25 Amazing Earth Facts You Should Know

Planet Earth is undoubtedly the most incredible planet in the entire universe. Learn about the most amazing Earth facts that makes our planet such a wonderful place to be. 

1. The Earth is the only planet that is not named after a Greek God. The name 'Earth' comes from Anglo-Saxon, originally meaning ground or soil.

2. Earth is not round. The Earth is not flat either. Rather it is an oblate spheroid. This only means that the earth is not a perfect sphere but is flat at the North and South poles.

3. Our Earth is the densest planet in the solar system. At an average density of 5.5 g/cm, our world beats all the other planets when it comes to being the densest. Scientists believe that the massive amounts of iron in our planet’s core is what makes it so dense.

4. Earth's rotation is slowing down with time. This means that days are getting longer and longer. Thus an extra second, called a leap second is added after every few years to account for the Earth's slow rotation.

5. The Earth actually has two moons. The second moon which is actually the asteroid 3753 orbits the earth. It was discovered in 1986 and is dubbed as the "Earth's Strange Companion". The asteroid is unique in the fact that it has a horse shoe orbit.

6. Life on Earth is largely due to the Moon. According to a theory, life originated in tidal waves which are created by the Moon's gravitation. Another one suggests that tides may have set up conditions for sea creatures to transition and become the first land animals. Yes, we all should be thankful to the Moon.

7. The Earth had a twin brother, Theia. It was roughly the size of Mars and the two planets shared a single orbit until they both collided. Theia was absorbed by Earth and the remaining mass created the Moon. The mass donated by Theia gave Earth the gravity necessary to sustain a substantial atmosphere.

8. Earth's core is made up of a solid ball of iron 1,500 miles wide. Although, it is white hot, the enormous pressure at the planet's heart is what keeps the iron ball solid.

9. Everybody knows the great Mount Everest. Standing at an impressive 29,035 feet, it is the tallest mountain on Earth. However, due to fact that the earth is not really a perfect sphere, anything at the equator is at a slightly greater distance from the Earth's center. This means that Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador, at 20, 564 feet, is taller than Mount Everest by about 1.5 miles.

10. If you could evaporate all the water out of all the oceans and spread the resulting salt over all the land on Earth, you would have a five hundred-foot layer coating everything.

11. Our Earth is the only planet in the milky way that comes with tectonic plates.

12. The Earth is dubbed as the 'Blue Planet'. This is because of the blue color of the oceans that cover almost 70% of our planet.

13. The Earth is not only a planet that supports life, it itself is a living organism. According to the Gaia Hypothesis, the Earth is an organic system which has the ability to self-regulate in order to maintain life. Researches are on the way to prove the hypothesis and with the recent advancements, we are very close to know if the Earth is really alive or not.

14. The driest place on Earth is the Atacama desert in South America. The average rainfall in the Atacama is 0.004 inches per year. Which means that it gets only 4 inches of rain in a thousand years. The last time rain was recorded in the area was in the mid 1700's.

15. The deepest point on Earth is the Mariana Trench. The trench is so deep, that even the Mount Everest can sink in it.

16. The longest place name in the world is Krung thep maha nakorn amorn ratana kosin­mahintar ayutthay amaha dilok phop noppa ratrajathani burirom udom rajaniwes­mahasat harn amorn phimarn avatarn sathit sakkattiya visanukamprasit (155 letters) in Thailand. It means:

The land of angels, the great city of immortality, of devine gems, the great angelic land unconquerable land of nine nobel gems, the royal city, a pleasant capital place of the Royal Palace, eternal land of angels and reincarnated spirits predestined and created by the highest Devas.”

If you think you never knew this place, then let me tell you that it is one of the most famous cities in the world. The one we call, Bangkok.

17. Earth is the brightest planet in the solar system. This is because sunlight is reflected off the water in our oceans. That's probably why it is called the 'Blue Marble'.

18. The Amazon Rainforest is the most bio diverse place on Earth. One in ten of all species on Earth are found here.

19. The vast oceans that cover about 70% of our Earth are filled with riches. These mighty seas hold more than 20 million tons of gold. But unfortunately the precious metal is so heavily diluted that each litre of seawater contains 13 billionths of a gram of gold. So, think again before you dive in for the treasures.

