Facts About Don Juan Pond - strangefacts

• Don Juan Pond, the hypersaline lake in western Antarctica which has even greater salinity than the Dead Sea

• With a salinity of over 40%, Don Juan Pond is the saltiest body of water in the world

• It is named after the two pilots who first investigated the pond in 1961, Lt Don Roe and Lt John Hickey

• It is a small lake, only 100m by 300m, and on average 0.1m deep, but it is so salty that even in the Antarctic, where the temperature at the pond regularly drops to as low as -30 degrees Celsius, it never freezes

• It is 18 times saltier than sea water, compared to the Dead Sea which is only 8 times saltier than sea water

• At its saltiest, Don Juan Pond contains 671 parts per thousand salt, compared to 35 and 300 for the ocean and the Dead Sea respectively

• A beautiful salty pool in Antarctica's Dry Valleys is teaching scientists about the potential for life in brine pools on ancient Mars

• The study also reveals a previously unreported mechanism for producing an important greenhouse gas - nitrous oxide - in Antarctic habitats

• Research at Antarctica's 'Mars on Earth' reveals non-organic mechanism for production of important greenhouse gas

• Possibly even more important, the discovery could help space scientists understand the meaning of similar brine pools in a place whose ecosystem most closely resembles that of Don Juan Pond

Facts About John James Audubon - strangefacts

• John James Audubon from 1785 to1851 was an American Woodsman

• John James Audubon was not the first person to attempt to paint and describe all the birds of America (Alexander Wilson has that distinction), but for half a century he was the young country’s dominant wildlife artist

• His seminal Birds of America, a collection of 435 life-size prints, quickly eclipsed Wilson’s work and is still a standard against which 20th and 21st century bird artists, such as Roger Tory Peterson and David Sibley, are measured

• Although Audubon had no role in the organization that bears his name, there is a connection: George Bird Grinnell, one of the founders of the early Audubon Society in the late 1800s, was tutored by Lucy Audubon, John James’s widow

• Knowing Audubon’s reputation, Grinnell chose his name as the inspiration for the organization’s earliest work to protect birds and their habitats

• Today, the name Audubon remains synonymous with birds and bird conservation the world over

• John James Audubon was enrolled in the French Naval Academy at he age of 14

• He was also a limner (traveling portrait artist), dance instructor, clerk and taxidermist

• In 1819 he was briefly jailed for failing to pay his debts

• Audubon was born in Saint Domingue (now Haiti), the illegitimate son of a French sea captain and plantation owner and his French mistress. Early on, he was raised by his stepmother, Mrs. Audubon, in Nantes, France, and took a lively interest in birds, nature, drawing, and music

• In 1803, at the age of 18, he was sent to America, in part to escape conscription into the Emperor Napoleon’s army. He lived on the family-owned estate at Mill Grove, near Philadelphia, where he hunted, studied and drew birds, and met his wife, Lucy Bakewell

Facts About Rotorua - strangefacts

• A city founded in the early 1870s and named after Lake Rotorua whose Maori name means ‘Second Lake’ from roto ‘lake’ and rua ‘two’ or ‘second’

• It is said that it was so named by a traveller as he went along the Kaituna River; the first was Lake Rotoiti ‘Small Lake’. However, this may be a convenient invention to justify claims to the area by the local tribe

• The city of Rotorua, about 30 miles (48 km) inland on the Volcanic Plateau, is noted for the geysers, fumaroles, boiling mud, and warm mineral bathing pools in its vicinity

• Rotorua sits squarely on the Pacific Ring of Fire, so volcanic activity is part of the city’s past and present

• The city is also the tribal home of the Te Arawa people, who settled in lakeside geothermal areas more than 600 years ago

• Entertaining in any weather, and at any time of the year, Rotorua promises to keep you captivated with geothermal phenomena and special cultural experiences

• Geysers, boiling mud pools, marae stays, hangi feasts, an authentic pre-European Maori village and indulgent spa therapies will provide plenty of content for your emails home

• Rotorua also has a well-developed adventure culture – everything from sky diving to zorbing

• Functional facts: Approx. population 76,000, i-SITE Visitor Centre, domestic airport

• Rotorua is a city on the southern shores of the lake of the same name, in the Bay of Plenty region of the North Island of New Zealand

