OUR WORLD

~ An average cloud weighs 216 thousand pounds. An average storm cloud weighs 105.8 million pounds.

~ If you live in Alaska for 190 days and aren’t a convicted felon, you get an annual check from the state just for not leaving.

~ A Dutch designer is working with scientists to create glow-in-the-dark trees, hoping to one day use them

in place of street lights.

~ The largest cave in the world is in Vietnam and it’s so big that it has its own river, jungle, and climate.

~ In 1872, Russia sold Alaska to the United States for about 2 cents per acre.

~Taumatawhakatangihanga-koauauotamateaturipukakapikimaung-ahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu, New Zealand, at 85 letters long, is the longest place name in the world.

~ Oregon’s Crater Lake is deep enough to cover 6 Statues of Liberty stacked on top of one another.

~ The fastest gust of wind ever recorded on Earth was 253 miles per hour, a tropical cyclone off the coast of Barrow Island, Australia.

~ Glaciers and ice sheets hold about 69% of the world’s fresh water. Just over 96% of the world’s total water is held in it’s oceans.

~ More people visit France than any other country, followed by Spain, and then the U.S.

~ The coldest temperature ever recorded was -144 degrees Fahrenheit, in Antarctica.

~ Japan records the most earthquakes in the world.

~ There are around 4 quadrillion quadrillion bacteria on Earth.

~ Nicaragua and Dominica are the only two countries with purple in their national flags.

~ India, which has the largest number of people living in rural areas (approximately 893 million people live outside of the city), according to Reuters. China also has an impressively large rural population, with 578 million living outside of major centers.

~ The 1933 Double Eagle, a $20 U.S. coin made of gold that never went into circulation, sold for over seven million dollars at auction, more than any other coin.

~ According to UNESCO, more than 52% of the world’s population is under 30 years old. People aged 60 years and older make up 12.3% of the population.

~ With 221,800 islands, Sweden is thought to have more islands than any other country in the world. Only about 1,000 of them are inhabited.

~ The British royal family may be the most famous royal family on the planet, but there are still plenty of other nobles out there. In total, there are 28 royal families who rule over a total of 43 countries around the world, including Japan, Spain, Swaziland, Bhutan, Thailand, Monaco, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Liechtenstein.

~ Castroville, California grows 99.9% of all commercially grown artichokes.

~ According to a study developed for National Geographic in 2011, the world's "most typical" person is right-handed, makes less than $12,000 per year, has a mobile phone, and doesn't have a bank account.

~ Canada has 9% of the entire world’s forests.

~ With around 950 million native speakers and an additional 200 million people speaking Mandarin

Chinese as a second language, it's the most widely spoken language in the world.

~ There are estimated to be 72 million deaf people around the world. There are also about 300 different

sign languages, including American Sign Language and International Sign Language, as well as 41 countries that recognize them as an official language.

~ Facebook has more users than the populations of the U.S., China, and Brazil combined.