Learn One Thing A Day

Today I learnt that the Blue Whale is not not only the largest living animal but - probably - also the largest one to have ever lived! They live  worldwide and are considered endangered by IUCN ( International Union for Conservation of Nature ) due to the human activity, most notably the pollution and the fisheries interactions. Here is some impressive numbers: Weight :  up to 150000 kg (330000 pounds) Length :  27-33 m (88-108 feet) depending on location (the largest live in Antarctic) Life :       unknown (maybe about 90 years) but sexually mature at 5-15 years. Diet :       Krill, a lot of it! 3.6 metric tons (4 imperial tons) of krill each day. However a picture (or in this case, a drawing) is much more effective in visualizing how large they are! (photo by Harry Wilson via I fucking love science ) They are considered endangered and it's estimated there are 5000-12000 Blue Whales remaining today (with the largest population of 2000 living off the US

I haven't made a new post but it's like I did! I significantly updated the post about the flags of Haiti and Lichtenstein by adding other interesting examples of similar flags around the world! Have a look,  it's totally worth it!  Here is the link !  

"In the realm of scientific observation, luck is granted only to those who are prepared"  Louis Paster,  lecture 1854   Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) , French chemist and microbiologist, one of the founders of microbiology.  (image from wikipedia ) I strongly agree on this thought! PS - TRIVIA A similar sentence was also the motto of the bad guy in the movie Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995) with Steven Seagal!

Have you ever asked yourself why Pluto is not considered a planet anymore? Well, this video by CGPGrey gives a very good explaination to the question. Have a nice watching!

There is place (and only one!) in the world, where a boat can sail under a train driving under a car driving under an airplane! It's the Boston University Bridge! Amazing! Location: Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachussetts. River: Charles River ( image source http://en.structurae.de/ )   ( image source: http://www.bostonbyaida.com/ )

I have just found out that the biggest underground lake  (almost 2 hectares, 20000 m^2) is located in Namibia:   ( source: Namgrows 2010 )  It is about 100 m below the ground level  and, as you can guess, it is not that easy to visit it! ( source: Namgrows 2010 ) Did I mention that it got an awesome name too? It's called the Dragon's breath !