• The city is known for its geothermal activity, with a number of geysers, notably the Pohutu Geyser at Whakarewarewa, and boiling mud pools (pictured above) located in the city

Facts About Socotra - strangefacts

• Measuring 1,200 square miles, Socotra (also Suqutra) Island is located in the Arabian Sea, about 500 miles from Aden and less than 200 miles from Somalia

• The sparsely populated island has a mountainous interior and most of its population engages in farming or fishing; the most striking feature of this isolated place is its biodiversity and the great number of unique flora and fauna

• The ruler of the Mahra Sultanate of Qishn and Socotra resided there under British rule during much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

• The island became a part of South Yemen in 1967 and, with Yemeni unification in 1990, it became a part of the Republic of Yemen (ROY)

• Given its location near the sea lanes, Socotra was long thought to be of strategic value by Western imperial powers

• During the latter half of the Cold War, South Yemen allowed the Soviet Union to maintain a submarine base and other military facilities there; Russia continues to maintain a modest naval presence

• During the late 1990s there were rumors about a deal between the United States and the ROY over military facilities on the island, but the complicated, if not strained, relations between the two countries, beginning with the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in Aden in 2000, squelched this talk

• The considerable activities regarding Socotra now focus on its development as a tourist destination featuring and protecting its unique biodiversity

• Socotra has been described as one of the most alien-looking place on Earth, and it’s not hard to see why

• It is very isolated with a harsh, dry climate and as a result a third of its plant-life is found nowhere else, including the famous Dragon’s Blood Tree, a very-unnatural looking umbrella-shaped tree which produces red sap

Facts About The Great Dune of Pyla - strangefacts

• Largest sand dune in Europe is the great dune of Pyla

• Size of sand dune of Pyla is about 60,000,000 cubic meters

• It measures 1,640 feet (500 m) wide and 1.86 miles (3 km long), with the height ranging from 328 to 383.8 feet (100 to 117 m) above sea level

• The Dune of Pilat is also known as the Great Dune of Pyla

• It is located in the La Teste-de-Buch of the Arcachon Bay area

• At 60Km from Bordeaux, in the South of the Arcachon Bay, it is possible to visit the highest dune in Europe, the Great Dune of Pyla (or Pilat)

• This hight of dune of Pyla reaches upto a height of 107m

• At this summit, the view is spectacular with the ocean coast, the inlet of the Bay, the large pine forest and, when the sky is very clear, the Pyrenees Range

• This Great Dune is constituted of fine sand which the siliceous grains have about the same size

• Since about ten years, this area is also became a point of start to the lover of delta planes

• The Great Dune of Pyla is located on the “La Teste de Buch” district (Gironde) and it is a national listed landscape

• Since Europe has no deserts, you’d think the title of “Europe’s largest sand dune” would go to something that wasn’t particularly impressive. But you’d be wrong

Facts About Earth Day - strangefacts

• Annually, April 22 is a day set aside to honor the Earth. But every day is Earth Day, and some of the things that will happen 365 times in a year are listed below

• In 1969, Nelson, considered one of the leaders of the modern environmental movement, developed the idea for Earth Day after being inspired by the anti-Vietnam War "teach-ins" that were taking place on college campuses around the United States

• According to Nelson, he envisioned a large-scale, grassroots environmental demonstration "to shake up the political establishment and force this issue onto the national agenda."

• Nelson announced the Earth Day concept at a conference in Seattle in the fall of 1969 and invited the entire nation to get involved

• A highlight of the United Nations' Earth Day celebration in New York City is the ringing of the Peace Bell, a gift from Japan, at the exact moment of the vernal equinox

• Earth Day Networks estimates that 500 million people from 4,500 organizations in 180 countries will participate in Earth Day events during the month of April

• Earth Day is big with schools. On many school calendars, it is the third most activity-inspiring holiday, after Christmas and Halloween

• Companies have even gotten into Earth Day. Last year, office supply store Staples introduced office paper made entirely without new trees

• As part of the celebration, some communities make Earth Day a "Car-Free Day"

• Earth will travel 1.6 million miles in its annual journey around the Sun, the 4.6-billionth such round-trip. It will rotate about its axis exactly once

