Mayflies, after hatching and then spending one to three years developing as naiads, live less than one day as adults. The lifetime of mayflies usually begins in late afternoon. During this single day, they molt twice, mate, and lay eggs in water. Because these adults do not have developed mouth

In a note in his diary Munch described his inspiration for the image thus: "I was walking along a path with two friends - the sun was setting - suddenly the sky turned blood red - I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence - there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city - my friends walked on, and I stood ...Read more

Tuna can cruise up to 55 miles per hour, and they are constantly in motion. To keep this speed machine going, the tuna eats up to ten percent of its body weight daily. Depending on the variety, weights average from 10 pounds up to 600 pounds per fish.

Cultured Christmas trees must be shaped as they grow to produce fuller foliage. To slow the upward growth and to encourage branching, they are hand-clipped in each spring. Trees grown in the wild have sparser branches, and are known in the industry as "Charlie Brown" trees.

In 1904, a Georgist Quaker, Lizzie Magie, patented a game called The Landlord's Game with the object of showing how rents enrich property owners and impoverish tenants. She knew that some people could find it hard to understand why this happened and what might be done about it, and she thought that if the rent problem and the Georgist solution ...Read more

The early eating bars of chocolate were made of bittersweet chocolate. Milk chocolate was introduced in 1875 when Henry Nestle, a maker of evaporated milk and Daniel Peter, a chocolate maker, got together and invented milk chocolate, which today is preferred by 80% of the world's population.

In Japan, a gruesome TV drama series, "Shitsurakuen" (or, "Paradise Lost"), popularized the drinking of red wine. The Japanese demand for red wine exploded when the show's main characters committed suicide by mixing poison with Chateau Margaux. Many Japanese wine drinkers switched from the preferred white to red after the 1997 TV episode aired. ...Read more

Snake oil originally came from China, where it is called shéyòu. There, it was used as a remedy for inflammation and pain in rheumatoid arthritis, bursitis, and other similar conditions. Snake oil is still used as a pain reliever in China. Fats and oils from snakes are higher in eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) than other sources, so snake oil was ...Read more

On February 23, 1836, Lieutenant Colonel William B. Travis entered the Alamo with a force that later totalled approximately 187 men to defend it against the advance of the Mexican army. Approximately 6,000 Mexican soldiers under the command of General Antonio López de Santa Anna laid siege to the fortress for 13 days. The siege climaxed on ...Read more

Jack Broughton was one of the most revered boxing figures in England. He was buried at Westminster Abbey, the burial place of British nobility, although Broughton was not a member of English royalty.

Astronomers know that over the next few billion years, the sun will swell so large as to envelop Earth. If we're still here, we'll probably fry and the planet will be vaporized. There's a chance, however, that the changing mass of the sun will cause Earth to move into a more distant and pleasant orbit. One mathematical calculation shows it would...Read more

In 1916, Jones Wister of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania invented a rifle for shooting around corners. It had a curved barrel and periscopic sights.

Abraham Lincoln offered this timeless, usually unheeded, piece of advice to lawyers: "Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbor to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker, the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough."

While in no danger of outright extinction, the most common edible banana cultivar 'Cavendish' (extremely popular in Europe and the Americas) could become unviable for large-scale cultivation in the next 10-20 years. Its predecessor 'Gros Michel' has already suffered this fate. Like almost all bananas, it lacks genetic diversity, which makes it ...Read more

The most popular first name in the world is Muhammad.

With its duplex suites starting at $1,095 and reaching $18,000 per night, the Burj al-Arab, or tower of the Arabs, the world's tallest hotel, opened on December 1, 1999. Saudi Defense Minister Prince Sultan was the suite's first guest, staying there the month before the hotel's official opening. As a guest of the premier hotel, you can take a ...Read more

The Modern Prometheus is the novel's subtitle. Prometheus, in some versions of Greek mythology, was the Titan who created mankind, and Victor's work by creating man by new means obviously reflects that creative work. Prometheus was also the bringer of fire who took fire from heaven and gave it to man. Zeus then punished Prometheus by fixing him ...Read more

Holmes never said these famous words, at least not in the canonical works written by Conan Doyle. The first appearance of “Elementary, my dear Watson” is in the 1909 PG Wodehouse novel Psmith, Journalist. However, Holmes neither says it nor does he appear in the book. Thus the first use by Sherlock Holmes himself is postulated to have ...Read more

The creme filling used in Oreo cookies one year could ice all the wedding cakes served in the United States for two years! That's 4,724,000 three-tier wedding cakes.

Electrical hearing aids were invented in 1901 by Miller R. Hutchinson.