20. Antarctica is the Earth's ice box. The frozen continent contains almost 90% of all the ice and 70% of all the fresh water on the planet. It has as much ice as the Atlantic ocean has water.

21. Earth grows 1 cm every 100 years. This is because of the dust from space.

22. Only 1% of the total land is inhabited by humans.

23. Earth's gravity varies from place to place. This is due to the uneven distribution of the Earth's mass.

24. Our atmosphere is not just a bunch of gases. It is much more than that. The atmosphere is made up of seven layers, each with its own particular function. For examples, the first one is the troposphere. This is where all the weather activities take place.

25. Our Earth is at a distance of approximately 93 million miles from the sun. This means that light from the sun takes about 8 minutes and 19 seconds to reach us.

10 Pictures of Weird Cloud Formations

Check out our collection of the weirdest cloud formations and rise your head in amazement.

The Lion King of the skies

Bunny on the hop!

There's no better helping hand than this one.

Elephant in sky

Something fishy...

Head above the clouds

GREAT WHITE...

I always wished for a lick of this one...

Keep calm and smile :)

UFO

Top 15 Valentine's Day Fun Facts

Valentine's day is the festival of love and emotions. Check out our weirdest Valentine's day fun facts to make the day more special for you and your loved one.

1. More than 50 million roses are exchanged worldwide on Valentine's day each year.

2. 73% of the flowers bought on Valentine's day are by men. While only 27% are bought by women.

3. Valentine's day is named after Saint Valentine. Saint Valentine is the patron saint of lovers. But few people know that he was also the patron saint of greetings, travelers, young people, and even epilepsy, plague and bee keepers.

4. The letter 'X' first symbolized a kiss in medieval times. It is believed that people who could not write their names, signed with an 'X'. The 'X' was then kissed to show their emotions.

5. 15% US women send flowers to themselves on Valentine's day.

6. Survey shows that most girls prefer a good dinner over any other gift. So, book a table and score points!

7. Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of telephone, patented his invention on the Valentine's day. So, Valentine's day gave us telephones. Penicillin was also introduced on Valentine's day.

8. In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew the names from a bowl to see who would be their Valentine. They would wear this name pinned on their sleeves for one week. This was done so that it becomes easy for other people to know your true feelings. This was known as "to wear your heart on your sleeve".

9. Red roses are the most popular gifts on Valentine's day. Red has traditionally been the color of love and symbolizes strong emotions. Thus, red roses are thought to be the perfect objects to show off the adornment on the special day.

10. If you're a teacher, then we have a good news for you on Valentine's day. According to a study, Teachers receive the most number of Valentine cards. Each year, children between 6 and 10 give about 650 million cards to their teachers.

11. In Germany, young girls would plant onions in a pot on Valentine's Day, and place the name of a boy next to each onion. They believed that they would marry the boy whose name was nearest to the first onion to grow.

12. During the 1700's, girls in England would eat a hard boiled egg, along with the shell, on Valentine's day eve. Doing so, they hoped that they would dream their future husband that night.

13. Verona, the Italian city where Shakespeare's play lovers Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000 letters every year sent to Juliet on Valentine's Day.

14. Contrary to the common conception, more than 50% women don't find Valentine's day romantic at all. Even worse, more than 75% doesn't like being proposed on Valentine's day. So, think twice if you're planning to do so.

15. Recent surveys revealed that on average, men spend about $158 dollars on Valentine's day. This is twice as compared to the $75 spend by women. Now, whose got the bigger heart? ;)

Weird Weapons: 6 Incredible Animals Used as Weapons of War

Animals have always accompanied men at war. They have carried our soldiers and pulled our cannons. If you think that's all, then check out these stories of some of the craziest uses of animals in war.

Anti tank Dogs

This is one of the worst examples of war brutality. Anti tank dogs were first developed by the Soviet Union to take down German tanks during World War II. The idea was simple yet effective. Dogs were trained to find food under tanks and then starved before a battle. The dogs were then released in battle, jumping under tanks hoping for food. Each dog carried a 10-12 kg bomb which had a lever that detonated the bomb when the dog dived under the tank.

According to Soviet sources, the results was quite impressive. The anti tank dogs managed to destroy about 300 German tanks. But it also had its drawbacks. One of the most serious problems was that the dogs were often frightened by gun fires and returned to the trenches, killing Soviet soldiers. To tackle this, Soviet soldiers were ordered to shoot any returning dogs.
Thus, Soviets dropped the use of anti tank dogs in 1942. USA also used the strategy against fortification.