Facts About Meteor Crater - strangefacts

• Meteor Crater is a meteorite impact crater located approximately 43 miles (69 km) east of Flagstaff, near Winslow in the northern Arizona desert of the United States

• Because the US Department of the Interior Division of Names commonly recognizes names of natural features derived from the nearest post office, the feature acquired the name of “Meteor Crater” from the nearby post office named Meteor

• Middlesboro is the only city in the United States built within a meteor crater

• The crater was created about 50,000 years ago during the Pleistocene epoch when the local climate on the Colorado Plateau was much cooler and damper

• At the time, the area was an open grassland dotted with woodlands inhabited by woolly mammoths, giant ground sloths, and camels

• It was probably not inhabited by humans; the earliest confirmed record of human habitation in the Americas dates from long after this impact

• The object that excavated the crater was a nickel-iron meteorite about 50 meters (54 yards) across, which impacted the plain at a speed of several kilometers per second

• Meteor Crater was originally thought to be a volcanic crater, since there were other volcanic craters, including the still-active Sunset Crater, in the region

• However, in the 1890s, mineralogists discovered iron fragments in the crater. This led geologists to suggest that the crater was caused by a meteor crash

• Daniel Barringer (1860-1929), a Philadelphia mining engineer who explored the site in 1903, was convinced the meteorite was buried beneath the crater. He purchased the land and, in 1906, began drilling

Facts About Mount Roraima - strangefacts

• Mount Roraima (mountain, South America) giant flat-topped mountain, or mesa, in the Pakaraima Mountains of the Guiana Highlands , at the point where the boundaries of Brazil, Venezuela, and Guyana meet

• About 9 miles (14 km) long and 9,094 feet (2,772 metres) high, it is the source of many rivers of Guyana, and of the Amazon and Orinoco

• Mount Roraima is a pretty remarkable place. It is a tabletop mountain with sheer 400-metre high cliffs on all sides

• There is only one ‘easy’ way up, on a natural staircase-like ramp on the Venezuelan side – to get up any other way takes and experienced rock climber

• On the top of the mountain it rains almost every day, washing away most of the nutrients for plants to grow and creating a unique landscape on the bare sandstone surface

• This also creates some of the highest waterfalls in the world over the sides (Angel falls is located on a similar tabletop mountain some 130 miles away)

• Though there are only a few marshes on the mountain where vegetation can grow properly, these contain many species unique to the mountain, including a species of carnivorous pitcher plant

• The mountain marks the border between Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana, although more than three quarters of the mountain is in Venezuelan territory 

• It is the highest mountain in Guyana, but Venezuela and Brazil have higher mountains. The triple border point on the summit is at 5°12'08N, 60°44'07W

• Roraima lies on the Guiana Shield in the southeastern corner of Venezuela's 30,000 km² Canaima National Park, which is roughly located in the Gran Sabana region 

Facts About Door To Hell - strangefacts

• East of the Caspian Sea in the middle of Karakum desert somewhere in Central Asia hide a secret It is something so surreal and extraordinary in the same time you thing is not real at all

• Here near a small town of Darvaza, Turkmenistan is located “The door to hell” how locals name the strange place

• In fact it is a 50 – 100 meter crater who burn continues for 35 years without any pause

• The Door to Hell, as local residents at the nearby town of Darvaza have dubbed it, is a 70 meter wide crater in Turkmenistan that has been burning continuously for 35 years

• In 1971, geologists drilling for gas deposits uncovered a huge underground cavern, which caused the ground over it to collapse, taking down all their equipment and their camp with it

• During a drilling they found an underground cavern filled with natural gas

• In this moment the ground collapsed, leaving a large gaping hole exposed

• To avoid poisonous gases coming out of the hole, it was decide to fire up and let the gas burn

• Since the cavern was filled poisonous gas, they dared not go down to retrieve their equipment, and to prevent the gas escaping they ignited it, hoping it would burn itself out in a couple of days

• From its burning mouth pours the stench of sulphur, fouling the local air and making anything with nasal cavities flee from the vicinity 

Proposing Girl Funny Pics - strangefacts

• Walk up behind girl and point fingers shaped like gun into her back

"You're under arrest!"

For what?

"For stealing my heart."

•  Hi, my name is Chance, Do I have one?

• Are your legs tired?

