Navy Academia

chaos.

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Maitotoxin

Maitotoxin (MTX) is produced by Gambierdiscus toxicus, a dinoflagellate (single-celled eukaryote) species.

It’s wide left considered the most potent of marine toxins discovered to date, and is one of several implicated in ciguatera poisoning, a rare disorder which occurs due to the ingestion of certain contaminated tropical and subtropical fish.

Symptoms of Maitotoxin poisoning include diarrhoea, vomiting, numbness, itchiness, sensitivity to hot and cold, dizziness and weakness. The onset is usually 30 minutes - 2 days. Along with the ciguatoxin, this causes ciguatera poisoning.

Other symptoms of Maitotoxin poisoning include aphonia (loss of voice), dental dysesthesias (persistent alteration to oral sensation), fatigue, tremors, alexia (a group of disorders that affect coordination, balance and speech), vertigo, headache, myalgia (muscle aches and pains), axthralgia (joint stiffness), temperature reversal and hyporeflexia (condition where muscles are less responsive to stimuli).

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Facts about CBD Oil:

Cannabidiol (CBD) oil is the second most prevalent of the active ingredients of cannabis (marijuana).

CBD oil can be harvested from hemp, a cousin to marijuana. Hemp has a higher concentration of CBD than marijuana, which has a higher concentration of THC.

Unlike Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), CBD oil does not make you high. Both interact with your body’s endocannabinoid system - they just have different effects.

CBD is psychoactive, just not in the same manner as THC. CBD oil is shown to help with anxiety, depression and seizures.

CBD helps with other conditions such as inflammation, pain, psychosis, IBS, nausea, migraines and many more.

Examples of CBD effects are fatigue, appetite changes, weight loss, dizziness and diarrhoea.

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Palytoxin Poisoning

Palytoxin poisoning commonly happens to people who have marine tanks. This poison is present in zoanthid (zoa) corals.

It is not possible to tell which Zoanthid corals contain Palytoxin when deciding whether to keep them in aquariums. Some species of zoanthid have more palytoxin than others.

Palytoxin is the second deadliest poison in the world.

Symptoms can be mistaken for the flu: cough, fever, chills, sore throat.

Other symptoms include rash, hives and wheezing.

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Facts about bees

All worker bees are female. The males are called drones and their only job is to mate with the queen bee. When it’s Winter and the hive has gone into survival mode, the drones are kicked out and are left to die.

A queen’s primary duty is to lay eggs. In order to maintain a large colony a honey bee queen lays on average 1500 eggs per day.

Honeybees have a dance move called the ‘waggle dance’. It’s not actually a dance move at all, rather a clever way of communicating between themselves to tell their nestmates where to go to find the best source of food.

If the queen bee dies, workers will create a new queen by selecting a young larva and feeding it a special food called “royal jelly“. This enables the larva to develop into a fertile queen.

The average worker bee lives for just five to six weeks. During this time, she’ll produce around a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey.

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Facts about menstruation

They get worse when it’s cold.

The average age for starting periods has become younger. In the 1800s, it was predicted to be in your late teens (around 17ish). Now the average age for starting your cycle is 12 years old.

Although it may seem like a lot, your body is actually losing about three tablespoons of blood.

Getting your period may worsen asthma symptoms. This causes 19-40% of women with asthma to experience prementrual asthma (PMA), according to a study published in the journal Multidisciplinary Respiratory Medicine.

The sound of your voice changes during your period.

Sanitary products are equal to 250-300 pounds of waste per woman.

Disney made a movie about periods in the 1940s called “The Story of Menstruation”.

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Fun Fact

A cat purrs within a range of 20-140 Hz which is known to be medically therapeutic for illnesses in humans. A cat's purr can not only lower stress it can also help labored breathing, lower blood pressure, help heal infections, and even heal bones.

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Facts about caffeine

Caffeine is absorbed into the blood and tissues within about 45 minutes of being consumed.

Generally, people's need for caffeine is a different order of magnitude compared with an addiction to opioid drugs or cocaine.

