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Sharpen Your General Knowledge
Shamim Ansary:
What Is the Stupidest Animal That Ever Lived?
It’s hard to say how smart or stupid an animal is, because animals may show their intelligence in ways that we don’t recognize.
But if the size of an animal’s brain in relation to the size of its body is any sign of intelligence, then the stupidest animal that ever lived was probably the dinosaur called stegosaurus. This huge reptile weighed some 13,000 pounds, yet had a brain that weighed only about 21/2 ounces!
A sperm whale 50 feet long would have a brain weighing about 20 pounds, while an adult elephant’s brain weighs about 10 pounds. A gorilla’s brain weighs about 20 ounces, and an adult person’s brain usually weighs around 3 pounds.
Your brain probably weighs more than 15 times as much as the brain of the huge stegosaurus.
Shamim Ansary:
How Do Fossils Form and Where Do Fossils Come From?
Fossils form rarely, since an organism is usually consumed totally or scattered by scavengers after death.
If the structures remain intact, fossils can be preserved in amber (hardened tree sap), Siberian permafrost, dry caves, or rock.
Rock fossils are the most common.
In order to form a rock fossil, three things must happen:
the organism must be buried in sediment
the hard structures must mineralize
the sediment surrounding the fossil must harden and become rock.
Many rock fossils either erode before they can be discovered, or they remain in places inaccessible to scientists.
Shamim Ansary:
Who Was the Youngest American President In U.S. History?
Okay, pay attention, because this is confusing if you don’t.
Kennedy at 43 was the youngest person elected president, but he wasn’t the youngest president.
Roosevelt was vice president when McKinley was assassinated, elevating Teddy to the presidency when he was a mere 42.
That makes Teddy Roosevelt the youngest American President in U.S. history. Make sense?
Shamim Ansary:
Why Does My Computer Get Dusty Faster Than My Bookshelves?
It’s not just an illusion, most electronic equipment does indeed get dusty faster than other household furnishings.
Dust gets drawn to electric and magnetic fields given off by TVs, stereos, and computers. In fact, it’s one of the reasons so many computers are beige.
Apple Computers ran tests when designing the first Macintosh in 1977 and determined that beige was the best color for hiding dust, and other computer makers followed suit.
These days, many electronics and computers come in black. Black is a classic color but it shows dust really really well. Clean freaks might be wishing for the days of silver electronics to come back.
Silver came back in vogue for a while a little after the year 2000 but most companies have gone back to black. Our guess is the next big color will be purple.
Shamim Ansary:
Why Are Mass Extinctions a Part of Evolution?
A mass extinction is named for a time period in which at least 60 percent of the living species present become extinct over a period of one million years.
Mass extinctions are considered biological catastrophes because of the relative speed and range of their effects.
The loss of so many species allows surviving populations to exploit their adaptations in new ways.
They can adapt to new parts of the environment without facing competition from other species.
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