Bat Bombs

The bat bomb can sound something out of a fiction novel, but bats actually carried bombs during World War II. The bizarre notion was sparked in the mind of Lytle Adams, a Pennsylvanian dentist who carried interests in much more than teeth.
After watching the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Adams came up with an unusual strategy againstthe island nation. He visualized the use of bats to spread incendiaries in Japanese cities. Surprisingly, the idea was very well appreciated as most of Japanese houses were made up of flammable materials like wood and paper and Adam's method would likely cause chaos without many casualties. Also bats were quite suitable for the project as they could carry loads equal to their own weight.
The plan was to capture bats and put them into cooled containers where they would hibernate. Small bombs were then attached to the bat's backs. The containers were dropped from high altitudes. The containers would in mid air, releasing thousands of bats at a time. At daytime, the bats would look for dark places, most of them settling in the attics of houses. The bombs will be activated by a timer, burning whole Japanese buildings to the ground.
The U.S military tested Adam's theory, spending around $2 million on the project. But after only a single year in testing, the idea was dropped as it was believed that it was important to focus on a much more effective weapon, the atomic bomb.

Mare Distraction

One of the most effective war strategies is to distract your enemy's war efforts. This strategy has been used for centuries, but one man in the ancient world took it one step further.
King Thutmoss III is the one of the greatest Pharoahs of ancient Egypt. The military led his army in countless battles and built the largest egyptian empire.
The King of Kadesh, a dynasty in what is now Syria, feared to lose his kingdom to Thutmoss. He needed to find the weak link in Thutmoss' forces in order to save his throne. And that is what he actually found.
The King of Kadesh came up with a weird yet intelligent move. He knew that Thutmoss rode on a chariot pulled by stallions. That is where he found the weak link. Right in the heart of the battle, King Kadesh set loose a mare in heat as a distraction.
Ancient records show that the idea worked well, causing a total disrupt among enemy lines. The move became quite famous and was widely used at the time.

Explosive Rats

In 1941, Britain had almost no hope in World War II. They had to come up with something to keep their chances alive. The British were looking for something that could put the Germans on the back foot and so they came up with the Rat bomb.
What really was the rat bomb? Well, that's an easy question. The rat bombs were nothing but actual rat carcasses filled with explosives. The British hoped that if their rat bombs could reach the German coal supplies, they could be shoveled into the boilers along with the coal, detonating by the heat. It was estimated that the bombs could cause a serious damage to German infrastructure.
Bad luck for the British that the Germans soon found out about the plans and the plan was dropped.

Cat Guidance System

Before all the sophisticated guidance systems, the Americans came up with the wackiest solution to guide their missiles to the target. Cats have a natural abhorrence for getting wet. So, a U.S military mastermind came up with the thought that if a cat be attached to a bomb and dropped in the vicinity of an enemy ship, the cat's instinct to avoid water would help guide the bomb to the target.
Amazingly enough, the so called 'genius' never really explained how a little creature like the cat could guide a huge bomb. There were also many more variables that remained unanswered and that is probably why the plan never got past the drawing table.

Monkeys on Fire

Monkeys have always had their special place because of their unusual intelligence. No wonder, they've been used in wars for a long time.
The first known use of monkeys in war was in ancient China. In a battle between between the Southern Song forces and an army of the Yanzhou, monkeys were used as live incendiary devices. They were clothed in straw, dipped in oil and set on fire. The panicked creatures were then set loose in enemy camps, causing fire in the tents.

Obamadon: Lizard Now Bears Barack Obama's Name

A recently discovered extinct lizard species have been named 'Obamadon', after the American President Barack Obama.

The 44th American President Barack Obama has earned himself another honor (after the American presidency and the Noble prize for peace). He now has a lizard species named after him i.e Obamadon.
The small insect eating lizard lived about 65 million years ago but was wiped out with the rest of the dinosaurs. It was discoverd in 1974 in Montana. The lizard was earlier classified as Leptochamops denticulatus but recent study showed that it was actually a new species.
It was not the president's dynamic personality that urged the researcher at the Yale University to give the lizard his name. It was rather his toothy smile.
The name given to the lizard is 'Obamadon Gracilis'. Where 'Obamadon' means Obama's teeth and Gracilis means slender.