Girl: Why?

because you have been running through my mind all day!

•  "I lost my phone number, can I borrow yours?"

•  Can you give me directions to your heart? I've seemed to have lost myself in your eyes.

• Take a look at the tag on the girls shirt, jacket, etc. She would say,"What are you doing"

you respond,"Oh, just checking to see if you were made in Heaven."

• Pick up a flower and walk over to girl. "I was just showing this flower how beautiful you are."

• Is it hot in here or is it just you?

•  Hey Girls, walk up to a guy and say: "Are you from Greece?" "No" he answers.

Then you say, "Oh, I thought all the Gods were from Greece"

•  GEEEEE.. I FEEL LIKE RICHARD GERE STANDING BESIDE YOU ........... PRETTY WOMEN

Facts About Charlie Chaplin - strangefacts

• He was born four days before Adolf Hitler, in 1889

• Charlie Chaplin was so popular during the 1920s and 1930s, he received over 73,00 letters in just 2 days during a visit to London

• After adopting his trademark Little Tramp costume, consisting of baggy pants, bamboo cane, bowler hat, and over-sized shoes, Chaplin became a Hollywood icon

• Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look alike contest

• He was the first actor to appear on Time magazine. Chaplin appeared on the July 6, 1925 issue of Time magazine, a U.S.-based news magazine. He was the first actor ever to appear on the magazine known for its influential cover photo

Screenshot From Movie "THE GREAT DICTATOR"

• His understudy in England was Stan Laurel; they sailed to America together and shared a boarding house when they arrived

• In 1925, he was the first actor to appear on the cover of Time magazine

• At the height of his popularity, he failed to win a Charlie Chaplin look-a-like contest

• His imprints were removed (and subsequently lost) from the Hollywood walk of fame because of his suspected communist views

• Although Adolf Hitler despised Chaplin, he was aware of his popularity, and grew the Chaplin mustache to endear himself to the people

Facts About Yuri Gagarin - strangefacts

• Colonel Yuri A. Gagarin was born on a collective farm in a region west of Moscow, Russia on March 9, 1934

• Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first human in space and the first man to orbit the Earth making a 108-minute orbital flight in his Vostok 1 spacecraft 

• His father was a carpenter. Yuri attended the local school for six years and continued his education at vocational and technical schools

• Yuri Gagarin joined the Russian Air Force in 1955 and graduated with honors from the Soviet Air Force Academy in 1957

• Soon afterward, he became a military fighter pilot. By 1959, he had been selected for cosmonaut training as part of the first group of USSR cosmonauts

• Yuri Gagarin flew only one space mission

• On April 12, 1961 he became the first human to orbit Earth. Gagarin's spacecraft, Vostok 1, circled Earth at a speed of 27,400 kilometers per hour

• The flight lasted 108 minutes. At the highest point, Gagarin was about 327 kilometers above Earth

• Once in orbit, Yuri Gagarin had no control over his spacecraft

• Vostok's reentry was controlled by a computer program sending radio commands to the space capsule Although the controls were locked, a key had been placed in a sealed envelope in case an emergency situation made it necessary for Gagarin to take control. As was planned, Cosmonaut Gagarin ejected after reentry into Earth's atmosphere and landed by parachute

Facts About Human Brain - strangefacts

• Human brain neurons system is so large that you start from earth and take a round of moon and back to starting position

• Average human brain usage is  upto 2 % out of 100 % while Einstein uses his brain upto 15 %, thats  why he is so genius

• The odds are 1 out of 7,143 (.014%) that you have a brain tumor

• Nerve impulses to and from the brain travel as fast as 170 miles per hour

• The average human brain has about 100 billion nerve cells

• The average human loses 85,000 brain cells each day, while only 50 are regenerated each day

• According to UCLA neuroscientists, only one brain cell is needed to spot a familiar face

• After age 30, the brain begins to lose about 50,000 neurons per day - shrinking the brain .25% each year

• The human central nervous system filters out 99% of what your senses register so the brain doesn't have to bother processing unimportant matters

• More electrical impulses are generated in one day by a single human brain than in all the telephones in the world

Facts About Xenarthrans - strangefacts

• Armadillos, sloths, and anteaters (Xenarthra) are notable for the unique joints in their backbone that provide them with the strength and support they need to dig and burrow

