Fish

Whoosh — waaaa! You’ve just been pushed out of an airplane up high in the skies of Brazil, and there’s nothing but you, your parachute, and the ground far below you. And it’s getting closer by the second. Open, open, you useless backpack! Phew, finally. But you notice you’re now gliding straight...Oh no, you’re falling down into the Amazon River! There’s nowhere to escape now — splash! You’re in the water, covered by the heavy canvas. You push it aside, struggling for breath and trying to find your bearings. But as soon as you free yourself from the parachute trap, you notice some strange movements underwater.

Now before somebody gets married in India, they get a thorough shall we say “snooping” — sometimes without even being aware of that. There are pre-matrimonial detective agencies in India that provide the services of private investigators.

So every evening, right before you’re about to switch off the television and go to bed, your pooch enters the living room. It sprawls out on the floor and seems to be... watching TV?

You call your beloved cat to have his dinner. Sir Scratchy! Suddenly, you hear loud stomping. The dishes on the dinner table clink with every thump. A painting’s fallen off the wall! Is it an earthquake? No, that’s a cat the size of a pony walking into the dining room! It needs ten times as much food as the average cat. And it purrs like a tractor! No, Scratchy, stop rolling, you’ll turn over the cupboard! Well, this is one possible scenario for the evolution of animals in the future. Climate, water, oxygen in the air, and even gravity are factors that influence the course of evolution. For example, scientists predict that some bird species will gradually lose their warm feathers. In the future, they will basically look like sphinx cats with beaks and wings. The same thing might happen to our pets. Gradually, their fur will become shorter until they’re completely bald.

Well, it’s that time of year again: Spring cleaning! Making your way outside, you grab the duster and broom to get rid of all those cobwebs on your windows. They don’t stand a chance this time! Removing one cobweb after the other, you suddenly notice some weird shaped mud stuck under the eaves and porch! What’s this?It suddenly dawns on you: these have to be Mud Dauber Wasp nests! You’re probably thinking there’s a swarm of them around with so many nests being side by side! Luckily, Mud Dauber Wasps are solitary insects. Phew! All those little mud huts are filled with paralyzed spiders. Sometimes, even up to 500 spiders can be trapped in these lockers, just waiting for the wasp young to hatch.

You’re swimming 2 miles down at the bottom of the ocean. Don’t ask me how, just play along. It’s cold, and the pressure is intense, no fish in sight.

The Baltic Sea anomaly. In 2011, a diving team came down to the bottom of the northern part of the Baltic Sea — they went on a treasure hunt. But what they came upon was a pretty weird object. When they took photos and showed them to others, many believed it was a sunken spaceship of another civilization. Other people thought that some natural causes formed the object. But the metals inside the structure definitely couldn’t have been formed naturally. Now, some scientists even believe it was something that appeared way back in the Ice Age. Maybe it was even a meteorite that ended up trapped under ice back then.

Now if you step on a sea urchin, you’re going to know right away! Look at those spikes! Get the point? Ha ha, ow! While they’re not aggressive, they’ve got a great defense going against any creatures that want to eat them! Venomous spikes and a poisonous bite! Pick your poison, literally.

Uh-oh, they’re here. You grab your things and head out to the jeeps that will take you to the evacuation center in the underground settlement. Your dog follows you, not knowing what’s going on. You’re outside, and you can see the giants miles away walking toward you. There are so many of them, each as tall as the Statue of Liberty. But the leader is slightly taller than the Empire State Building. Each giant has a unique face similar to a human’s. But they’re always showing their teeth and popping their eyes open.

