In fact, the lower 48 United States could comfortably fit inside Africa 3 times. When you look at a map however, it doesn't look as big as we just described. The reason for this is that the traditional maps that we usually see have a skewed perspective due to the fact that the Earth isn't flat like the maps are.
Check out a full size of the map here
The Sandbox tree is an evergreen native to tropical regions of the Americas, including the Amazon Rainforest. It’s best known by it's dark, pointed spines and smooth brown bark.
The spines act as a natural defense mechanism against animals, and it’s actually known as Monkey no-climb by some people. The trees, which can also grow up to 60m high, also has some interesting fruit.
The Sandbox’s fruit is a large capsule that can explode and launch seeds at 70 meters per second. Some really ripe pods can send the seed up to 100 meters away from the tree. It makes a very distinct explosive sound, which leads to another nickname for this tree: The Dynamite tree.
As if all that wasn’t defense enough, the sap of the tree is also poisonous. So much so, that fishermen use it to poison fish and Caribs even make arrow poison from the sap.
We all know art is inspired by life. But we sometimes forget that art has HUGE effect on life as well. So much so, that it is even directly involved in deaths. A multiple regression analysis of 49 metropolis areas show that the greater the airtime devoted the country music, the greater the white suicide rate.
This effect is independant of divorce, poverty, and gun availibility. In other words, it seems like country music not only correlates with suicide rates but also, to some degree, causes the suicide rates. Some researchers hypothesize that this may be because the themes found in country music (heartbreak, lonliness, isolation, etc.)
Foster a suicidal mood among people who are depressed. To read the full report, check out the source!
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Some awesome lists!
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This sounds like a very sci-fi headline but it’s true. In 1998, NASA managed to grow insulin crystals that were much smaller than the ones grown on earth.
How small? They compared it to being able to seeing grains of powdered sugar on a donut instead of just the donut from 180 miles away. In other words, space insulin is a lot lot tinier than the Earth one.
The smaller size makes it easier for the body to absorb it. How much easier? Well, they reduced the need for insulin intake from 1-3 times a day to just once every three days!
Ant colonies are interesting in that they revolve around the queen ant. She lays the eggs while the other ants do the work to keep the colony going. However, a recent study found that the queen ant, despite her physical difference, is not genetically the same as the rest of the ants.
This makes it possible to replace the queen should she die. If that happens, one of the worker ants will assume the role of "pseudoqueen." Once it takes on the role, the ant will swell to a larger size and begin laying eggs. The new queen will also live longer than it would have if it remained a mere worker.
