When Lightning Strikes...

I'm told that southern Africa has an unusually high number of lightning strikes. In October 1998, an entire soccer team was killed by lighting in a village in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. When the lightning bolt struck, all 11 members of the Bena Tshadi team were killed instantly, and 30 spectators sustained burns. The team had been tied 1-1 with their opponents from nearby Basanga. None of the Basanga team members were scathed in the least.

Local superstition states that lighting is cause by witchcraft.

Pesky 'Skeeters

Mosquitos are primarily nectar feeders. Male mosquitos are unable to suck blood. Female mosquitos do suck animal blood in order to gain enough protein to lay eggs. The largest species of mosquito, Toxorhynchities, never sucks blood but eats other mosquito larvae.

Female mosquitos are attracted to their potential carnivorous snacks by the carbon dioxide they exhale, by their body heat, and by various body odors. Scientists still aren't sure why mosquitos are more attracted to some people than others. Home remedies for mosquito bites include calamine lotion, baking soda, rubbing alcohol, vinegar, saliva, and heat.

In Japanese culture, it is sometimes believed that people who commit atrocities in their lives will be reincarnated as mosquitos.

Barbie and the Bratz

Barbie is most famous doll in history. Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts, named after the creator's daughter. Ken was named after the creator's son, Kenneth. If Barbie were the size of a real person, she would have a 39" bust, 18" waist, and 33" hips. (For comparison, Marilyn Monroe's measurements were 37"-24"-36".) The first Barbie doll sold for $3.00 in 1959, although one of the original dolls sold on eBay for $3552.50 in 2004!

In recent years, the plastic princess's reign has been threatened. MGA Entertainment came out with the Bratz dolls in 2001. By 2004 the Bratz dolls were outselling Barbies in the United Kingdom, and Barbie sales in the US have decreased by 30%.

Maybe the next Toy Story movie will be a Bratz coup d'etat with plastic explosives and fake hair and trendy accessories and oddly-proportioned body parts flying everywhere. Or that might make a decent YouTube video....

Filthy Greenbacks

Until the 1860's, Americans used gold and silver coins as currency. But after the Civil War broke out, the government was hard pressed to stretch its money as far as it could go. In 1861, Congress authorized the US Treasury to issue paper money. Well, actually, dollar bills weren't and still aren't made from typical paper. Dollar bills are made out of cotton, which lasts longer than wood pulp. Unfortunately the Union usually got its cotton from the southern states, and they were at war with each other. As you can imagine, it didn't help the conflict when the Union blockaded the Confederate States and took some of their cotton.

By the end of the Civil War, the whole country was nearly bankrupt. A dollar bill was only really worth 39 cents. Furthermore, an estimated 33% to 50% of bills were counterfeit. This prompted Congress in 1865 to create a new government organization to curb the counterfeiting--the United States Secret Service.

Lake Vostok

In the early 1990s, Russain scientists at Vostok Research Station had already spent decades drilling cores in the layer of thick glacier covering Antarctica. The deeper they went, the older were the specimens frozen in the ice, giving a sort of timeline of the earth. Yet at about two miles below the surface of the ice, the scientists encountered a thick layer of ice that was relatively much cleaner than the layers above it. When satellite altimetry and radar surveyed the area, the scientists were ordered to stop drilling at once. Below 2.5 miles of Antarctic ice is a liquid body of water the size of Lake Ontario! The water in this lake is about -3ºC, but under such pressure that it is kept in a liquid state and supersaturated with oxygen. If the scientists had tapped into the lake, the water would have burst to the surface with 4 times the force of a champaigne cork!

Furthermore, this body of water has been completely sealed off from the rest of the earth for thousands and perhaps millions of years. Nobody knows if there are any living organisms down there, but if the scientists had drilled into the liquid, they would have introduced surface bacteria and chemicals that could have obliterated any existing ecosystem. Many scientists think that the lake must be sterile due to the lack of sunlight, the freezing temperature, and the toxic levels of oxygen in the water. Other scientists believe that the lake must have life in it since a completely lifeless body of water has never been found on Earth. The ice above the lake has some very weird microbial fossils in it. Scientists are still debating how to explore the lake without contaminating it.

State and Country

There are two U.S. states that have been their own countries in the past. One of them is Texas, which became the Republic of Texas after it won its independence from Mexico in 1836. Sam Houston was the first president of the republic, and the city of Houston served as the capitol until the seat of government moved to Austin in 1839. Texas became a state in 1845 when it was annexed to the United States.

The other state that used to be its own country is Hawaii. Once upon a time, Hawaii was ruled by several chiefs. In 1795, King Kamehameha the Great consolidated all of the Hawaiian islands together under his rule. This kingdom prevailed under several rulers until Queen Liliuokalani was overthrown in 1893. Hawaii became a republic until it was annexed by the U.S. in 1898. However, it was just a territory for about 60 years. Hawaii didn't become a state until 1959. Iolani Palace in Honolulu was used as the state capitol building for a while and is a National Historic Landmark today. The palace remains the only royal palace in the U.S. that has been used as an official residence by a reigning monarch.

The World's Best Joke

The LaughLab project set out to find the world's funniest joke. For a year, people around the world sent their best jokes to the LaughLab website and/or rated their favorites. In 2002 the project scientists announced the results. So here is what has been deemed the world's funniest joke:

Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps, "My friend is dead! What can I do?". The operator says "Calm down. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead." There is a silence, then a shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says "OK, now what?"

To check out the LaughLab website, go to www.laughlab.co.uk