The snake plant is especially well-liked because it makes the perfect "thank you" gift for new parents. This is a great houseplant to give as a present to someone you know who just had a baby. It's fantastic for newlyweds as well. Get your own snake plant the next time you want to pamper yourself or give someone a housewarming gift.

Cardiovascular disease accounts for 70-75% of type 2 diabetes mortality (Kings Fund Policy Institute, 1996). Insulin resistance raises the risk of cardiovascular disease before the onset of type 2 diabetes. Hyperinsulinaemia has been linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (Ruige et al, 1998). The metabolic and systemic alterations associated with insulin resistance caused this elevated risk: insulin resistance syndrome.

Ashwagandha is an evergreen bush that bears red berries. These berries resemble tomatillos or husk cherries because they are members of the Solanaceae family, sometimes known as nightshades. If you are sensitive to eggplant, tomatoes, or peppers, you may be allergic to ashwagandha as well.

It's no secret that Greece is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. But did you realise that Greece receives approximately 17 million tourists each year? That is nearly double Greece's overall population. It is one of the few countries in the world where tourist numbers exceed the population (along with Malta, Cyprus and Luxembourg). Tourism accounts for over 20% of Greece's GDP, one of the highest percentages of any industrialised country.

Many people are unaware of how intelligent pigeons are. They may be taught to recognize words and to match art with its artist, but perhaps most importantly, they can be taught to distinguish between benign and cancerous growths. Researchers at the University of California, Davis, trained pigeons to distinguish between benign and malignant biopsies. The pigeons were able to "diagnose" brand new biopsies that they had never seen before after being trained how to differentiate between the two. A pigeon by itself had an accuracy of 85% on average. Their accuracy as a group approached 99%, which is expected of a doctor. 

Your skin's trouble spots could appear to be an annoyance, but they might be there for a reason. Your thicker skin on the bottoms of your feet and heels, which you desperately want to remove with a pedicure, is actually evolution at work, protecting you as you walk, according to Anolik. The elbows, for example, are a different matter.

Just as there was a run on pet rats, the population of clownfish in their natural habitats took a precipitous drop following the release of Finding Nemo, which stars a clownfish. Marine biologists reported that the numbers of the fish dropped by as much as 75 percent in the Australian reefs they inhabit.

Back in the 10th century, carrots were originally white, purple, or pale yellow. So how did they get their distinct orange colour? The story goes that when William of Orange (King William III) helped the Dutch win independence from Spain in the 17th century, Dutch farmers honoured the King by turning their carrots orange through clever breeding. The new colour became hugely popular and is still the Netherlands official colour and the colour of the Dutch Royal family. The Dutch celebrate King’s Day by wearing orange and even the national sports teams wear orange.

If you need the toilet you can knock on someone’s door and ask to use their bathroom in Scotland – and by law, they cannot deny you. 
 

Tendulkar was born on April 24, 1973, at the Nirmal Nursing Home in Dadar, Bombay, to a Maharashtrian family. His father, Ramesh Tendulkar, was a well-known Marathi novelist and poet, and his mother, Rajni, worked in the insurance industry. Tendulkar was named after Ramesh's favorite music director, Sachin Dev Burman.

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.

Earthworms are fully formed when they are born, except for their sex organs. Their sexual system takes 60-90 days to develop. An earthworm's lifespan can range from four to eight years. Gardening earthworms, on the other hand, only live for a year or two.

As of December 2017, the most widely used hashtag on Instagram was #love, followed by #fashion and #photooftheday. 

The hashtag that had seen the greatest rise in popularity during the previous year was #photography.

Hawaiian art and culture have a rich history of mythology and folklore, and one of their scariest tales is that of the Hukai’po, which translates to “Spirit Ranks.” Also known as Nightmarchers, the Hukai’po are thought to be ghosts of ancient Hawaiian warriors who come out on sacred nights to reenact old battles, toting archaic weapons, helmets, cloaks, and raised torches. Anyone in their path risks harm, though it is suggested that you may be spared if you show proper respect to the marchers.

Under black lights, bananas glow blue. Ripe bananas appear yellow to the naked eye under normal conditions due to organic pigments known as carotenoids. Chlorophyll begins to degrade as bananas ripen. This pigment is what causes bananas to glow, or fluoresce, under UV light and appear blue. While this is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating facts about bananas, there is another that will make you want to eat a banana every day.

Osamu Tezuka, the famed creator of Astroboy, created this worldwide craze. It was inspired by Tezuka's fondness of Walt Disney animation. Bambi was one of his favourite characters. He admitted to having seen it over 80 times. Tezuka was captivated with the 1930s and 1940s Disney film aesthetic, and he adopted its large, expressive eyes approach. Because his work is one of the roots of modern Manga, this characteristic has become a distinctive component of its character designs.

Rita Hayworth became famous for her red nails in the 1940s thanks to a little help from Technicolor. Uma Thurman's Vamp polish (later re-released by Chanel as Rouge Noir) drew attention in the 1994 cult film Pulp Fiction. The shade quickly became one of the company's best-selling items.

The Hands Resist Him is a haunting painting created by Bill Stoneham in 1974. The work depicts a young boy standing next to a female doll who has hollow eyes and a downturned smile. Behind them are disembodied hands reaching through the glass panels on the door. Though the contents of the painting are spooky in itself, some also believe that anyone in contact with it will die. The art critic, gallery owner, and first owner of the painting each died within a couple of years of each other after coming in contact with the painting.

At a time when it was considered impolite to show a toilet being flushed on screen, Alfred Hitchcock saw an opportunity to add even more shock to his already shocking film by presenting a scrap of paper that proves to be an important clue, failing to flush in a toilet. The clue in the book was an earring discovered in the bathroom, but Hitchcock changed it to a piece of paper found in the toilet, partly to give viewers a surprise.

Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, as it is officially known, is the second-largest country in the European Union, after France. If you add the Canary Islands and the Spanish territory along the North African coast, it totals roughly 506,000 square kilometres.

The cornea is one of only two organs in the human body that lacks blood vessels. The cornea is the transparent portion of the eye that protects the pupil and other parts of the eye. According to scientists at the Harvard Department of Ophthalmology's Schepens Eye Research Institute, cartilage and the cornea are the only types of tissue in the human body that lack blood vessels. Your eye also has some unusual characteristics that you probably aren't aware of.

Chia seeds contain 5g of total fat per tablespoon, with more than 80% of the fat coming from unsaturated sources. They include high levels of ALA, which can assist your body in producing more DHA and EPA, two necessary fatty acids for optimal health.