Did you know?

• Four of the five fastest land animals reside in Africa: cheetah, wildebeest, lion, and Thomson’s gazelle. All these animals run at speeds above 50 miles per hour, with the cheetah reaching a top speed of about 70 miles per hour. • Ancient Greeks and Romans originally used the term “Africa” to apply only to the northern region of the continent. In Latin, the word Africa means “sunny,” and the word Aphrike in Greek means “without cold.” • Only two African nations have never been under European colonial power: Liberia, an independent nation settled largely by African Americans, and Ethiopia, an Orthodox Christian nation known in Europe as Abyssinia. The rest of the continent was colonized by European imperial powers in the nineteenth century “scramble for Africa.” • A popular fashion statement in eastern Africa is to wear a kanga, a large cotton cloth with a message printed on it. Kanga are worn by both men and women and they originated during the 19th Century in Zanzibar and Mombasa. • The “evil eye” is a term that originated in North Africa and the Mediterranean and is widely believed to cause harm, especially to the sick and vulnerable. In Morocco, it is common for men and boys to decorate the backs of their cloaks with bright red eyes to reflect back and cast off the look of the evil eye. • In Tunisia, images of fish are often used to protect against evil. New buildings often have fish bones or tails embedded in them as they are built, and cars have brightly colored plastic or cloth fish attached to them to provide protection to the people inside. • Australia is the driest, inhabited continent on earth. The only continent drier than Australia is Antarctica. Australia is the only continent that does not have an active volcano on it. • In 1838 it was declared illegal to swim at public beaches during the day! This law was enforced until 1902.Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest. • Mice do not like the mint smell. • A dog can hear a clock ticking at a distance of forty feet. • A person uses 44 muscles when he speaks; 13 muscles when he is angry and only 2 muscles when he smiles (must be superstition). • The largest portion of fruit vitamins is found in fruit peels and so we should eat fruits with their peels. • Through the analysis on human tears, it showed that tears contain chemicals materials of pain killers released by the brain when we cry. • Your heart beats some 37,000,000 times in a year. During your life it’s will beat some two-and-a-half billion times. • 85 percent of your brain is water. • Alexander Graham Bell’s wife and mother were both deaf. Alekthophilia is the love of chickens. • During the warm summer days, hippos secrete a reddish, oily fluid, called pink sweat, which acts as a skin conditioner to keep their skin moist Ends