Extreme Ironing

Extreme Ironing is an extreme sport in which people take an ironing board to a remote location and iron items of clothing. According to Extreme Ironing Bureau, extreme ironing is "the latest danger sport that combines the thrills of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well-pressed shirt."

Some locations where such performances have taken place include a mountainside of a difficult climb; a forest; in a canoe; while skiing or snowboarding; on top of large bronze statues; in the middle of a street; underwater; in the middle of the M1 Motorway; whilst parachuting and under the ice cover of a lake. The performances have been conducted solo or by groups.

Extreme Ironing started in the city of Leicester in the UK, in the summer of 1997. When mild mannered Steam, returned home after a long day in the knitwear factory, the last thing he wanted to do was start on a pile of ironing. The sun was shining and Phil preferred the idea of an evening out pursuing his hobby of rock climbing. Then it occurred to him to combine these activities into an extreme sport and the result was the sport of extreme ironing. In the beginning extreme ironists used very long extension cords, but now they use battery powered irons.

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Whole trees covered with spiders’ web

Trees covered in ghostlike cocoons line the edges of a submerged farm field in the Pakistani village of Sindh, where 2010's massive floods drove millions of spiders and possibly other insects into the trees to spin their webs.

Beginning July 2010, unprecedented monsoons dropped nearly ten years' worth of rainfall on Pakistan in one week, swelling the country's rivers. The water was slow to recede, creating vast pools of stagnant water across the countryside.

Locals said that they’d never seen anything like it before. It was said to be a slow motion type of disaster. Spiders and other insects sought refuge in the trees. There were so many that entire trees became massive cocoons for them. They spun webs that covered the trees as a whole. People standing under the trees had lots of little spiders falling down on their heads.

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Tree of Life

The Tree of Life located in Bahrain is approximately 400 year-old 32 feet or 9.75 meter high. The tree is of Prosopis cineraria genus is located 1.2 miles or 2 kilometers from Jebel Dukhan or Mountain of Smoke, which is a famous hill in Bahrain that is the highest point of the country. The tree stands on top of a 25-foot or 7.6-meter high sandy hill.

The tree is a local tourist attraction, as it is the only major tree growing in the area. The tree is visited by approximately 50,000 tourists every year and the tree often is damaged by graffiti carvings. It is also believed to be the site for cults practicing ancient rites.

Trees and shrubs of Prosopis genus are extremely well adapted to arid environments with one of the deepest known root systems

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The real name of Bangkok

Full name of Bangkok, written in front of

Bangkok Administrative Building

Bangkok is the capital of Thailand and the largest city in the country. But it is typically only called Bangkok in English. In Thai, it is often called Krung Thep Maka Nakhon, or just Krung Thep.

This ceremonial name or full name uses two ancient Indian languages, Pāli and Sanskrit, initiated with the only original Thai word Krung which means "capital". It can actually be written as Krung-dēvamahānagara amararatanakosindra mahindrāyudhyā mahātilakabhava navaratanarājadhānī purīramya uttamarājanivēsana mahāsthāna amaravimāna avatārasthitya shakrasdattiya vishnukarmaprasiddhi.

It translates to "The city of angels, the great city, the eternal jewel city, the impregnable city of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukarma".

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Glowing Sea Pen

 The phosphorescent sea pen was found by marine surveyors off the coast of Scotland.

Each sea pen named for its quill pen-like appearance is made up of a colony of polyps, or small, anemone-like individuals that lights up when touched. In Scotland, sea pens are common in muddy areas along the coast.

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A brainless and faceless fish

A brainless "fish" without a face, the elusive Amphioxus was seen in the waters off Tankerness in Orkney.

According to marine ecologist, the rarely seen species is not a true fish; it's an evolutionary step between invertebrates and vertebrates. It has a nerve cord running down its back, a precursor to a proper backbone.

The white structure that resembles a spine is actually the species' gonads, which are located in its belly.

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Woman impregnated by squid

A 63-year old woman from South Korea became pregnant with 12 baby squid while eating a portion of cooked squid.

She claimed to have felt a prickling sensation in her mouth while chewing on the sperm sacks of squid, which forcefully shoot sperm that try to embed themselves when they land.

The lady went to doctors complaining of what they described as 'bug-like organisms' in her mouth. In fact, doctors found baby cephalopods, which are small pods covered in adhesive to make them stick.

Doctors were only able to formally identify the pods as squid spermatophores after they removed them from the victim's gums, tongue and cheek.

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Sleeping Beauty Syndrome

15-year-old girl in the UK has just woken from two months of almost solid sleep due to an extremely rare medical condition. Stacey Comerford from Shropshire in the UK is one of just 1000 people alive to suffer from Kleine-Levin syndrome, commonly known as Sleeping Beauty Syndrome. The disorder means she sleeps for 20 hours a day for weeks at a time. When she awakes during these 'episodes', she's barely able to sip water or get any food down.

Kleine-Levin Syndrome also known as Sleeping Beauty Syndrome is a neurological disorder characterized by recurring periods of excessive amounts of sleeping and eating. At the onset of an episode the patient becomes drowsy and sleeps for most of the day and night, waking only to eat or go to the bathroom. They also experience confusion, disorientation, complete lack of energy and lack of emotions. Individuals are not able to attend school or work or care for themselves. Most are bedridden, tired, and uncommunicative even when awake.

