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741/ About half of the energy
entering the outer atmosphere from the Sun reaches the ground.
Of the radiation that does reach the ground, about one-third
is radiated back into space, one third heats the lower atmosphere,
and one-third is used in the process of evaporating water.
742/ According to international
definition, fog occurs when visibility is 600 feet or less.
Visibility in mist may extend up to 3,000 feet.
743/ According to one study,
plant and animal species are becoming extinct at the rate
of 17 per hour.
744/ About 110,000 million
tons of carbon dioxide enter the atmosphere each year as the
result of burning fossil fuels. Removing this amount of carbon
dioxide from the atmosphere requires a forested area the size
of Australia.
745/ According to Professor
Walter Connor of the University of Michigan, men are six times
more likely than women to be struck by lightning.
746/ According to weather
forecast experts, here is a rule of thumb for weather forecasting...Winds
from the Northwest, west and Southwest usually indicate fair
weather for a time, whereas winds from the Northeast, east
and south predict unsettled weather.
747/ Acorns are poisonous
to humans, and, if eaten, will cause kidney damage.
748/ All hurricanes are born
over water, and their life span is about 10 days.
749/ An estimated 50 percent
of US landfill space is taken up by discarded packaging.
750/ An orange tree may bear
oranges for more than 100 years. The famous "Constable
Tree", an orange tree brought to France in 1421, lived
and bore fruit for 473 years.
751/ In 1859, a shower of
fish fell from the sky in Glamorgan, Wales. The fish covered
an area the size of three tennis courts.
752/ In 1939, a shower of
tiny frogs fell on the English town of Trowbridge. Strong
winds had carried them aloft from streams and ponds.
753/ In 1940, silver coins
fell from the skies onto the town of Gorky, Russia. A tornado
had lifted up an old money chest and dropped the coins it
contained as the wind carried it along.
754/ In 1981, a tornado lifted
a baby from its pram in the Italian City of Ancona. The baby
was carried about fifty feet into the air and set down safely
300 feet away - without waking.
755/ In a belt along the equator,
there are 3,200 thunderstorms each night, some of which can
be heard 18 miles away.
756/ In Calama, a town in
the Atacama Desert of Chile, it has never rained.
757/ In living memory, it
was not until February 18th, 1979 that snow fell on the Sahara.
A half hour storm in Southern Algeria stopped traffic. But
within a few hours, all the snow had melted.
758/ At last count, there
were about 226,000 trees in New York's Central Park.
759/ Athens organised the
first municipal dump in the western world, approximately 500
BC. Scavengers had to dispose of waste at least one mile from
the city walls.
760/ Because of an incredible
anti-dehydration system, some cactus species release 1/600th
the moisture of an ordinary plant the same size. Others are
able to drink water from humidity in the air.
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