• Armadillos, sloths, and anteaters have few or no teeth and a small brain

• Xenarthra are an ancient group of placental mammals that once roamed across Gondwanaland before the continents of the southern hemisphere separated into their present-day configuration

• When Gondwanaland divided, it split up to form South America, Africa, India, Arabia, New Zealand, and Australia, Xenarthra were initially isolated on the continent of South America but have since spread northward into areas of Central America and southern parts of North America

• Though xenarthran populations were absent from Africa, Asia, and Australia, these regions contain unrelated species that evolved to resemble xenarthrans

• Similar environmental conditions in these distant parts of the world resulted in species that, although unrelated, adapted in a similar manner and as a result resemble each other in some ways. This evolutionary dynamic is known as convergent evolution

• Examples of species that display convergent evolution with the xenarthrans include the aardvark (Africa), the pangolin (Africa and SE Asia), and the spiny anteater (Australia)

• These animals all have genetically different ancestors than the xenarthrans and consequently belong to different orders than the xenartrhans, yet they have evolved similar characteristics

• Xenarthrans were classified in the past together with the pangolin , also scaly anteater or Tenggiling, is a mammal of the order Pholidota

• There is only one extant family and one genus of pangolins, comprising eight species

Facts About Butterflies - strangefacts

• Having a wingspan of only ½", the smallest butterfly is in the world is found in South Africa. It is know as the Dwarf Blue Butterfly

• Did you know that butterflies need the warmth of the sun to enable them to fly? Butterflies are cold-blooded and will not fly if the temperature is below 50 degrees

• Fiction, you will not hurt a butterfly if you touch it, although you might rub off some of the color of its wings which are actually miniature scales

• Butterfly wings are actually clear. Their colors and patterns are made by the reflection of the scales that cover them

• In Pacific Grove, California, it is a misdemeanor to kill a butterfly

• Caterpillars do NOT have bones, they have over 1,000 muscles in which they use to move from place to place and they can move at a very quick pace

• If you find a caterpillar and place him in a designated place, before you know it , he will have crawled out of sight

• Nicole Kidman has a morbid fear of butterflies

• Butterflies taste with their feet

• Butterflies can see color in the ultraviolet range, revealing patterns on flowers to them that humans can’t see

Facts About Ice Cream - strangefacts

• Ben and Jerry's send the waste from making ice cream to local pig farmers to use as feed. Pigs loved every flavor except for Mint Oreo

• Julia Roberts and Christie Brinkley once sold ice cream

• Barack Obama worked in a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop as a teenager and now can't stand ice cream

• In 1984, Ronald Reagan declared the month of July to be "National Ice Cream Month."

• One out of five people that eat ice cream binge on ice cream in the middle of the night. The person is usually between 18 - 24 years old

• The last thing Elvis Presley ate before he died was four scoops of ice cream and 6 chocolate chip cookies
• Donald F. Duncan, the man who made the yo-yo an American tradition, is also credited with popularizing the parking meter and introducing Good Humor "ice cream on a stick

• Dolley Madison is credited with inventing ice cream

• Nancy Johnson, the wife of a naval officer, is credited for inventing the ice cream freezer

• Ice cream cones were first served in 1904 at the world’s fair in St. Louis, MO. US Patent # 3,477,070
  

Facts About Kissing - strangefacts

• You burn 26 calories in a one-minute kiss

• Longest underwater kiss - 2 minutes and 18 seconds in Tokyo, Japan, on April 2, 1980

• Ancient Egyptians kissed with their noses instead of with their lips

• The average amount of time spent kissing for a person in a lifetime is 20,160 minutes

• The longest kiss on record lasted 30 hours and 45 minutes. Dror Orpaz and Carmit Tsubara recorded it on April 5, 1999 at a kissing contest held in Tel Aviv, Israel

• It takes 20 different muscles to form a kiss

• James Bond is also known as Mr. Kiss-Kiss-Bang-Bang

• The first far eastern country to permit kissing in films was China. The first oriental screen kiss was bestowed on Miss Mamie Lee in the movie "Two Women in the House"

• People are more likely to tilt their heads to the right when kissing instead of the left (65 percent of people go to the right!)

• The record for most kisses in a movie is 127 in Don Juan