1. Firenados are a thing that happens.

Firenados are fairly self-explanatory and completely terrifying. They are tornadoes that are full of raging hot flames. They occur during wildfires, which, due to all that rising hot air, create their own massive winds, which can pull more oxygen into the fire, making them stronger as they pull the flames high into the sky.

2. The tallest known cliff in the Solar System is on Uranus’ tiny moon Miranda.

Uranus’ tiny moon Miranda has a cliff named named Verona Rupes that is estimated to be up to 10 times the depth of the Grand Canyon. Due to Miranda’s low gravity and the height of the cliff, it would take a full 12 minutes to jump off of this thing. It remains unclear why such a small object would have such a ragged surface.

3. There was a time when dragonflies the size of seagulls terrorized the Earth.

These bad boys were named Meganeura and were closely related to living dragonflies. They lived around 300 million years ago and preyed on smaller insects. How and why such large insects could develop at that time is still an open question.

4. All the planets of the Solar System could theoretically fit in the space between Earth and the Moon.

5. An entirely new system in the human body was discovered thanks to weed.

It’s called the endocannabinoid system, and it’s in yo brain. It just so happens that the chemicals in pot target this system exclusively. In fact, it was our understanding of those plant-based chemicals that led to the discovery of the endocannabinoid system in the mid-1990s. It plays a role in pain, learning, appetite, and a whole variety of other things, too.

6. Male koalas have two penises and female koalas have three vaginas.

The males of most koala species have a bifurcated penis — essentially that means they have two penises. A female koala has two “lateral vaginas” which transport semen, and a third “medial” vagina, which their young travel through during birth.

7. Russia is bigger than Pluto.

When it comes to surface area, Russia takes up a whopping 6.6 million square miles. Pluto, on the other hand, has a surface area of only 6.4 million square miles.

Diwali Festival of Dogs, India and Nepal

Dogs in India are honored each fall as part of the Hindu festival of Diwali or Festival of Lights. Specifically in Nepal, one day of the celebration is devoted to dogs, called Kukur Tihar. On that day, pet dogs and strays alike are given treats, decorated with marigold flower garlands and are smeared with vermillion on their heads as a sign of their sacredness.

It's customary during the celebration for people to offer blessings to their dogs which are, according to Hindu tradition, the messenger of Yamaraj, the god of death and the guardians of the gates of the afterlife.

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Organisms grow old because nature doesn't need them any more. If the purpose of life is to procreate and replicate successfully - this is the logic of the so-called selfish gene theory - then it helps to stay healthy long enough to generate children and provide them with food. Immortality arrives with your offspring, and is only guaranteed when all your children also have children. weird facts

Ageing seems inevitable but, for some scientists, it isn't obvious why this process is inexorable. Human chromosomes seem to arrive with their own lifespan timing devices called telomeres, but precisely why and how telomeres are linked to ageing is still not understood. There are genes that seem to to dictate survival rates in fruit flies, nematode worms and mice, and these genes almost certainly exist in humans, but what works in an insect or even another mammal may not be much help to a human anxious to hang around a bit longer. Even so, in the last half of the 20th century, life expectancies were increasing everywhere in the developed and developing world, wherever there was appropriate sanitation, nutrition, education and medical care; and small groups of scientists had begun to ask whether life could be extended indefinitely.

Organisms grow old because nature doesn't need them any more. If the purpose of life is to procreate and replicate successfully - this is the logic of the so-called selfish gene theory - then it helps to stay healthy long enough to generate children and provide them with food. Immortality arrives with your offspring, and is only guaranteed when all your children also have children. weird facts

Ageing seems inevitable but, for some scientists, it isn't obvious why this process is inexorable. Human chromosomes seem to arrive with their own lifespan timing devices called telomeres, but precisely why and how telomeres are linked to ageing is still not understood. There are genes that seem to to dictate survival rates in fruit flies, nematode worms and mice, and these genes almost certainly exist in humans, but what works in an insect or even another mammal may not be much help to a human anxious to hang around a bit longer. Even so, in the last half of the 20th century, life expectancies were increasing everywhere in the developed and developing world, wherever there was appropriate sanitation, nutrition, education and medical care; and small groups of scientists had begun to ask whether life could be extended indefinitely.

Organisms grow old because nature doesn't need them any more. If the purpose of life is to procreate and replicate successfully - this is the logic of the so-called selfish gene theory - then it helps to stay healthy long enough to generate children and provide them with food. Immortality arrives with your offspring, and is only guaranteed when all your children also have children. weird facts

Ageing seems inevitable but, for some scientists, it isn't obvious why this process is inexorable. Human chromosomes seem to arrive with their own lifespan timing devices called telomeres, but precisely why and how telomeres are linked to ageing is still not understood. There are genes that seem to to dictate survival rates in fruit flies, nematode worms and mice, and these genes almost certainly exist in humans, but what works in an insect or even another mammal may not be much help to a human anxious to hang around a bit longer. Even so, in the last half of the 20th century, life expectancies were increasing everywhere in the developed and developing world, wherever there was appropriate sanitation, nutrition, education and medical care; and small groups of scientists had begun to ask whether life could be extended indefinitely.

joke of the day

Source: factoflife