For a while, a fictional city appeared on Google Maps for no apparent reason!

The nonexistent settlement, called “Argleton,” was located just east of the civil parish of Aughton in West Lancashire, England. In reality the area is just a bunch of empty fields. The supposed town was finally removed from Google Maps and Earth in January 2010 not just because it didn’t exist, but because many online information services were mistakenly listing addresses within the postage zones as being located in Argleton! 

It is not known for certain why or how Argleton began - it was most likely a mistake by a programmer at Tele Atlas, the Dutch company that provides all the information for Google’s map database. However, Argleton briefly became quite a cultural phenomenon. A year after its discovery in 2008, it was receiving around 249,000 hits on Google and had become a fairly popular hashtag on Twitter!

at 04:03 0 comments

For the first time in history, two planets have been discovered that share the same orbit.

 The pair of planets are part of a four-planet solar system called KOI-730. They orbit a sun-like star, one 60 degrees ahead of the other, with a full revolution taking 9.8 days. The reason this phenomenon is possible is because there are two gravitational "sweet spots" called Lagrange points along a planetary body's orbit where another body can share the same orbit. These points are located 60 degrees ahead of and 60 degrees behind the orbiting object. 

This even occurs within our solar system - group of asteroids called Trojans inhabit the Lagrange points of Jupiter's orbit! The existence of this pair of planets also supports an existing theory that the moon was formed by the collision of the Earth and a Mars-sized planet that once shared its orbit. 

at 03:18 0 comments

Unbelievable Facts

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•   All polar bears are left handed.
•   Butterflies taste with their feet.
•    Ants never sleep.
•   A newborn kangaroo is about 1 inch in length.
•  A cow gives nearly 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime.
•  There are 701 types of pure breed dogs

•  Honey is the only food that doesn't spoil.

•  Strawberry is the only fruit with its seeds on the outside.

•  The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

•  A shrimp's heart is in their head.

at 11:40 0 comments

Facebook's oldest user is 103...and she updates from an iPad.

Great-grandmother Lillian Lowe has taken the title of oldest Facebooker from 104-year-old Ivy Bean, who died in her sleep this past July. Lillian checks her wall about twice a week and is friends with 34 different people, including 7 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren!

Born in 1907, Lillian has seen all kinds of changes during her lifetime - the sinking of the Titanic, two World Wars, the first computer, and now the advent of social networking and tablet computers!

Thanks to the publicity that comes with being dubbed the oldest person on Facebook, she has recently received over 900 Facebook friend requests. She says she has also heard of Twitter, but does not know what it is.

at 22:44 0 comments