Weird and wonderful facts about the field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of the Earth and planets.
And before you start saying what about Wales? Wales is a constituent country of the United Kingdom and is not recognised as a sovereign state! Out of the 195 sovereign states in the world recognised by the United Nations, there are no countries that begin with the letter W. What about Wales? Wales is politically …
There are no countries in the world that begin with the letter W Read More »
During storms some coastal towns are flooded with foam. In 2015 British coastal town Cleveleys was inundated with foam during a storm that whipped up the sea with strong winds. The roads were covered with foam with drifts several feet high in places. What causes sea foam? Sea foam is formed when the ocean churns …
Every seven years a the Malagasy people dig up their dead relatives and parade their decaying bodies around the streets. Famadihana is a funeral tradition of the Malagasy tribe of Madagascar. They believe that one does not complete their journey to the afterlife until their body is completely decomposed. So until then every few years …
Every seven years the Malagasy people dig up their dead relatives Read More »
The Padaung people (Thailand) are known as the long-necked people because the women wear many tight, thick brass rings around their necks. Girls first start to wear rings when they are around 5 years old. Over the years , more coils are added and their necks appear to stretch, which is considered a sign of …
The English settlers of America weren’t known for their originality in naming places. Perhaps they were just homesick and wanted to remind themselves of their birthplace. Or perhaps it was because when they tried to think of their own place names they came up with such oddities as Screamer (Alabama), Why (Arizona), Rough and Ready …
He may have been responsible for the deaths of around 40 million people but in Mongolia Genghis Khan is a national treasure with rock star status. He is considered the greatest hero in Mongolian history and most Mongolians worship him. There are statues of him in every town and many places, buildings and businesses named …
Singapore is proud of its spotless public places and enforces cleanliness with $1000 fines for smoking, littering or not flushing the toilet in its ‘flush or fine’ campaign. You can also be fined up to $500 for taking a stinky Dorian fruit on public transport. Other Fun Facts about Singapore: Singapore is the most expensive …
In Singapore you could be fined $1000 for not flushing the toilet Read More »
In 1532 the Venetian government passed a law forbidding the over-zealous decoration of gondolas. Since then they have always been painted black. Source: Pick your brains about… Italy by Jez Matthews https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gondola
An object at the equator weighs a mere 0.5 percent less than at the poles. Because of the way it spins, the ‘waistline’ of the earth flies outwards creating the equivalent of we call a ‘spare tyre’ (the midriff layer of fat around larger people’s bellies). If you are standing at the equator you are …
Planning a trip to the Hebrides? Pack your brolly because this area has the highest average rainfall in the UK. You can expect it to rain on 225 out of the 365 days of the year. https://weather-and-climate.com/average-monthly-Rainy-days,portree-gb,United-Kingdom
[SPOILER ALERT] In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous story The Lost World they discover a plateau in the South American rain forest which had been separated from the rest of the world for millions of years and where dinosaurs never went extinct. Scientists have discovered a real-life ‘Lost World’ in Mozambique. Explorer and Conservationist Julian …
The Sahara is the largest hot desert in the world but in January 2018 snow fell in the desert near Algeria with drifts as high as 40cm. It was the fourth time the ‘Sea of Sand’ has seen snow, the first being in 1979 when a snowstorm stopped traffic and the previous two times in …
In 2016, 2017 and 2018 it snowed in the Sahara Desert Read More »
One of the reasons your lungs feel refreshed when walking through a pine forest is because of an anti-inflammatory compound called a-Pinene, found in conifers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha-Pinene https://mytreeplanet.org/blogs/news/10-interesting-facts-about-forests
Every summer in Bunol (Spain) they hold the biggest tomato fight in the world. La Tomatina festival attracts revellers from around the world to come and throw rotten tomatoes at each other in this fruit-based street battle. It takes place on the last Wednesday of August (2020 will be the 26th of August). It started …
Kentucky is home to a cave worthy of Jules Verne’s ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’. Mammoth Cave is the world’s largest cave system. It has a network of over 400 miles of known caves. Scientists believe that there are over 200 miles of unexplored caves. A guide described it as a “grand, gloomy …
