Repository of world's most interesting facts http://www.interestingfacts.org/ <![CDATA[Modern Olympic Games were created in 1894, by a French educator Baron Pierre de Coubertin. However, Olympic Games date back to 776 B.C when they were celebrated as a religious festival. Around 393 A.D games were canceled because they represented pagan festival and celebration of the Greek God Zeus. Ancient Greek athletes performed naked that is why today we have the word gymnasium, "gymnos" in Greek means naked. The five interconnected Olympic rings represent the five significant continents of the world: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania. China won the most gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Games and today's gold medals are silver covered with a thin coat of gold. ]]> http://www.interestingfacts.org/fact/614 <![CDATA[Earwigs (Order Dermaptera) are small bugs that got their name from the myth that they climb into people's ears and therein lay their eggs or tunnel into the brain. Earwigs also have two penises! Both are larger than it's body and if it needs the second one just in case one of them snaps off! "It's an interesting phenomenon," says Mike Siva-Jothy of the University of Sheffield, UK. He thinks there must be some evolutionary advantage to the earwig's "unusually long" and fragile organs. ]]> http://www.interestingfacts.org/fact/612 <![CDATA[When the star ten times more massive than our own Sun, explodes (Supernova) it leaves behind the strangest phenomenon in the Universe. The Black Hole. After explosion what is left behind is heavy core of subatomic particles, a Neutron Star. It can be very small, but with enormous density. Scientists calculated that approximately one teaspoon of Neutron Star would weight around billions of tons. The gravitational pressure of this highly dense object is so large that it can bend fabric of time and space. This theory is based on Einstein's proposition that space and time are woven together in a flexible fabric. Massive objects like Sun warp the fabric of space and time and pull smaller objects like Earth. Very large Neutron Star can warp time and space fabric so much that it could create a hole where gravity is so strong that not even light could escape. Black Holes are pulling everything around them closer to the center of the hole. In some sense black holes are creators of the galaxies since they are pulling planets and stars towards the spiral center. Each galaxy has a Black Hole and occasionally galaxies collide together because of the gravitational pull from the larger black holes. It is expected that in 5 billion years Andromeda galaxy will collide with our Milky Way galaxy. ]]> http://www.interestingfacts.org/fact/600 <![CDATA[Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. Lorem Ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC. This book is a treatise on the theory of ethics, very popular during the Renaissance. The first line of Lorem Ipsum, "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet..", comes from a line in section 1.10.32. ]]> http://www.interestingfacts.org/fact/595 <![CDATA[VY Canis Majoris is the largest star known to man. It is a red Hypergiant, located in the Milky way and measuring between 1800 to 2100 solar radii. One Radius is equal to the current radius of the Sun and it is approximately 432,450 miles (695,500 kilometers). VY Canis Majoris is so large that if our Sun were replaced by it, its surface would extend to (or maybe even pass) the orbit of Saturn. ]]> http://www.interestingfacts.org/fact/570 <![CDATA[Wales (country that is part of the United Kingdom), there is a village called Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (58 letters), which in English means "Saint Mary's Church in the hollow of white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of Saint Tysilio near the red cave." The locals call it Llanfairpwll. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.com is the longest single word .com domain name in the world. ]]> http://www.interestingfacts.org/fact/569 <![CDATA[Barack Hussein Obama (Known as Berry in high school) was born Aug. 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Barack's mother was a white Christian from Kansas and his father was Muslim from Kenya. His name means "one who is blessed" in Swahili, but he was known as "O'Bomber" because of his basketball skills during the high school years. Interesting facts about Barack Obama: he tried cocaine and marijuana, Barack uses Apple Mac for his computer needs, Secret Service gave him code name "renegade", Barack smokes cigarettes and he never drinks coffee, he is left-handed and loves to play poker. ]]> http://www.interestingfacts.org/fact/553 <![CDATA[This magnificent planet has been major candidate for the science fiction movies for many decades. When we consider all the facts it is impossible to imagine that any life could exist on Mars. However, scientists believe that straight lines on Mars are evidence of ice deposits underneath the planet's surface. The most concrete theory is that life on Mars existed billion years ago and some believe that there are remains of ancient civilization on Mars surface. The strange belief, based on Mayan studies, is that Martians fled their planet and landed on Earth (some believe that Mayans descended from Mars). Today Mars is made up of iron with largest volcano in our Solar system called Olympus Mons (see photo bellow) and largest canyon Valles Marineris, which is 2,500 miles long. Mars has two moons and scientists believe that the moon Phobos will crash into Mars in less than 50 years. Moon debris will stay in Mars atmosphere thus creating ring around the Mars similar to the Saturn's ring. Interesting fact about Mars is that NASA sent many missions to Mars and more than half of them disappeared without trace. ]]> http://www.interestingfacts.org/fact/545 <![CDATA[Elephants are well known for their intelligence and caring for each other. Elephants cry and laugh and they are largest animals that live on land. Elephants live long, between 60-70 years. Elephant's musk has more than 100,000 muscle units and elephant poops around 80 pounds a day. It is known that elephants take a great care over dead bones of their family members. However, it is the myth that they carry them to secret "elephant burial grounds". Interesting elephant fact is that periodically male elephants go through musth or extremely aggressive sexual behavior. Musth in Persian means "intoxicated" and it is recorded that male elephant in musth has 60 times higher level of testosterone than in the normal elephant. Elephant male in the musth will kill and destroy everything in his path. Take a look at this shocking vicious video to learn more about this highly aggressive elephant behavior. Again we repeat THIS VIDEO IS VERY AGGRESSIVE! ]]> http://www.interestingfacts.org/fact/538 <![CDATA[Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are witren, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.]]> http://www.interestingfacts.org/fact/533