• Urine from male cape water buffaloes is so flammable that some tribes use it for lantern fuel. • The Venezuelan brown bat can detect and dodge individual raindrops in mid-flight, arriving safely back at his cave completely dry. • While cancer is perhaps the greatest disease of humanity, sharks do not have this problem as they are totally immune to cancer. • Polar bears would make perfect thieves since they cannot be detected by infrared cameras because of their transparent fur. • A marriage ceremony typically ends with a kiss because in ancient Rome, a kiss was a legal bond that sealed contracts, and marriage was seen as a contract. • The longest place name, believed it or not, that is still in use, is ‘Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitamatahu’. This is the name of one hill in New Zealand. Congrats to the one who manages to pronounce this. • There is town in the world that has never seen rain. Its name is Calama, and it’s located in Chile, Atacama desert. • Istanbul, Turkey is the only city in the world located on two continents. • Many cultures have prohibited a normal burial for people who committed suicide, although the restrictions varied according to time and place. A common practice in England until 1823 was to bury a suicidal person at night in a crossroad with a stake driven through the heart. In France, the suicide’s body was dragged through the streets and then hanged from the public gallows. In Prussia, early laws required the victim to be buried under the gallows. • The Qur’an explicitly forbids suicide as the gravest sin, more serious even than homicide. Muslims believe that each individual has his or her kismet or destiny, which is preordained by God and must not be defied. But killing oneself as an act of jihad (holy war) is not considered a suicide. • The word Nike comes from Greek Mythology. Nike is the goddess of victory and was often depicted as a small winged figure that the goddess Athena carried. • The word Thailand means “land of the free.”And the elephant is the national animal of Thailand. Finland is also known as “the land of a thousand lakes,” because of the over 188,000 lakes found in this country. Yet Rwanda is known as a land of “a thousand hills”. • Turtles can breathe through their butts. Ends
