Silk's proteins also give it unmatched strength; in fact, it is finer and more durable than Kevlar. It has been used historically as a thin layer of "soft armour," and it was even used to create the first-ever bulletproof vest. Silk is still utilized today for a variety of purposes, including sutures and other medical devices. Although it is still being tested in the lab, the applications seem almost endless.

Because of their rigid bodies, sunflowers can be used all over your house as decorations or even as bird feeders, but did you know they also make a great scrubbing pad? All those flowers are very effective at removing the grime from your favorite pots and pans. Sunflowers can be used as the ideal single-use scrubbing pad after drying.

What’s with the long face? In Milan, the law compels you to smile. It’s prescribed by a city regulation from Austro-Hungarian times that was never repealed. Exemptions included funeral goers, hospital workers or those at the bedside of an ill family member. For everybody else there is no excuse for being glum, the alternative being a fine.

If you thought being bilingual made you an overachiever, you’re about to get schooled. Queen Victoria was fluent in no fewer than five languages: English, German, French, Latin, and Italian. She also learned a little Hindustani and Urdu to chat with her Indian servants at Windsor Castle (above)

The greenish-brown dots next to the antennae are lobsters' antennal glands, and it's common practice for them to urinate at one another during conflict or courtship. A male enters a pheromonal state of calm when the female, who initiates contact, repeatedly urinates in his shelter.

A catastrophic occurrence, according to John Cook, an expert on misinformation at George Mason University's Center for Climate Change Communication, creates a "particularly fertile breeding environment for conspiracy theories." He argues that when individuals feel threatened or are unable to completely comprehend a critical event, conspiracy theories might assist them in making sense of it. Consider the assassination of JFK. It was easy to picture "shadowy groups and agencies" managing things behind the scenes when the world felt terrifying and out of control. "Randomness is incredibly uncomfortable to people," Cook explained.

One thing breast milk lacks that formula makes up for: vitamin D. Because many mothers are weak in this substance, their breast milk is insufficient as well, and their kids suffer as a result. According to one research, formula-fed babies had better bone mineralization (stronger bones) than breastfed babies, which is why the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that breastfed kids take vitamin D supplements to compensate (ideally getting 400 IU per day in the first two months of life). Formula-fed newborns, on the other hand, are in good health as long as they consume 1 litre of infant formula every day.

According to research, humans can only do one cognitive task at a time. Try conversing and reading at the same time or composing a letter while listening to an audiobook. Most likely, nothing positive will come of it; our brain just cannot focus on two activities simultaneously. There is, however, one exception. If the second action is entirely physical and automatic, both activities can be combined.

One of the lesser-known statistics is that Mexicans are the hardest working people on the planet, with the average resident working 2,148 hours each year, or 41.3 hours per week!

Activision recorded nearly 5 million gamers playing Call of Duty at the same time during the days of Black Ops and Modern Warfare 2. Except for New York, this is a substantially larger population than practically any other city in the United States.

Even though no one knows when yoghurt was discovered, the name "yoghurt" is unmistakably Turkish. However, we do know that fermented milk has been utilised since prehistoric times.

Climbing up and down the cobblestone streets may exhaust you. Bring suitable walking shoes and be prepared.

Yes, the face of the well-known rum brand was a genuine person. In the 1660s and 1670s, he was a Welsh privateer who fought alongside the English against the Spanish in the Caribbean. King Charles II of England knighted him for his first name, Henry. His precise birth year is uncertain, however he was born somewhere around 1635. In 1688, he died in Jamaica, reportedly wealthy.

Taz became a popular cartoon character thanks to Looney Tunes. In reality, though, the devil is anything but. According to one research, it possesses the most powerful bite in the planet. Despite weighing just 20 pounds on average, these creatures can apply up to 94 pounds of pressure, giving them a "Bite Force Quotient" of 181. That's about twice as powerful as a hyena and 60 points stronger than a lion.

It required a lot of creativity to get the stones to stand up straight. The builders eventually chose a technique associated with woodworking rather than brickwork. They used tongue and groove joints to slot the stones together, creating mortice holes and protruding tenons. Timber poles were placed at the back of the pit as a brace support when the hole for the stones was dug. The stone was then placed into place and lifted up with ropes while rubble was stuffed into the pit to keep it in place.

A command entered in the "master machine" where the animation for Toy Story 2 was stored deleted 90 percent of the work the Pixar team had done on it. As Mental Floss describes, "A plan was quickly hatched to restore the data from a regular backup, which meant that only half a day of work would have been lost. But the backup system had failed. Pixar, incredibly, did not have a copy of the Toy Story 2 files on its servers." Fortunately, the film's technical director had a copy she had been working on from home, and much of it was restored.

The world's highest horse statue, a 40-metre (131-foot) figure of Genghis Khan, is just outside Ulaanbaatar.

As of today, Indonesia has 17,504 islands, however as climate change happens and sea levels rise, this will change over time. Although many officials continue to question the precise figure, the Indonesian government has proclaimed that this is the number for the time being, according to the Indonesian Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs. Indonesia's incredible number of islands comprise the world's biggest archipelago, ranging from palm-fringed little islets to dense-jungle volcanoes towering up from the frothy sea waters.

The first Met Gala took place in December 1948. It was created by fashion publicist and CFDA founder, Eleanor Lambert, to raise funds for the costume institute and mark the opening of the annual exhibit. The Costume Institute actually became a part of the Met two years prior to the first Gala and is the only department at the Met that has to fund itself. Since 1995, the Gala has raised around $145 million for the costume institute.

Most people know that anxiety causes difficulty focusing and concentrating, restlessness, irritability, and frustration. However, few people realize that anxiety causes serious physical problems like weakness, shortness of breath, rapid heart rate, nausea, hot flashes, and dizziness. People experiencing a panic attack often end up in the ER believing they are having a heart attack.
 

Typically, when you hear the word "sunflower," you picture large, bright yellow sunflowers. There are other options besides these, though. Sunflowers are also available in a wide range of hues, such as orange, red, bronze, and white. You might even see two-toned ones based on the seeds you plant.

If your bathroom mirrors are constantly fogged up after a hot shower, rub a cucumber slice along the mirror. It will remove the mist and leave you with a relaxing, spa-like fragrance. If you've written something in pen and made a mistake, the cucumber's outer waxy coating can be used to erase pen writing! Cucumbers are 96% water, if you didn't know.

Assassin's Creed has inspired a long-running series of novels rooted in the game environment, in addition to a slew of spin-off comics. Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants, the second of two young-adult novels authored by English historian Anton Gill under the pen name Oliver Bowden, is set to be released in January.