Annochka Plus

10/11/2021

Do you get the feeling that there are more twins around these days than there used to be? No? Well, you should, because according to a new study in the journal Human Reproduction, the "twinning rate" has increased by one-third since the '80s—up from 9 to 12 twins per 1,000 deliveries. Currently that adds up to about 1.6 million twins born each year across the world—meaning one out of every 42 babies is a twin. Helping drive this is the increasing use of medically assisted reproduction, and the delay in childbearing (twinning has been found to increase with a mother's age). For more pieces of trivia to impress your friends, here are 50 Facts So Strange You Won't Believe They're True.

14/10/2021

Tornadoes can develop over water just as well as they can over land. When they do, they're called "waterspouts," and they suck up large amounts of lake or sea water—as well as whatever's swimming in that water. If the waterspout travels on to the land and the winds decrease, there's nowhere for those fish to go but down. As far as we know, there's no tornado powerful enough to pick up sharks, but a fish-nado is entirely possible.

14/10/2021

14/10/2021

Plenty of people have food allergies, but few are the result of an insect bite. In a strange and growing trend, some people who get bitten by the Lone Star tick can develop a sudden allergy to red meat. Beef, lamb, and pork (which are technically classified as red meat) can make people with this allergy experience headaches, sneezing, a runny nose, and nausea. In severe cases, it can cause the person to be unable to breathe. For some sufferers, the allergy fades over time, but for others, it's permanent.

14/10/2021

14/10/2021

14/10/2021

Almost nothing is known about Sandy Island, a land mass about the size of Manhattan in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Australia. Supposedly, explorer James Cook discovered it in 1774, and it began appearing on nautical maps in 1908. It wasn't until 2012, when a team of Australian scientists set out to survey the island, that they discovered there was no island there at all. The scientists guessed that Cook may have in fact spotted a "pumice raft" of floating volcanic stone and gas. The Sydney Morning Herald even published an obituary for Sandy Island.

07/10/2021

The original 1977 Star Wars had a budget of $8 million, which distributor 20th Century Fox was reluctant to give to director/writer George Lucas, so he accepted a lower salary in order to keep the budget. The movie went on to make $775 million around the world, and Disney picked up the entire franchise for $4 billion. For comparison, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which was released in 2017, had a reported budget of $317 million.

07/10/2021

The country with the widest stretch of land, Russia, spans 11 different time zones. France, though, technically has the most, clocking in at 12—but that's due to the fact that its territories are dispersed in various parts of the world. The U.S. ties with Russia in second, but not all time zones are inhabited.