This mandates a selling price for independent bookshops and retail locations, resulting in Amazon's negative impact on the book market. They drastically reduce their prices because they sell such a high volume at a reduced price. Basically, whenever possible, buy your books locally!

Kratos is a video game character, although he is also based on literary works from Ancient Greek mythology. Cratus is Pallas and Styx's son. Pallus and Styx are respective war gods and underworld goddesses, while the name "Kratos" is also related with things like "strong" and "power." Although Kratos is inspired by his Ancient Greek counterpart, the two are not identical. Kratos despises the other gods and has an insatiable drive for power, whereas Cratus is an enforcer of the celestial throne.

If you or someone you know has ever quit smoking with nicotine gum, you can thank Sweden. Nicorette, the first product, was created by Leo AB in Helsingborg. It was inspired by the fact that while on duty, smoking Swedish submariners would switch from tobacco to chewing tobacco or snus to get their nicotine fix. Nicorette wasn't the first time nicotine was placed in chewing gum, but they did design a polymer that regulated the flow of nicotine into the bloodstream, allowing for a continuous release and a gradual withdrawal, allowing millions of people to stop for good.

Another interesting Egyptian football fact. There are two clubs that are great rivals yet share the same venue, similar to how A.C Milan and Inter Milan share the same stadium while being rivals in Italy!

As the adage goes, opposites attract. And research shows that this is partially correct. Couples who are too similar or too different do not last long. Apparently, there must always be a foundation of similarities, but there must also be things that the two of you learn from each other.

It is more common among persons of northern or western European descent (2-6%) and less common in other ethnicities.

Summer is the time of year with the greatest number of thunderstorms. The glow of summer frequently gives the ideal states of rising air and dampness expected for the production of rainstorms. They are most common in the southeast and East Midlands of the UK.

The distance to the moon is measured using a mirror and laser formation on the moon, as well as a telescope on Earth. Because of the moon's elliptical orbit around the Earth, this distance varies, making it critical that such a facility exists.

Cocorico! It derives from the term "chandelier" in Old French. 
A "chandelier" was a ceiling fixture made of numerous candles used to light up the rooms before electricity was invented.

The family Mymaridae is more commonly referred to as fairyflies. These insects belong to the Chalcid wasp family.

The orientation leaflets are arranged in one or two pinnae pairs in a bipinnate compound. Each pinna also contains 10 to 26 leaflets. These plants grow on soil with little nutrient concentration and are not shade-tolerant. Similar to other Fabaceae plant species, the orientation of the leaves undergoes nyctinasty motions, sometimes known as "sleep," throughout the night and reopens in the light.

Here’s an interesting story! Back in 2012, about 125 students got caught cheating on a government class exam. Harvard went on to investigate this scandal, and most of the students caught were made to withdraw from the university. Yale – the arch-nemesis came up with a humorous shirt to wear during a Harvard-Yale football game, it read “Try cheating your way out of this one!” Harsh!

 

In Justice League #50, Batman discovered one of the Joker's darkest secrets. As he sat in the Mobius Chair, which can answer any question, Batman inquired, "what is the identity of the Joker?" To everyone's surprise, the answer was that the Joker had three different personalities. The most widely held belief among fans is that these three actors played the Joker during the Golden (Jack Nicholson), Silver (Caesar Romero), and Bronze (Heath Ledger) eras of comic book history.

The lifespan of Chinese porcelain is very long. Authentic Chinese porcelain made in the proper proportions of kaolin, quartz, and feldspar is a highly durable and translucent material.

Dr. Coates oversaw an effort in Argentina to identify cash crops that farmers in the region may profit from cultivating. He investigated a variety of plants to determine their economic viability. When he analyzed chia seeds, he discovered their amazing nutritional profile and focused his whole study to bringing chia back to a commercial level so that people all over the globe might benefit from the seeds.

Dog owners in Turin, Italy will be fined up to €500 if they don’t walk their pets at least three times a day, under a new law from the city’s council. Italy considers itself an animal-loving nation and in many cities, stray cats are protected by law.

To enforce the law, Turin police would rely largely on the help of tipsters spotting cruel treatment by neighbors. Turin has the most stringent animal protection rules in the country. They even ban fairgrounds from giving away goldfish in bags.

Because of 150 years of British colonial control, Chinese cultural traditions combine nicely with Western cultural values in Hong Kong. Feng-shui traditions are extensively practiced, as are other spiritual beliefs such as the belief that the numbers 3, 5, and 8 are auspicious and bring good fortune.

Who knew there was a happy mascot out there named Herbie Hot Pockets? We'll let you decide if the sandwich with sunglasses is adorable or disturbing.

Brakes that do not lock up under full pedal pressure are becoming commonplace. They've saved numerous lives by letting the driver to keep steering the car and, hopefully, avoid a collision while braking hard. Mercedes-Benz improved the technology with Bosch in the 1970s before incorporating it into the S-Class in 1978. Anti-lock brakes were soon made standard on all Mercedes-Benz models.

Sunflowers are beneficial for your mental health, did you know that? In fact, they are. Sunflowers themselves are known to improve people's moods, and the color yellow is associated with hope. Even just looking at them actually lifts your mood a little. One petal at a time, they are changing the world for the better.

 Rorschach invented the inkblot test, which consisted of ten splotchy cards, to detect mental disease. According to Damion Searls, author of The Inkblots, a history of Rorschach and his invention, no surviving memoranda or notes reveal Rorschach's technique for making the cards or what data or sources he may have utilized to create them. According to Searls, Rorschach subsequently stated simply that "empirical observations" guided the blots and that he had "no explanation for why the test functioned at all."

The bulk of this deep subseafloor biosphere develops incredibly slowly in comparison to life on the top, with cell division estimated to occur once per 10-1000 years or so. Scientists are discovering new microscopic life sources further and deeper beneath the ocean than ever before. In March, a team of scientists announced that they had discovered signs of bacteria in rocks 400 feet below the seafloor—the deepest ever discovered.

It is hardly surprising that languages such as Bengali, Sanskrit, Nepalese, and Urdu are so similar to Hindi. If you can read Hindi, you can simply learn these additional languages.

Ballroom dancing was once thought to be a kind of exclusivity reserved only for the wealthy and privileged. Ballroom dancing was a secular event in the 17th and 19th centuries, and only members of the nobility classes could participate. Ballroom dancing became regarded as a relic of the past in the twentieth century. However, over the course of the twentieth century, they gradually began to open training courses for trainers. So, a decade later, ballroom dancing has regained popularity and is now available to the general public.