“Yo ho yo ho, a pirate’s life for me!” Let me stop you right there. If you think being a pirate or a sailor back in the old days was so cool, here’s the harsh truth: it was not all about singing sea shanties and embarking on epic voyages across the seven seas to find the fountain of youth or caves filled with gold. It wasn’t actually that cool being at sea all the time, and I have five compelling reasons to prove you so.Let’s dive in! Pun intended! Now, imagine this. You’re so excited! You’ve been waiting for this day to come, and finally, it’s official. You’re going to become a real sailor! The captain tells you to get ready because the next day, you’re going to set sail on a journey that is expected to take somewhere around six months — if you’re lucky, that is... Because storms and singing mermaids could complicate things. You pack a few things.

In the early 2000s, a geology major Fabiany Herrera went on a field trip to the world’s largest open-pit coal mine in Colombia. He picked up a piece of rock and noticed impressions of some prehistoric leaves on it. Then, he found more rocks, and each of them had the same pattern. Back then, the student could hardly know that his discovery would help describe the largest snake that has ever lived on Earth! The student took his findings to a local scientist who called up the Smithsonian Institute and invited them for a fossil hunt. He wasn’t that surprised as he knew there were fossils in the pits of Cerrejón [SE-re-HON]. Back in 1990, another geologist found a fossil there and brought it to his office. He wasn’t sure of what it was and called it a “Petrified Branch.”

Among all the planets of the Solar System, our Earth is unique since it’s the only one that has developed life. But what if we got a competitor? What if a second Earth appeared out of nowhere? Then there would be two different scenarios. The first is the destruction of both planets. The second has an unexpected but pretty logical ending. But let’s start with the catastrophic scenario. The second Earth with the same conditions could exist only if it received absolutely the same amount of sunlight as our planet. The orbit that our Earth follows is perfect for getting the necessary amount of solar heat. If we were a little further away, the entire surface of our planet would resemble Antarctica. And if Earth was a little closer to the Sun, we’d all live in a huge desert inhabited by very few living beings. So, for the second Earth to be identical to ours, it’d need to follow the orbit of our planet.

Millions of people around the world go out on the streets and rooftops to look at the amazing cosmic phenomenon. Another planet... right next to the Moon! A big red one. At first, everyone’s excited. Mars showing up out of nowhere is having a strange effect on humanity.Just as the moon can affect the psychological and physical state of some people, Mars’s unexpected visit is causing people to behave pretty strangely. Every night, the sky is lit up by the white light of the Moon and the red glow of Mars.Many people get a sort of instant insomnia. Some even stop drinking coffee because they no longer feel sleepy. Mars brings out the energy and a little wildness in people, makes them laugh more, and even drives a few poor people crazy. They begin to go out of their houses more often and enjoy the unusual night sky.

Well, it’s time to stretch your legs and take a walk in the park! The sun is shining, and you enjoy the weather and life on the whole. That’s when you spot a rapidly growing vertical cloud.Bright white at first, it’s approaching alarmingly fast, becoming dense and inky. The sky is darkening, and a gust of wind blows the hat off your head.And then, your hair starts to stand on end! That’s your cue to run for your life — you’re about to be hit by lightning! At this very moment, positive charges are rising through your body.They’re reaching toward the negatively charged part of the storm. If you don’t react fast, these charges will meet, and it’ll end badly for you.

It all started with a minor change on our planet. At first, people noticed the Moon had become brighter and a little bigger. But nobody paid attention to this. The Moon affected tides all over the world. The water flooded the beaches, but it wasn’t a tragedy. A lot of fish came close to the shores. People found giant squid, anglerfish, and other creatures next to the coast, although they usually live in the dark depths. New, stranger things happen every day. Birds no longer fly to the south in winter. They gather in huge groups flying around cities with no purpose. The Moon used to help them navigate in nature, so they can’t figure out which way to fly anymore.

