World Fun

30 Interesting Facts About Trees and Wood In 1872, trained forester William Ferguson, reported a fallen Mountain Ash, which was 18 feet in diameter and 435 feet long. In 1964, after his coring tool broke and getting permission from the U.S. Forest Service, a research scientist to get an accurate age measurement cut down a Bristlecone Pine, in Great Basin National Park, since named Prometheus! It turned out the tree was over 4,950 years old making it older than the Bristlecone Pine named Methuselah, which at the time was 4,803 years old. He had not only found the oldest living thing on the planet, but he had also killed it. A cross-section of the tree is on view at the Great Basin National Parks, visitor center in California.  The world’s tallest living standing hardwood tree, is a Mountain Ash named Centurion which is located in Tasmania, Australia. It is approximately 329 foot 8 3/4 inches tall. The tree with the widest {diameter} tree trunk in the world is an African Baobab....

Dragons are among the most popular and enduring of the world's mythological creatures. Dragon tales are known in many cultures, from the Americas to Europe to India to China. Though they populate our books, films, and television shows, they have a long and rich history in many forms. It's not clear when or where stories of dragons first emerged, but the huge, flying serpents were described by the ancient Greeks and Sumerians. For much of history dragons were thought of as being like any other exotic animal: sometimes useful and protective, other times harmful and dangerous. That changed when Christianity spread across the world; dragons took on a decidedly sinister interpretation and came to represent Satan. In medieval times, most people who heard anything about dragons knew them from the Bible, and it's likely that most Christians at the time believed in the literal existence of dragons. After all, Leviathan — the massive monster described in detail in the Book of...

Pirates were the criminals of the sea, trading in stolen gold, silver, alcohol, sugar and everything else - you name it, pirates were boarding ships to steal it. They enjoyed their golden age from around 1620 to around 1720 and during this time they ruled the seven seas. Here in the 21st century we're constantly bombarded with endless TV screenings of  Johnny Depp prancing around in  Pirates of the Caribbean - in fact, if you check Sky on any given Sunday afternoon there will probably be at least 4 separate channels showing one of the franchise's films. Before that it was  Pugwash  (admittedly not very badass), before him there was  Blackbeard The Pirate , and before him there was  Treasure Island  - not to mention all the ones that came in between. So with pirates constantly caricatured in film and TV it can be easy to fall into the trap of thinking of pirates as these sort of mystical, fantasy characters who ...

Human Evolution Human evolution is the lengthy process of change by which people originated from apelike ancestors. Scientific evidence shows that the physical and behavioral traits shared by all people originated from apelike ancestors and evolved over a period of approximately six million years. One of the earliest defining human traits, bipedalism -- the ability to walk on two legs -- evolved over 4 million years ago. Other important human characteristics -- such as a large and complex brain, the ability to make and use tools, and the capacity for language -- developed more recently. Many advanced traits -- including complex symbolic expression, art, and elaborate cultural diversity -- emerged mainly during the past 100,000 years. Humans are primates. Physical and genetic similarities show that the modern human species ,   Homo sapiens , has a very close relationship to another group of primate species, the apes. Humans and the great apes (large apes) of Af...

Whale sharks may not be the first species that comes to mind when you think of a shark. They are huge, graceful, and beautifully-colored. They are not voracious predators​ but feed on some of the tiniest creatures in the  ocean . Below are some fun facts about whale sharks. Whale Sharks Are the World's Largest Fish One of the most notable facts about whale sharks is that they are the world's largest fish. At a maximum length of about 65 feet and weight of 75,000 pounds, a whale shark's size rivals that of large whales. Whale Sharks Feed on Some of the Ocean's Tiniest Creatures Even though they are huge, whale sharks  feed on tiny plankton , small fish , and crustaceans.  They feed by gulping mouthfuls of water and forcing that water through their gills. Prey gets trapped in dermal denticles   and a rake-like structure called the pharynx. This amazing creature can filter over 1,500 gallons of water an hour. Whale Sharks Are Cartilaginous Fish Whale sha...