Curious Ninja

How many books have you read today? How about this month, this year... your life? What if we told you that a 4-year-old girl named Daliyah Arana read more than 1,000 books by the time she was 3 years old? Yep, it's true. By the time Daliyah was 18 months old, her mother, Haleema Arana, tells the  Washington Post  that she recognized words to the point of wanting to read bedtime stories to herself. Then, at two months shy of 3 years old, Daliyah read her first book. While kids typically learn to read between the ages of 6 and 10, Ross A. Thompson, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of California at Davis, tells  WebMD  that there isn't a "normal" age when it comes to first learning how to read. Still, it's safe to say that Daliyah is ahead of the game, and her mother points to reading early and often as a possible reason. She read to Daliyah while she was pregnant with her, and they read together ever since she was born. After Daliyah read her fir...

In 1963 , Lawrence Herbert published the  Pantone Color Guide , a comprehensive system of identifying and matching colors. But  271 years before that  in 1672, a Dutch artist compiled  Traité des couleurs servant à la peinture à l'eau , a nearly 800-page book that did pretty much the same thing. One got a bigger audience than the other; we'll let you guess which. The timing of the book makes sense—the 17th century was known as the  Golden Age of Dutch Art , and as many as 10 million works were created during that time. Despite the book's aim as an educational guide, there was only a single copy made, so scholars guess that only a handful of people were ever able to read it. But today, we have a little thing called the internet. That means that nearly three centuries after writing it, "A. Boogert" is getting his or her just desserts: thousands of people can now admire the hard work that went into making this book a reality. The source of the original digita...

The  mantis shrimp  – the world's  fastest  punch. Mantis  shrimps are mere inches long but can throw the  fastest  punch of any animal. They strike with the force of a rifle bullet and can shatter aquarium glass and crab shells alike. Around 400 species of mantis shrimp have currently been discovered worldwide; all living species are in the suborder  Unipeltata. These aggressive and typically solitary sea creatures spend most of their time hiding in rock formations or burrowing intricate passageways in the sea bed. They rarely exit their homes except to feed and relocate, and can be active during the day, nocturnal, or active primarily at twilight, depending on the species. Unlike most crustaceans, they sometimes hunt, chase, and kill prey. Although some live in temperate seas, most species live in tropical and subtropical waters in the Indian and Pacific Oceans between eastern Africa and Hawaii. Speed and Power st...

Snake venom are classified in two major types, Neurotoxins and Hemotoxins. However venom of black-necked spitting cobra is Cytotoxin and also the venom of Mojave rattle-snake is Myotoxin. Hemotoxins This type of snake venom destroys red blood cells – causes hemolysis, disrupts blood clotting, and also attacks other types of cells and tissues – causing profound tissue damage and often, organ failure. These types of bites are very painful. Effects may not begin for hours after a bite. Permanent tissue damage almost always results. A person bitten by a snake with hemotoxic venom may bleed from orifices like nose, eyes, and also gums and the brain. If you are bitten on the toe, finger, or some extremity you can usually expect to lose part or all of that body part. Malayan Pit Viper venom has properties of its venom that attacks blood and live tissue. Viperkeeper calls them “finger rotters”. Their venom literally kills and dissolves tissue including bone. Neurotoxins Af...