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29 Aug 2008
Fact of the day
After two arduous years of research in the steamy Amazon jungle, English biologist Alfred Russel Wallace devised the theory of evolution before Charles Darwin. But Wallace's crucial evidence disappeared when the ship he was taking back to England in 1852 caught fire and sank.
Random Facts
The cause of 90–95 percent of the cases of high blood pressure isn't known; however, high blood pressure is easily detected and usually controllable. Where the cause is unknown this is called 'primary' or 'essential hypertension'. In the remaining minority of cases, there is an underlying cause. This is called 'secondary hypertension'.
With the sudden upsurge in demand for cocaine at the end of the 19th Century, came an increased desire to supply it. This led to Henry Rusby developing the chemical process of turning leaves into cocaine paste which made it much cheaper to ship.
American Consumers spend about $30 billion per year trying to lose weight or prevent weight gain. This figure includes spending on diet drinks, diet foods, artificially sweetened products, appetite suppressants, diet books, videos and cassettes, medically supervised and commercial programs, and fitness clubs.
Melarsoprol, the most commonly used drug for the treatment of African trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness, was introduced over 50 years ago. This arsenic derivative causes severe pain upon intravenous injection and actually kills up to 10 % of patients due to severe side effects.
Any free moving liquid in outer space will form itself into a sphere, because of its surface tension.
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A survey of 1,023 children aged 10 to 13 showed the number who felt uncomfortable talking with their parents nearly doubles when they turn 13.
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In August 1992 Hurricane Andrew caused $26 billion dollars of damage and destroyed 60,000 homes.
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Steel drums are the only non-electric instrument invented in the 20th century.
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An orange tree may bear oranges for more than 100 years. The famous "Constable Tree", an orange tree brought to France in 1421, lived and bore fruit for 473 years.
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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.
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In 13,000 BC, the world's hunter-gatherer population was approaching eight and a half million.
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A 'singularity' is a mathematical concept that can be visualised as a warped region of spacetime where quantities may become infinite so that ordinary physical laws cease to apply. The Big Bang is thought to have originated from such a singularity.
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It wasn't until 1927 that German chemists came up with a synthetic alternative to natural rubber.
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The Cassini Huygens mission to Saturn was launched from Kennedy Space Center on Oct. 15, 1997.
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