A Plant That Can Eat Rats

February 10, 2010

Scientists have discovered a flesh-eating plant so large that it can swallow and devour rats whole. They are lured into its slipper-like mouth to drown or die of exhaustion before being slowly dissolved by digestive enzymes.

Natural history explorer Stewart McPherson, who runs Redfern Natural History Productions, discovered the plant during an expedition to Mount Victoria in the Philippines, with fellow botanists Alastair Robinson and Volker Heinrich.

The plant, a member of the ‘pitcher’ family, grows more than 4ft long. The team said in a statement: ‘That one of the largest carnivorous plants has remained undiscovered until the 21st century is remarkable.

Read more: dailymail.co.uk

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Is Mt. Everest the Highest Mountain? It Depends!

February 9, 2010

If you measure the distance to the peak of Mount Everest from sea level, then it is the highest mountain.   But if you were to measure from the center of the earth to the peak, then Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador would be considered the highest mountain on Earth.   By this measurement, Mt. Everest would be the 5th highest peak.

The summit of Mount Everest reaches a higher elevation above sea level, but the summit of Chimborazo is widely reported to be the farthest point from Earth’s center, although Huascarán is a near-tie second. Chimborazo is one degree south of the equator and the Earth’s diameter at the equator is greater than at the latitude of Everest

From googlesightseeing.com

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A Few Interesting Myths and Facts About Sleep

The National Sleep Foundation has a page up debunking a few curious myths about sleep.
Myth: Men and women are affected the same way by insomnia.
Fact: Insomnia is nearly twice as common in women than in men, and women are more likely than men to report insomnia to their healthcare professional. A woman’s sleep is uniquely [...]

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Learn the Right Way to Tie Your Shoes

via Learn the right way to tie your shoes from Runner’s World.com.

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The Great Moon Hoax

“The Great Moon Hoax” was a series of six articles that were published in the New York Sun beginning on August 25, 1835, about the supposed discovery of life and even civilization on the Moon. The discoveries were falsely attributed to Sir John Herschel, perhaps the best-known astronomer of his time.

The articles described fantastic animals [...]

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Diamond Oceans With Diamond Icebergs in Space!

Oceans of liquid diamond, filled with solid diamond icebergs, could be floating on Neptune and Uranus, according to a recent article in the journal Nature Physics.
The research, based on first detailed measurements of the melting point of diamond, found diamond behaves like water during freezing and melting, with solid forms floating atop liquid forms. The [...]

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Did NASA Invent Tang?

Who invented Tang?   You’ve probably heard that NASA is responsible for the creation of the orange powdered drink mix.   But it was actually created by William A. Mitchell for General Foods in 1957.
The mix was never very popular as a breakfast drink, which it was intended for, but gained massive popularity in 1962 [...]

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Most Played Song of the Decade

The most played song of this decade is Chasing Cars
by Snow Patrol according to UK singles chart.
Snow Patrol song Chasing Cars was the most widely played song of the decade, according to music licensing body PPL.
The 2006 track originally reached number six in the UK singles chart, but chalked up 94 weeks in the [...]

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