Lake Baikal in Russia is a thousand times older than any other lake on Earth.
The Hundred Years War lasted for 116 years.
The original 3x3x3 Rubik’s Cube has 43252003274489856000 different states; that is to say, over 43 quintillion.
Humans have the same number of hair follicles as chimpanzees.
Rehoboam, Methuselah, Salmanazar, Balthazar, Nebuchadnezzar, Melchior, Solomon, Goliath and Melchizedek are all sizes of champagne bottle.
See other: Quite Interesting Facts
Osiatynski: Do you mean that we may be, by virtue of this accidental origin of science, capable of development of some disciplines of science and incapable of others? And that we are not conscious of that?
Chomsky: Yes, as human beings we are not too conscious of that because we naturally assume that our mental structures are universal. But I suppose an outside biologist looking at us would see something very different. He would see that, like other organisms, we have a narrow sphere within which we are very good, but that sphere is very limited. And that, in fact, the very achievements we can have within that sphere are related to lack of achievements in other spheres.
To construct a scientific theory from the data and to be able to recognize that it is a reasonable theory is possible only if there are some very sharp restrictive principles that lead you to go in one direction and not in another direction. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have science at all, merely randomly chosen hypotheses. Then, human genius may have limitless opportunities to develop in one direction, but at the same time this genius will not go in other directions. And those two considerations are related. The very properties of the human mind that provide an enormous scope for human genius in some domains will serve as barriers to progress in other domains, just as the properties that enable each child to acquire a complex and highly articulated human language block the acquisition of other imaginable linguistic systems.
– Wiktor Osiatynski (ed.), Contrasts: Soviet and American Thinkers Discuss the Future (MacMillan, 1984), pp. 95-101
The movement through a series of events, or points in time; specifically, the advancement to a higher or more developed state through development or growth.
“Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.”
– Frank Zappa
“It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it.”
– Jacob Bronowski
Helena
Consider, for instance, the human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV is now the most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States. The virus infects over half the American population and causes nearly five thousand women to die each year from cervical cancer; the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that more than two hundred thousand die worldwide. This is calamitous.
Galene
Fortunately, we now have a vaccine for HPV that appears to be both safe and effective. The vaccine produced 100 percent immunity in the six thousand women who received it as part of a clinical trial.
Helena
And yet, Christian conservatives in the United States government have resisted a vaccination program on the grounds that HPV is a valuable impediment to premarital sex. Continue reading
Birth of a planet
4.5 billion years ago
Earth grew from a cloud of dust and rocks surrounding the young Sun. Earth formed when some of these rocks collided. Eventually they were massive enough to attract other rocks with the force of gravity, and vacuumed up all the nearby junk, becoming the Earth. The Moon probably formed soon after, when a planet-sized chunk of rock smashed into the Earth and threw up a huge cloud of debris. This condensed into the Moon.
See other: History of Life
“Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into bouillon cubes.”
– John Le Carre
In Longyearbyen, Norway, it is illegal to die.
After sex, a ladybird’s orgasm can last for 30 minutes.
The Latin palmo means ‘to print the palm of the hand’ or ‘to tie up a vine’.
People with a rare genetic disorder known as immigration delay disease have no fingerprints.
The United States of America maintains a military presence in 148 of the 192 United Nations countries.
See other: Quite Interesting Facts
Knowledge Guild 