Pirates from The Bahamas had their flags custom-made by a sailmaker's widow who accepted brandy as payment, while Blackbeard had his own black flag with a skeleton with horns. The skeleton held an hourglass in one hand and a spear pointing to a heart dripping with three drops of blood in the other.

The tides are caused by the tiny changes in gravitational pulls of the Moon and Sun, as well as centrifugal forces in opposite directions. The tides on Earth are at their greatest when the three bodies are aligned, which occurs near the full and new Moons. The Earth is then extended along that line According to Ingersoll. "The water responds the greatest, but the solid Earth responds as well," he explains. "Water flowing in the oceans and rocks moving underground, both of which lose kinetic energy, are the answer. As a result, the Earth is rotating slower and the day is growing longer."

Did you know that bamboo can withstand high temperatures that most plants cannot? Bamboo was the only plant to withstand the radiation from the Hiroshima atomic explosions in 1945. Except for one bamboo grove, the incinerating heat obliterated all trees and other plant life. The grove has since been demolished, but culms from it are kept in a museum in Hiroshima.

The femur bone, found in the upper leg, is your body's longest bone. As a result, it can withstand hundreds of pounds of force and is extremely tough to break. Femurs have the ability to support 30 times your own weight! The majority of femur fractures are caused by severe vehicle accidents or falls from considerable heights, which can provide enough force to shatter the bone.

These insects are extremely elusive. As a result, it is even more difficult to determine whether a particular species is in danger of going extinct. For fairy wasps, there are no known targeted conservation initiatives. Additionally, it is not included on the IUCN Red List (International Union for Conservation of Nature).

Your digestive tract contains many beneficial bacteria, but taking a probiotic supplement (live or dried bacteria) is unlikely to give them a boost.

The reason is that these beneficial bacteria are mostly in your large intestine or bowel. Probiotic supplements will rarely survive the acid and churning of the stomach or the detergents and enzymes of the small intestine. 

It's true what you just read! Windows 10 may be installed using a USB flash drive. You can quickly and easily upgrade your desktop Windows if you haven't already (where have you been?).

Some spiders not only like to serenade their prospective partners with a dance, but they also like to offer a gift wrapped in silk to sweet talk their way into a date. However, these men can be quite sneaky and cheap at times. Instead of flies and other insects, they offer a cheap knockoff such as scraps of leaves or old gifts that haven't worked with other females.

Fennel seeds are supposed to help reduce gas because of their great digestive effects and antibacterial capabilities. This seed facilitates bowel movement by increasing digestive motility and preventing gas build-up. And, because of its antibacterial properties (mostly derived from anethole, an organic molecule in the seed), it stops bacteria from developing and emitting gases in the first place.

The official language of Vatican City is Italian, which is used for all official issues. Although Italian is the lingua franca, the Holy See utilises Latin as its official language. The Vatican is also regarded as the de facto keeper of the Latin language. So it may not come as a surprise that the Vatican Bank's ATM provides instructions in Latin.

Yes! Chocolate was once used to make alcohol around 1400 to 1100 BC. During those times, people used to drink very less amount alcohol content, and hence the chocolate did justice to those drinks. Fermented cocoa beans were used to create alcoholic drinks. But it doesn't mean that you can ferment the chocolate to make alcohol because it took years to make the drink perfect.

Christian Bale said he was inspired by a Cruise interview on David Letterman's show, in which he was struck by the star's "very intense friendliness with nothing behind the eyes," as American Psycho's director, Mary Harron put it.

The photophores, which are glandular, light-producing organs, allow krill to glow. The purpose of this function, according to experts, is either for krill to communicate with one another when they swarm or to confound and elude predators.

Hades, the god of death and the underworld, is associated with darkness and evil since he is frequently seen as the ancient Greek equivalent of the Christian devil. However, it was not Hades who elected to rule over the underworld. To choose who would rule which kingdom, he and his brothers, Zeus and Poseidon, pulled straws. So, let's just say Hades was unlucky and was sent to the underworld, whilst his brothers, Zeus and Poseidon, were given dominion over the Gods and the sea, respectively. We must remember that, contrary to popular belief, Hades was not the one accountable for either the condemnation or the salvation.

Palm trees have been associated with humans since the dawn of time. Archeological discoveries have revealed that the date palm was widely used in Mesopotamian society, both for food and for other purposes. Palm branches were given to triumphant champions of games and wars by the Romans as a symbol of victory.

Locals refer to Huaxi as the "richest village in China," with residents claiming to have over $100,000 in their bank accounts. Wu Renbao built the town in Jiangsu province in 1961 to serve as an example of Chinese communism. In exchange for working seven days a week in one of the hamlet's numerous factories, each citizen was granted an identical house and automobile, as well as stock in the community. However, if a resident leaves the city at any moment, he or she forfeits all advantages. Migrant workers, who make up around 95 percent of Huaxi's employment, are not entitled to the same benefits as'real' citizens.

According to the ADAA, from the time a girl reaches puberty to the age of 50, she is twice as likely to develop an anxiety disorder as a man. A woman’s fight or flight response is more easily activated and stays activated longer than a man’s – partly due to progesterone and estrogen. There’s also evidence to suggest that the female brain does not process serotonin as quickly as the male brain and they are more sensitive to low levels of corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), a hormone that organizes stress responses in mammals.

King Tut is probably the most famous of all the ancient Egyptians, but very little was known about the boy king who died at the young age of 19 until British archaeologist Howard Carter found the tomb in 1922. King Tuts Tomb is the smallest of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings but it was filled with great wealth.

It was believed that Hieroglyphs on the wall of King Tut’s tomb had the curse of death. I’m glad I didn’t know about this curse before entering King Tut’s tomb during our visit or I may not have entered this unassuming tomb.

The record for the loudest purr by a domestic cat is currently held by Merlin, a black and white cat from Torquay, UK. His purr is 67.8db(A) and for context, this is nearly the same volume as a shower! Most cats purr at around 25db.

The infamous Taj Mahal in Agra, built by Emperor Shah Jahan, is known to change colour every morning, noon, and midnight. Many people believe it is because of the white marble used in the construction, which is shiny and reflective. Others believe that the structure is infused with historical magic.

Chia may be eaten by babies as early as six months old. Mix milled chia seeds into pureed fruits and other meals to provide your infant with high levels of omega-3s, which are essential for brain development. If a mother consumes chia before the age of six months, her kid will benefit – both during pregnancy and when the infant is nursed.