Facts about Lionfish

The Lionfish has vividly striped body. It has flamboyant and long pectoral fins with venomous fin rays. The native habitats of lionfish are the rocky crevices and reefs of the Indo-Pacific waters. These days, they can also be found in the eastern coast of America, too. Howeverit is still not clear how they reach on the coast of America and it is believed that may be some aquariums have dropped some specimens in the warm waters of the eastern coast of America.

The species of Lionfish belongs to genus Pterois - a genus of venomous fish found native to the Indo-Pacific region. At present, there are nine different species of lionfish. The most popular ones are the red lionfish (Pterois volitans), spotfin lionfish (Pterois antennata), luna lionfish (Pterois lunulata), frillfin turkeyfish (Pterois mombasae) and the clearfin lionfish (Pterois radiata). The Lionfish has a unique colorful appearance and, these species have become quite popular as aquarium fish and they have exceptional adaptability across the globe.

The Lionfish is considered to be among the most poisonous fish all over the world. They have sharp needle like blades which they use to inject venom into a potential attacker.

They own their unique colorful appearance. They look incredibly beautiful inside aquarium. Their spectacular look is appreciated by everybody. They also make benefit of their colors. Due to their colors they easily blend into the reefs. This helps them in protection from the potential predators and also helps them to catch prey while hiding.

Lionfish has several types and it is said to be belonged to the family Scorpaenidae, which is said to be extremely poisonous.

Lionfish never uses its venom to catch prey. They do not even know how to use the venom to catch prey. The venom that comes is purely for defensive purpose only. To catch prey they only use their own color which acts as a camouflage that they possess with the reefs and rocky crevices. They combine their camouflage with quick speed to catch prey.

A Lionfish’s diet includes small fish, shrimps and crabs. These are the major part of her diet.

They are inactive during night. Lionfish usually hides in small caves or ledges during the night time. For food they hunt during the day time only.

The average life span of a lionfish on an average is around 15 years. It may increase or decrease depending on the surrounding and conditions. They can grow to 15 inches in length and in certain parts very large lionfishes are found. An average length of lionfish is 12 inches.

The population of Lionfish is quite good and going to increase with time. However, some people doubts on their growth as these are fishes are venomous and their growth may not be good in future.

An adult lionfish swallow its prey in a single motion. It stays at its place and wait for the prey to come nearby.

The lionfish is not considered as a threat for humans. Humans often come in contact with this species during fishing and diving. If however, any human comes in contact with its venom it may cause extreme pain, breathing problems, nausea, vomiting, or dizziness in body.

Clearfin Lionfish as the name suggest has no characteristic markings on its spines.

The adult lionfish remain solitary creatures while the juveniles live in groups. Over the course of time, they start defining their territory.

Facts about the Milky Way

The Milky Way consists of at least 200 and possibly as lots of as 400 billion stars. It is spread out as a narrow disk, and from the outside it would look like a spiral galaxy. Recent facts suggest that the Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy. This is a kind of spiral galaxy. It has a central bar-shaped structure consisting of stars. Barred spiral galaxies are common, and the bar structure is believed to be a stellar nursery fuelling star birth in the centers. The bar acts like a mechanism that channels gas inwards from the spiral arms towards the center, and stars are born out of the interstellar cloud.

The following are some of the interesting facts associated with the Milky way.

1. It is commonly known as either the Milky Way or Galaxy.
2. The Milky Way is in between the way where Earth and our Solar System are located.
3. Aristotle, in his studies, Meteorologica, said that the Milky Way may be made up of distant stars.
4. Galileo provided a proof about the Aristotle statement about the Milky Way.  He proved that the Milky Way did consist of stars when he used his telescope.
5. Similar to other galaxies, the Milky Way contains a bulge, disk, and halo at its center.
6. The bulge in the center of the Milky Way contains old stars.
7. The halo of the Milky Way is said to contain dark matter and globular clusters.
8. The disk is said to be made of young stars, dust, and gas.
9. The Milky Way is called as a binary system.
10. There are other Dwarf Galaxies which orbit the Milky Way.
11. The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy having central bar consisting of stars.
12. When you look at the night sky, all the visible stars are part of the Milky Way Galaxy.
13. The Milky Way’s center can be located in the direction of Sagittarius.
14. The Milky Way’s size is approximately 30 kilo parsecs (100,000 light years) in diameter.
15. The Milky Way’s thickness is nearly 3,000 light years.
16. The distance between the Milky Way’s center and Sun is said to be 25,000 to 28,000. The exact figures are still not obtained.
17. There are spiral arms appears to be coming out from the center of the Milky Way.
18. It is said that in November 2010, two large spherical bubbles of energy are discovered that are exploding to the north and south of the Milky Way’s center.
19. Sun will take more or less 220,000,000 years to make a complete rotation around the Milky Way.
20. The Andromeda Galaxy is a similar galaxy as the Milky Way.

The Milky Way has been described as a serpent or a river, and in Sweden they call the galaxy as Vinter Gatan – ‘Winter Street’. Poets said that it is the Winter Street that will connect us with the wonder of our nocturnal skies. The word Galaxy comes from the Greek word. A galaxy is a system made up of billions of stars, like our Sun. It is believed that there are more than one hundred billion galaxies in the universe at present.

Facts about Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day (Saint Valentine's Day) is an occasion celebrated on February 14. It is thought about to be a traditional day on which people express their love for each other by different means. They share Valentine's cards, present flowers, or offer chocolates.