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Rolling Through The Bay - Toothpick Sculpture

Rolling through the bay is an abstract toothpick sculpture of San Francisco made by Scott Weaver. It has about 100,000 of toothpicks. The amazing part, is that is has four ping pong ball paths that roll through different landmarks of San Francisco. It was built in about 3000 hours over a period of 34 years and the only glue used is Elmer’s.

His friends and family members also collect toothpicks in their travels for him. For example, some of the trees in Golden Gate Park are made from toothpicks from Kenya, Morocco, Spain, West Germany and Italy. The heart inside the Palace of Fine Arts is made out of toothpicks people threw at their wedding.

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Is cucumber a fruit or vegetable?

To know whether cucumber is a fruit or vegetable, you need to know what is the difference between a fruit and a vegetable. If it has the seeds, then technically, it is a fruit. The cucumbers are the matured ovaries of a flower and therefore contain seeds. This, of course, makes cucumbers a fruit. It also makes tomatoes, squash, green beans and melons all fruits as well.

Prometheus Tree - The oldest tree in the world



The cut stump of the Prometheus tree

Prometheus tree was the oldest known non-clonal organism, a Great Basin Bristlecone Pine (Pinus longaeva) tree growing near the tree line on Wheeler Peak in eastern Nevada, United States. The tree, which was at least 4862 years old and possibly more than 5000 years, was cut down in 1964 by a graduate student and United States Forest Service personnel for research purposes. The name of the tree refers to the mythological figure Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods and gave it to man.

Cutting down of Prometheus was an important factor in the movement to protect bristlecones and the Wheeler Peak groves in particular. There had been a movement to protect the mountain and contiguous areas in a national park before the incident, and 22 years later the area gained national park status.

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Length of The Great Wall of China

A new archaeological study, which started in 2007 and took five years to complete, has measured the Great Wall of China at 21,196.18km long - that is well over twice as long as the previous mark of 8,850km.

It seems the discrepancy in the original distance is down to the fact the previous mark of 8,850km was largely based on historical records.

The Great Wall was originally built more than 2,200 years ago to protect China's north border from foreign invaders.

Bluey - The oldest dog ever lived

Bluey (7 June 1910 – 14 November 1939) was an Australian cattle dog owned by Les and Esma Hall of Rochester, Victoria, Australia, which, according to an anecdotal report, lived 29 years, 6 months and 12 days, but the record is unverified. Bluey holds the world record for the oldest dog, according to Guinness World Records, who cite the anecdotal reports as being "reliable".

The Australian Cattle Dog is a breed of herding dog originally developed in Australia for droving cattle over long distances across rough terrain. In the 19th century, New South Wales cattle farmer Thomas Hall crossed the dogs used by drovers in his parents' home county, Northumberland, with dingoes he had tamed. The resulting dogs were known as Halls Heelers. After Hall's death in 1870, the dogs became available beyond the Hall family and their associates, and were subsequently developed into two modern breeds, the Australian Cattle Dog and the Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog.

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Golden poison dart frog

The golden poison dart frog is considered one of the most toxic animals on Earth. A single frog has enough venom to kill ten grown men. They range from less than an inch to two and a half inches in body length. These are more than 100 poison dart frog species living in the rainforests of Central and South America and on a few Hawaiian Islands. Poison dart frogs are so named because some Amerindian tribes have used their secretions to poison their darts.

They are bright in color, which can be yellow, orange, or pale green, depending on their particular range. The frog's color pattern is aposematic, which is a warning pigmentation to warn predators of its toxicity. The golden poison frog's skin is densely coated in alkaloid poison, one of a number of poisons common to dart frogs, which prevents nerves from transmitting impulses, leaving the muscles in an inactive state of contraction. This can lead to heart failure or fibrillation. Alkaloid batrachotoxins can be stored by frogs for years after the frog is deprived of a food-based source, and such toxins do not readily deteriorate, even when transferred to another surface. Chickens and dogs have died from contact with a paper towel on which a frog had walked.

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Chagas: The new AIDS

Chagas, a tropical disease spread by insects has infected more than 8 million people, most of them in Latin and Central America.

The editorial, published by the Public Library of Science's Neglected Tropical Diseases, said the spread of the disease is reminiscent of the early years of HIV.

Both diseases disproportionately affect people living in poverty, both are chronic conditions requiring prolonged, expensive treatment, and as with patients in the first two decades of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, most patients with Chagas disease do not have access to health care facilities.

Unlike HIV, Chagas is not a sexually-transmitted disease. It is caused by parasites transmitted to humans by blood-sucking insects. The insect, known as the kissing bug bites you on the face. When you wake up and scratch the itch, the parasite moves into the wound and you're infected.

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Two Sydney men named baby's parents

Two men have been declared the parents of a toddler born through a surrogate, after a New South Wales court in Australia ruled it was in the child's best interests.

The birth mother agreed to give up recognition on the birth certificate, leaving only the names of the Sydney same-sex couple on the document.

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Dark chocolate could prevent heart problem

According to researchers based in Melbourne, eating about 100g of dark chocolate daily could help prevent heart problems in high risk people. Dark chocolate is rich in components called polyphenols, especially flavonoids, which can have anti-inflammatory and blood pressure lowering effects.

Melbourne researchers surveyed data on 2000 people at risk of developing heart disease and estimated the benefits to their health of eating 100g of dark chocolate a day after a decade.

Using a best-case scenario of 100 per cent compliance, the researchers showed that daily dark chocolate consumption could avert about 85 fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks and strokes, per 10,000 people treated over 10 years.

It also showed that spending $40 per person a year on prevention strategies using dark chocolate would be cost-effective.

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