Ron was almost killed by J.K. Rowling in the Harry Potter series!

In the lead-up to the release of the last Harry Potter movie on DVD, J.K. Rowling is revealing a slew of details behind her creative process. One of the most interesting tidbit she revealed is that she seriously considered killing off Ron Weasley!

She says that she considered killing off Ron "around the middle of the series" when she felt in a dark place. Can you imagine how different the series would have been if Ron had died around the Goblet of Fire, or the Order of the Phoenix? 

She also revealed she considered killing Hagrid, and that Remus Lupin's death was not planned. Hagrid' she says, got spared because a bookended image of Hagrid carrying a 'dead' Harry, just like Hagrid carrying a baby Harry stuck in her mind throughout the writing of the whole series. Remus Lupin, on the other hand, was killed because she realized that one of the most awful horrors of war is that some children are left without parents. She thought that killing off a set of parents that readers grew fond of would be good at illustrating that point!

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Manhattan had 47% more people in 1910 than in 2010!

Manhattan is the most densely populated county in the US. Despite it being the busiest and for many thing, the trade center of the United States, it reached its population peak over 100 years ago! In the 1910 census, it was found that there were 2.3m people living in Manhattan. From then on, population decreased on every census until the year 2000, when it reached a low of 1.53m people.

In 2010, the population had grown to 1.58m, which means that there were 47% more people living in Manhattan in 1910! We assume that the reason for this trend is that as businesses moved into the city, it became increasingly more expensive to live there, so people moved to the suburbs and other areas of the New York City area.

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Dolphins can tell humans apart from other sea creatures using their sonar!

Dolphins and humans, both being mammals, share a more similar skeletal structure than dolphins do with other sea creatures. Scientists think that they are able to recognize humans using this sense. They even appear to be fascinated with pregnant women, because they can sense the embryo growing inside them!

Dolphins also help drowning victims by bringing them up to the surface, presumably because they understand that mammals, like them, can also drown. Check out the video for more info!

The traditional Thanksgiving Turkey looks nothing like the one we actually eat!

The kind we traditionally picture when we think of Thanksgiving is from a breed called Bronze turkey which is listed as in danger of extinction! The domestic turkey that most people eat during Thanksgiving is from a breed called White turkey. It's far larger than the traditionally pictured one, usually weighs twice as much and is unable to fly. Check out the picture on the right to see how different they are!

The Power Rangers were banned in New Zealand until 2011, despite the fact that the show is filmed there!

In 1994 the New Zealand Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) decided to uphold a number of complaints from concerned parents about the levels of violence in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers show. The complaints said that the show taught that violence was the best way to resolve conflict and parents feared that little kids would have increased levels of aggression as a result of watching the show. 

When the BSA made its decision, the show was all but cancelled by the TV station, in the middle of the show's second season. For years the show was hard to find on DVD and video. The funny twist in this is that starting with the later seasons, like "Power Rangers: Mystic Force" and "Power Rangers: Jungle Fury," the show was actually filmed ON New Zealand. The show remained missing from TV sets in the island-country until the release of the 2011 show "Power Rangers Samurai."

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