There is no clear indication how Valentine’s Day got its name. There were plenty of Christians with name Valentine. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, at least three Saint Valentines are mentioned who are associated with 14 February. One of them is described as a priest at Rome, another as a Bishop of Interamna (now Terni in France) & the other lived & died in Africa.

The Valentine that most specialists think is the actual recalled on St. Valentine's Day was a Roman. He was martyred for refusing to give up Christianity.

In England, the Romans, had taken over the country, and introduced a fertility festival every February 14. After the Romans left England, the ritual was abolished by Pope Gelsius and established St. Valentine's Day as a celebration of love in 496 A.D.

In Britain, they spend around a lot of money on cards, flowers, chocolates & other gifts for Valentine's Day. Historically, it was seen that in the past, gifts were sent anonymously, but nowadays they frequently make it clear who is sending each 'Valentine'.

In the past, spring begins on St Valentine's Day (February 14th). It is the day on which birds selected their mates. In parts of Sussex, Valentine’s Day was called 'the Birds' Wedding Day'.

There are many other traditions and superstitions associated with Valentine's Day. Some believe that the first man an unmarried woman saw on the Valentine’s Day would be her husband in future or if a woman saw a robin flying overhead on Valentine’s Day; her husband would be a sailor. If the bird is sparrow then her husband would be a poor man or so.

In the Middle era, young men and women draw out names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. The names drawn out would be worn by them on their arms for one week.

In Wales wooden love spoons are carved and are gifted on Valentine’s Day.

These are a few random stats associated with Valentine’s Day.

On Valentine’s Day, 15% of U.S. women send flowers to themselves.
On Valentine’s 73% of people who buy flowers for are men, while only 27 percent are women.
On Valentine's Day, approximately 1 billion cards are exchanged every year. Valentine’s Day is the largest selling seasonal card other than Christmas Day.
3% of pet owners give Valentine's Day gifts to their pets.

Alexander Graham Bell patented his telephone on Valentine's Day, 1876.

Cupid is considered as the symbol of Valentine’s Day. It is associated with Valentine’s Day as he was the son of Venus, the Roman god of love and beauty. It is believed that cupid uses magic arrows for love creation.
Hallmark, a famous card brand has over a range of 1330 different cards for Valentine's Day specially.

In Victorian times it was considered as a symbol of bad luck to sign a Valentine's Day card.

Teachers also receive a majority of Valentine's Day cards, gifted by children, mothers, wives, and then, sweethearts.

The red rose was the favorite flower of Venus, the Roman goddess of love. That is why it is shared and gifted on Valentine’s Day due to its romantic value. Red color itself is considered as the color of romance.

Facts about Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher who wrote about lots of subjects and made various important contributions to science based ones such as physics, biology, anatomy, geology and zoology.

Aristotle along with Socrates and Plato were known as "The Gigantic Three". They were thought about of the Founders of Western Philosophy. Aristotle had made his great contributions to philosophy. Aristotle’s contributions to philosophy, science, and metaphysics had permanently impacted the whole Western world and still do today. His teachings are the basis for lots of religious doctrines and beliefs, those of the Roman-Catholic Church pre-Renaissance. The pupil of Plato, Aristotle would go on to mentor Alexander the Great (a military genius who is thought about of the most important figures in Ancient Western History).

While a quantity of his theories and postulates were later proven false. However, lots of his ideas still hold true today. Aristotle was a mathematician and a philosophical scholar. Aristotle taught astronomy and political theory, as well. Without him, the Western world would likely be much less developed than currently is.

There are some very interesting facts about Aristotle.

• Aristotle was born in Greece & they lived from 384 BC to 322 BC.

• The influence of Aristotle’s work on the physical sciences spread across the world, offering well thought out theory & reasoning. His theory and reasoning would stay and spread for lots of years to come before finally being replaced by modern physics.

• As well as science, Aristotle wrote on lots of other subjects including poetry, music, theater, logic, metaphysics, rhetoric, ethics & politics. With the passage of time all of Aristotle’s original work has been lost. But around one-third of it still remains to this day.

• Aristotle was a student of a Greek philosopher. His mentor name was Plato. When they was around eighteen years elderly, they moved to Athens to be further educated at Plato's Academy, where they stayed for very twenty years.

• Alexander the Great also became a student of Aristotle in 343 BC & took much advice from his teacher despite a falling out near the finish of Alexander’s life. Aristotle was as well as a teacher to Ptolemy & Cassander, who would both finally be crowned kings.

• Aristotle was interested in more in literary way of human nature rather than a scientific exploration.

• Aristotle produced a large number of writings, but few have survived with passage of time. His writings include a wide variety of works written for the public, and they included popular philosophical themes.

• Aristotle also established a philosophical school of his own, known as the Lyceum. It was located near a shrine of Apollo Lyceus. It was also known as the Peripatetic School. In the school, the lectures were divided into morning and afternoon sessions.

• Aristotle was as well as a natural historian, recording knowledge & analyzing the sea life around areas such as Lesbos. His observations & interpretations were often coming years of their time.

• Aristotle also made efforts to explain how moral conduct contributes for a better life for humans.

• Aristotle believes that the lives of individual human beings are invariably linked with each other in a social context.

• Famous Aristotle quotes include: Time crumbles things; everything grows elderly under the power of Time & is forgotten through the lapse of Time. In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous. Misfortune shows those who are not friends. He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.