone because : "Here we have a superabundance of messengers, errand boys and things of that kind".
In 2001, a German tourist was swimming off a beach in Thailand when he noticed a large tiger shark swimming close by. He furiously swam to the shore, grabbed his camera and waded back out again to take a photograph. The shark swam lazily over and sank his teeth into the man's leg. The bite severed an artery and the man bled to death.
About 24 percent of alcoholics die in accidents, falls, fires, and suicides.
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One pencil can write about 50,000 English words before it wears out.
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The longest place name still in use is Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaung ahoronukupokaiwhenuakitamatahu. It is the name of a hill in New Zealand.
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A device invented as a primitive steam engine by the Greek engineer Hero, about the time of the birth of Christ, is used today as a rotating lawn sprinkler.
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Many animals seem to be able to detect the Earth's magnetism. The Arctic Tern's migratory route follows the Earth's lines of magnetic force. Many other animals such as caribou, sea turtles, whales, birds and fish may also use the Earth's magnetism to find their way.
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In 1945, five Navy TBM Avenger planes with 14 fliers flew from Ft. Lauderdale into the Bermuda triangle never to return. The most realistic answer is that the planes got lost and ran out of gas but some believe there might have been a magnetic storm.
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One million, million, million, million, millionth of a second after the Big Bang the Universe was the size of a ...pea.
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Pure titanium is about as strong as steel yet nearly 50% lighter. When added to various alloys, its hardness, toughness and tensile strength can be increased dramatically.
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For a short time in 1967, the American Typers Association invented a new punctuation mark that was a combination of the question mark and an exclamation point called an "interrobang". It was intended to be used to express incredulity or disbelief. It never caught on with the general public, and it faded away.
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The Future's Museum in Sweden contains a scale model of the solar system. The sun is 105 metres in diameter and the planets range from 3.5 mm to 6 km from the 'sun'. This particular model also contains the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, still to scale situated in the Museum of Victoria ... in Australia.
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