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Mystery Porcini Yields New Species
1. Scientists in the UK identified three new mushroom species after purchasing dried porcini from a local grocery store and testing them.
2. A fish called the needlefish can leap from the water and impale people while moving at speeds up to 37 mph; multiple human fatalities have been recorded.
3. In the 13th century, Frederick II, the German emperor, conducted an experiment to determine which language humans would naturally speak by placing 50 newborns with nurses who would only feed and bathe them, without speaking to or holding them. No answer was obtained because all the infants died.
4. At 32 kilometers (20 miles) long, the Onyx River is Antarctica's longest river; it begins as meltwater from the Wright Lower Glacier and flows inland away from the ocean. The river runs only during the summer months, does not reach the sea, and instead empties into Lake Vanda.
5. In the 1900s Argentina imposed a tax on unmarried men but exempted single men who had proposed marriage and been refused. Women then started proposal rejection businesses, charging to turn down bachelors' proposals so those men could evade the tax.
6. Neptune's rings are unusually dusty and consist of five prominent arcs, including Fraternité and Liberté, rather than fully developed rings like Saturn's. Initially, these arcs puzzled scientists because rings should naturally spread out evenly. However, gravitational shepherding by Galatea, a nearby small moon, keeps the arcs confined and stable.
7. The hoatzin, native to South America and often called the "Stinkbird," has a strong odor caused by bacteria in its digestive system. It is the last surviving species of a bird lineage that split 64 million years ago after the dinosaur extinction event. Interestingly, hoatzin chicks have claws on their wings.
8. About 94 U.S. World War II servicemen who were executed by the U.S. military are buried in "Plot E" of the Oise Aisne American Cemetery in France, in a section designated as "the dishonored dead." All but one were convicted of rape and/or murder. Hedges screen it from view, no U.S. flag is permitted to fly over it, the graves lack headstones, and it is not publicly accessible.
9. Srivijaya was located on Sumatra and ruled over Indonesia and much of Southeast Asia for more than 600 years, but it vanished without a trace. Its location was recently uncovered when a fisherman on the Musi River found golden artifacts from the city caught in his net.
10. Saturn's A and B rings, which are the most visually prominent, extend for hundreds of thousands of kilometers in width but are only about 5 to 15 meters and 10 to 30 meters thick, respectively.
