As the name suggests, an octopus usually has eight tentacles, but occasional freak specimens with fewer or more than eight have been documented. The octopus with the greatest known number of tentacles is an extraordinary specimen of common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) that was captured alive in Matoya Bay, Japan, during December 1998. Each of its eight normal tentacles had branched to produce a profusion of additional ones, yielding an amazing 96 tentacles in total. It survived for five months in captivity, and after its death
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In medieval Europe, around 1500 AD, the overuse of wood for burning began to lead to general shortages due to deforestation. Around this period Europeans started to shift to burning coal instead of wood, the first time in human history that an alternative fuel was adopted because of shortages of conventional fuel.
In 1959 the UK’s Royal Navy commissioned the HMS Hermes, a Centaur class aircraft carrier. Fully loaded she displaces 28,700 tonnes and measures 226.5 m long with a beam of 48.78 m, and has a maximum speed of 28 knots (52 km/h). She served as the UK’s taskforce flagship during the conflict with Argentina over the Falkland Islands in 1982. Sold to the Indian Navy in 1986, she currently serves as India’s flagship and has been renamed INS Viraat.
Edith Haisman (UK, nee Brown b. 27 October 1896), who died in a nursing home in Southampton, Hampshire, UK, at the age of 100 years 85 days on 20 January 1997, was 15 years old when the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank on the night of 14 April 1912. She could remember sitting in one of the ships lifeboats watching her father, Thomas Brown, standing on deck holding a glass of brandy and a cigar and saying ‘I’ll see you in New York!’. He
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The country with the oldest aesthetic surgery patients is India, where 54.43% of those treated are over 50 years old. The source is International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.
The world’s oldest adopted person is Jo Anne Benedict Walker (USA) who was aged 65 years 224 days when she was officially adopted by Frances Ensor Benedict (USA) on 5 April 2002 in Putnam County, Tennessee, USA.
The oldest female acrobatic salsa dancer is Sarah Paddy Jones (UK, born 1 July 1934) who won the first prize on the Spanish TV talent show “Tu Si Que Vales” in December 2009.
The oldest American football player is Paul L. Morton (USA, b. 12 January 1941), who was 67 years old when he played a regular season for semi-professional team, Stateline Miners, in 2008. Morton position of play is Defensive Back
The Royal Astronomical Society (UK) was founded on 12 January 1820 when 14 gentlemen met in the Freemasons Tavern, London and agreed to found the Astronomical Society of London. It received its royal charter from King William IV on 7 March 1831. It is based in Burlington House, Piccadilly, London.
The oldest astronaut is John Glenn Jr. (USA), who was 77 years 103 days old when he was launched into space as part of the crew of Discovery STS-95 on 29 October 1998. The mission lasted 11 days, landing on 7 November 1998. Senator Glenn was one of the first US astronauts to fly with the Mercury orbiter space programme. In February 1962 he completed a five hour, three-orbit flight aboard Friendship 7