"The lizard has these very tall, straight teeth and Obama has these tall, straight incisors and a great smile," said Nick Longrich, a paleontologist at the school in New Haven, Connecticut.

The researchers had to wait until the American elections to name the lizard.

"It would look like we were kicking him when he's down if he lost and we named this extinct lizard after him," Nick Longrich.

The Lost Islands of Socotra, Yemen

Socotra is a collection of 4 islands cut away from the rest of the world about 6 million years ago. It is one of the most isolated places on earth. Socotra's long isolation and fierce climate has given birth to a unique variety of endemic flora, giving Socotra the distinction of being 'the most alien looking place on earth'.

Socotra's enchanting islands lie about 240 km east of the Horn of Africa and 380 km south of the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen. Socotra, the 'Galapagos of Indian Ocean', is the largest island in the Middle East and is known to the world as one of the best sites to witness biodiversity.
The name 'Socotra' comes from Sanskrit 'dvipa sukhadhara' meaning 'island of bliss'. I personally believe that it is the peace and the natural grace of the place that earned it such a name.

Socotra has a seriously harsh climate. The average temperature around the year is about 25 degrees Centigrade. Rains are very scanty and strong winds hit the island in monsoon.

Socotra's geography is also a major reason why it is such a fascinating place. Its little patch of land has a diverse geography. The landscape consists of features like plains, plateaus, sandy beaches and mountains as high as 1503 meters. The plateaus are full of caves, some of which go as deep as 7 km. There are sand dunes and amazing beaches which add to the awesomeness of the place.

Inspite of the scorching temperature, Socotra supports one of the world's most amazing plant life. For some people, it is the fierce heat itself and the lack of water that has helped Socotra's flora to evolve in such unique forms.
Socotra is home to a total of 825 plant species, out of which about one third are endemic i.e found nowhere on earth. Which makes Socotra one of the world's largest endemic plant populations.

Dragon Blood Tree

This is one of Socotra's most popular plant. It is named the Dragon's Blood Tree. It's unique quality doesn't lie in it's strange shape but the red sap it produces which is used to make crystals which are used for dyeing and for medicines.

Socotra Bunting	Socotra Cormorant
Socotra Lizard

Socotra also offers a diverse show of fauna, with birds mostly dominating the environment. Socotra has about 140 species of birds which make it a heaven for bird watchers. Out of the 140, 10 species are endemic. The most important birds found on Socotra are the Socotra warbler, Socotra sunbird, starling, bunting, sparrow and cisticola.
Socotra also has some small reptiles with mammals only present in the form bats and feral cats.

The misty Socotra city

The 4 islands of Socotra have a total population of about 70,000. The inhabitants are mostly of Arabian and African origin who speak a language called Socotri, the language itself being endemic. They are peaceful, joyful, and hospitable. For me, they all deserve a big thankful hug for conserving this amazing ecosystem for the rest of the world.

Toddler almost killed after his egg collection hatches into Eastern Brown Snakes

Kyle Cummings, a 3-year old toddler, was almost killed when his egg collection hatched into Eastern Brown snakes.

It all started about a few weeks ago, when Kyle Cummings came across with a clutch of nine eggs while playing in his family's 3 acre property near the city of Townsville, in Queensland state. Unaware of what the eggs actually carried, the young wildlife enthusiast brought the eggs home and kept them inside a box, leaving the box in the warmth of his bedroom closet.
It was not until Donna Sim, Kyle's mother, lost her soul in fright when she found the baby snakes writhing in her son's wardrobe. Seven of the nine eggs had hatched into deadly eastern browns.

"I was pretty shocked, particularly because I don't like snakes," Sim told the Townsville Bulletin newspaper.

 Fortunately, Kyle had closed the box tight enough so as to confine the Eastern Browns.
Reptile specialist Trish Prendergast, who is also the Townsville-based reptile coordinator of the volunteer group North Queensland Wildlife Care, was handed the container on Tuesday and released the snakes into the wild that night. Trish said that Kyle Cummings could have been killed if he had handled the eastern brown snakes - the world's most venomous species on land after Australia's inland taipan.

"If he'd opened the container he might not be here today." she said

Snakes kill 3-4 people each year in Australia, most of them as a result of bites from Eastern Brown snakes.