Tag Archives: Arctic

1. ‘Fortnight’ is a contraction of ‘fourteen nights’. In the USA ‘two weeks’ is more commonly used.

My friends in the USA  laugh when I say lets lunch again in a fortnight. When I first mentioned it the look on their faces was ‘Whatttt?’. So now, even when I am not in the States they call the 2 week get together the ‘fortnight’ lunch.

2. The largest book in the world, a copy of the Tripitaka, the sacred buddhist text that includes Buddhas’s teachings, is inscribed on 729 marble slabs, each 3.5′ x 5×5″, and occupies a thirteen – acre site on the grounds of the Kuthodaw pagoda in Mandalay, Burma

3.  The worlds greatest temperature range at a single locations is 105C from minus 68 C to 37C recorded at Verkhoyansk, Siberia

4. Rats use their tail to control their body temperature because they cannot sweat, to communicate and for balance. Source

5.  Glaciers store between 70% and 80% of all the freshwater on the planet.  99% of those glaciers are in the Arctic and Antarctic. Glaciers exist on all the continents of the world except Australia. Source

6.The second Longest geographical name that is accepted in the world is “Taumatawhakatangihangak oauauotamateaturipukaka pikimaungahoronukupokaiwhe nua kitanatahu” (85 letters) which is a hill in New Zealand. Source

7.  The Shortest place-name is ‘Å’ it is located in both Sweden and Norway. In Scandinavian languages, ‘Å’ means “river”. Source