10 facts about Antarctica

1. Antarctica is the coldest, windiest, highest and driest continent on the planet.
2. Antarctica contains 90% of the world's ice.
3. One of the biggest dangers to researchers and others living on the continent is actually fire. The dry environment makes it very possible and hard to stop.
4. In wintertime, the sea ice around Antarctica grows at the rate of 40,000 square miles a day.
5. Antarctica’s ice is so heavy that it deforms the South Pole. In fact, its weight makes the Earth look slightly pear shaped.
6. Antarctica holds the top spot for the lowest recorded temperature on Earth, which was -129°F (-84.5°C) at the Russian Vostok station in 1983. At this temperature steel will shatter and water will explode into ice crystals.
7. There are no countries in Antarctica; the continent is governed by an international treaty (the Antarctic Treaty). Today seven countries have made territorial claims (Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway and UK), but not all countries, including the USA and Russia, recognise these claims.
8. Mount Erebus is the only active volcano in Antarctica.
9. The number of breeding pairs of penguins in Antarctica is estimated to be 20 million.
10. During summer more radiation reaches the South Pole than the equator. This is because the hole in the ozone layer above the Antarctic is the largest on record at 27 million square km.

10 Facts about dreams

1. When you dream, your body is paralyzed.
2. The average person has between 1,460 and 2,190 dreams an year.
3. You can teach yourself to control your dreams. The method is called "lucid dreaming".
4. The origin of the phrase "Pipe Dream" was referring to ideas thought up while smoking opium.
5. The strangers in your dreams are actually people that you've seen in real life!
6. A device called the REM Dreamer lets you control your dreams!
7. Blind People also Dream. People who became blind after birth can see images in their dreams. People who are born blind do not see any images, but have dreams equally vivid involving their other senses of sound, smell, touch and emotion.
8. 12% of people dream in black and white.
9. You forget 90 % of your dreams. Within 5 minutes of waking half of your dream is forgotten. Within 10, 90% is gone.
10. The most common emotion experienced in dreams is anxiety. Negative emotions are more common than positive ones.

10 facts about the Bermuda Triangle

1. Located in the Atlantic Ocean, the Bermuda Triangle falls between Bermuda, Puerto Rico and Florida.

2. The Bermuda Triangle has long been believed to be the site where a number of mysterious plane and boat incidents have occurred.
3. While it has become part of popular culture to link the Bermuda Triangle to paranormal activity, most investigations indicate bad weather and human error are the more likely culprits.
4. Research has suggested that many original reports of strange incidents in the Bermuda Triangle were exaggerated and that the actual number of incidents in the area is similar to that of other parts of the ocean.
5. While its reputation may scare some people, the Bermuda Triangle is actually part of a regularly sailed shipping lane with cruise ships and other boats also frequently sailing through the area.
6. Aircraft are also common in the Bermuda Triangle with both private and commercial planes commonly flying through the air space.
7. Stories of unexplained disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle started to reach public awareness around 1950 and have been consistently reported since then.
8. Unverified supernatural explanations for Bermuda Triangle incidents have included references to UFO’s and even the mythical lost continent of Atlantis.
9. Other explanations have included magnetic anomalies, pirates, deliberate sinkings, hurricanes, gas deposits, rough weather, huge waves and human error.
10. Some famous reported incidents involving the Bermuda Triangle include:

The USS Cyclops and its crew of 309 that went missing after leaving Barbados in 1918.

The TBM Avenger bombers that went missing in 1945 during a training flight over the Atlantic.

A Douglas DC-3 aircraft containing 32 people that went missing in 1958, no trace of the aircraft was ever found.

A yacht was found in 1955 that had survived three hurricanes but was missing all its crew.