We’ve heard stories about people surviving in the desert, Amazon forest, and uninhabited islands for weeks. Such stories show how tough and resilient people can be. But among these many cases, there is one that can really amaze you. It’s the story about a guy who spent three days inside a sunken ship at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. He didn’t have oxygen tanks, electricity, communications, or food, but he survived. So, it all happened in 2013 on a tugboat that was moving through the Atlantic waters along the coast of Nigeria. That day, early in the morning, there was a small storm. The tug was pulling a vessel with oil tanks. Then, all of a sudden, a huge wave formed. It crashed into the ship and broke the cable. At 4:30 a.m., the tugboat turned upside down. Its entire deck was underwater, and the ship’s hull stuck out from the surface. The boat began to sink slowly. The crew of 12 people were trapped as they all were in their locked rooms.

Despite all the technological progress we’ve witnessed during the last decade, a bunch of annoying everyday problems have still remained unsolved up until recently. Luckily, Amazon sellers heard our prayers and felt our pain, and today they are ready to provide us with simple yet brilliantly working solutions. These 11 gadgets and tools will cut your grapes in quarters, keep your house sparkling clean and even save trapped animals from your pool. Wow! Thank you. What else could we say?

Big herds of dinosaurs run through the forest. The temperature rises rapidly, and everything behind them begins to ignite. Some dinosaurs get stuck in swamps and can’t get out. Pterodactyls fly over their heads as they try to avoid the blast wave that will soon cover the Earth. This event happened about 66 million years ago. It wiped out almost every living thing on Earth. Birds and flying dinosaurs were just about the only ones who could survive the most massive extinction event ever. Hey don’t blame me. I wasn’t around then.

You’re flying over the Pacific Ocean when suddenly, a storm hits the plane, causing it to shake. The aircraft begins to descend, and you lose control. You quickly put on a parachute, eject yourself from the plane, and land on an island. It’s a good thing you were the only one on the plane transporting some goods overseas. Luckily enough, the storm hasn’t damaged your parachute. You unstrap yourself and head to the closest shelter under some palm trees. You’re waiting for the storm to be over.

Some people may think that a day of work in a kindergarten classroom is devoid of excitement. Everything is quiet and peaceful and children play with toys all day long. But the educators, more than anyone else, know that their work is definitely not easy.

The year is 2160. The place? The Pacific Ocean. Off the coast of Japan. The ocean seems calm. At least the surface does... The ocean floor is cracking right now. Boom! The Earth opens up, magma shoots out. The crack in the ocean floor triggers an earthquake and a massive amount of energy shoots into the ocean.

Ahh, Earth... the third rock from the Sun. The blue planet. You get it. Its atmosphere is made up of around 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% argon, water vapor, and carbon dioxide, a nice balance for any living creature to breathe. The weather here is also perfect for life to exist, unlike in places like Saturn, Mercury, or any other celestial object in our Solar System — we have the troposphere to thank for that. It’s the densest part of the atmosphere on our planet and is 5 to 9 miles thick. It’s the layer of the atmosphere that always affects our weather and secures the right conditions for life to exist and to have bodies of water.

Fungi are everywhere. You may see mold on an old lemon in your fridge. It’s a fungus. You may notice fungi on your mattress and the tiles in your bathroom. There may be several million species of fungi in the world, and most of them are unexplored. Of the fungus among us, some are pretty harmless, such as those that appear in the dark corner of your fridge. And others can turn a living creature into a zombie. And this is not some movie, but reality.

Get a load of this: A red whirlwind sweeps along the coast of Australia and heads toward the nearest city. This tornado is unique not by its color but by what is hidden inside it. These are great white sharks, hammerhead sharks, tiger sharks, and bull sharks. Shark! They fly inside the hurricane, snapping their jaws and trying to grab a piece of meat. People who look at this bizarre phenomenon from the outside think that they’ve got something in their drinks, but this is reality. A shark tornado can really exist. Or not? Let’s find out.In 1877, a rather unusual tornado struck a farm in Southern California. About six small alligators about 1 foot in length fell from the sky that day. In 1894, a tornado traveled through England and dropped poisonous jellyfish on people. There’s a version that tadpoles instead of jellyfish fell on the ground that day — but it still sounds quite strange.