Caffeine has a similar molecular structure to adenosine, a neurotransmitter (a substance that transmits nerve impulses in the brain).

Coffee comes from a red fruit, known as coffee cherries.

Caffeine acts as a natural pesticide and herbicide.

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Facts about your body

20% of people don’t have wisdom teeth.

10% of the population have Greek feet / Morton’s toe.

11% of people have naturally curly hair.

There is a rare fourth cone in some women’s eyes that allows them to see 100 million colours.

Only 40 people in the whole world have Golden Blood. This means that they are missing all Rh-blood cell antigens.

A very small number of people suffer from a genetic disorder that causes them to constantly emit an unpleasant smell.

25% of people have dimples.

5% of the population has tiny holes next to their ears.

People with a DEC2 gene mutation require less sleep than most people. They can get a full night’s restful sleep in about half the time than most of us.

Some people (including me) have a fourth horizontal line on their index finger.

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Facts about Horseshoe Crabs

They are “living fossils”, existing for 445 million years yet remaining unchanged.

They have been alive even before dinosaurs.

They are related to spiders and arachnids.

They have barely changed since their body structure is very effective for survival.

They’re extremely sensitive to light, having 10 eyes.

Horseshoe crabs are known to gather in large nesting aggregations.

Their blood is extremely sensitive to bacteria, being used to check if there bacteria in vaccines.

They are harvested as bait for the whelk and eel fisheries.

Horseshoe crabs are bled for lysate, a chemical used by the pharmaceutical industry to test sterility of drugs and equipment.

Since the 1990s, Delaware Bays horseshoe crab population has decreased by 2/3.

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Benefits of playing checkers

It’s fun to play.

Requires concentration and problem-solving.

A fun way to overcome boredom.

Reduced stress and lowers blood pressure.

Teaches effective strategising skills.

Teaches patience.

Easy to teach younger kids.

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A way to predict your height

Boys: Add 5 inches to mums height, average it with dads height. Add 2 inches and subtract 2 inches to get a range.

Girls: Subtract 5 inches from dads height, average this number with mums height. Add 2 inches and subtract 2 inches from this to get a range.

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Benefits of rock climbing:

Strengthens your muscles while being low impact.

It improves flexibility.

Longer climbs challenge your cardiovascular system.

It combats chronic disease.

Can help improve coordination.

Burns calories.

Problem-solving skills are used on difficult climbs.

Improves balance.

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An idea for if you’re bored of a scene in your writing

Make your character start overthinking something, or notice small details.

Or do what I did and turn your character into a mouse and make the other characters make fun of them.

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A sleeping method that helped me last night (4, 7, 8 method)

Take a deep breath while counting to 4 in you head.

Hold that breath for 7 seconds.

Exhale while counting to 8.

Repeat until you get really tired and fall asleep.

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Harry Potter Facts

The chair that J.K. Rowling used to write the first two Harry Potter novels recently sold at an auction for £278,000. It had been signed and decorated by the author.

The Harry Potter books were the first children’s books to make the New York Times Bestseller list since E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web in 1952.

Apparently, somebody in the world starts reading the Harry Potter series every 30 seconds.

These were some of the original character names before Rowling finalised them: Hermione Puckle, Neville Puff, Draco Spinks and Lily Moon (Luna Lovegood).

There were two alternative titles for the final book: Harry Potter and the Elder Wand and Harry Potter and the Peverell Quest.

Edinburg, Scotland provided a lot of inspiration for Rowling as she wrote the HP books due to the gothic architecture.

To prevent early leaks of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the series' publisher, Bloomsbury, gave the seventh and final book code names.

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My essay tip

Write as much nonsense about the text and make it all link. But make the nonsense link, then start getting off topic before jumping back to your point and expanding again. There, you have a page of writing. Now do that more times with different points and eventually you’ll have an essay.

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Benefits of Researching

Expanding your knowledge.

Encouraging critical thinking.

Picking out the useful information.

Making a whole Instagram account because you have so much research and random knowledge you want to share.

Annoying people by learning the longest word in the dictionary and diagnosing everyone with it.