What’s the most dangerous animal that has ever lived?

Mosquitoes

http://praylovemedicine.blogspot.com/2011/12/filariasis.html

Perhaps some of you are confused whether a mosquito is an animal or not. A mosquito is an insect, and the last time I checked, (Since I was also curious) insects are considered animals, so yes, a mosquito is an animal.

Insects belong to the largest phylum of the animal kingdom and are called arthropods. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, insects are members of the Arthropoda phylum and make up 84 percent of all the known animals on Earth.

Mosquitoes carry more than a hundred potential fatal diseases including malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, encephalitis, filariasis and elephantiasis. Even today, they kill one person every twelve seconds.

References:

 What is an Insect? (n.d.). Retrieved May 8, 2015, from https://www.uky.edu/Ag/Entomology/ythfacts/4h/unit1/intro.htm  

Lloyd, J., & Mitchinson, J. (2006). The book of general ignorance. New York: Harmony Books.

 GeographyBlog. (n.d.). Retrieved May 6, 2015, from http://geog-ashu.blogspot.com/2010/04/driest-place-on-earth.html  

How long could a chicken live without its head?

About two years.

http://helpmeteach.tumblr.com/post/6311883319/this-could-be-a-potential-attention-getter-in-one

On 10 September, 1945, a plump young cockerel in Fruita, Colorado, had his head chopped of and lived. Incredibly the axe had missed the jugular vein and left enough of the brain stem attached to the neck for him to survive, even thrive.

Mike, as he was known, became a national celebrity touring the country and featuring in Time and Life magazines. His owner, Lloyd Olsen, charged twenty-five cents for a chance to meet “Mike the headless Wonder Chicken” in sideshows across USA. Mike would appear complete with a dried chicken’s head purporting to be his own—in fact, the Olsen’s cat had made off with the original. At the height of his fame, Mike was making $4500 a month and was valued $10,000.

Mike was fed and watered using an eye dropper. In the two years after he lost his head, he put on nearly six pounds and spend his time happily preening and “pecking” for food with his neck.

Reference:

Teaching Stuff. (n.d.). Retrieved May 8, 2015, from http://helpmeteach.tumblr.com/post/6311883319/this-could-be-a-potential-attention-getter-in-one  

Lloyd, J., & Mitchinson, J. (2006). The book of general ignorance. New York: Harmony Books.

 GeographyBlog. (n.d.). Retrieved May 6, 2015, from http://geog-ashu.blogspot.com/2010/04/driest-place-on-earth.html  

What is the biggest thing a blue whale can swallow?

http://proxyponder.com/2014/09/blue-whales-population-rebounding/

A. A very large mushroom? No!
B. A small family car? No!
C. A sailor? No!
D. A grapefruit? Yes!

Quite interestingly, a blue whale’s throat is almost exactly the diameter as its belly button, which is about the size of a side plate.

Their diet consists of tiny pink, shrimp-like crustaceans called “krill”. The narrow gauge of a blue whale’s throat means it couldn't swallow big living and non-living things. The only whale with a throat wide enough to swallow a person whole is the sperm whale.

Reference:

Lloyd, J., & Mitchinson, J. (2006). The book of general ignorance. New York: Harmony Books.

 GeographyBlog. (n.d.). Retrieved May 6, 2015, from http://geog-ashu.blogspot.com/2010/04/driest-place-on-earth.html  

What is the name of the tallest mountain in the world?

As far as mountain concerned, the current convention is that “highest” means measured from the sea level to summit: “tallest” means measured from the bottom of the mountain to the top.

http://geology.com/records/highest-mountain-in-the-world.shtml

Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world but it’s not the tallest.

Mauna Kea is the highest point on the island of Hawaii. The inactive volcano is a modest 4206 m above the sea level, but when measured from the seabed to its summit. It is 10, 200 m about three quarters of a mile taller than Mount Everest.

Reference:

 Mount Everest is Not The Tallest Mountain - KnowledgeNuts. (n.d.). Retrieved May 6, 2015, from http://knowledgenuts.com/2013/07/21/mount-everest-is-not-the-tallest-mountain/  

Where is the highest mountain?

It’s on Mars.

https://penningtonplanetarium.wordpress.com/2013/12/21/the-9-tallest-mountains-in-the-solar-system/comment-page-1/

The Giant volcano Mount Olympus is the highest mountain in the solar system.

It is almost 3 times the height of Mount Everest and so wide that it’s base would cover Arizona, and the whole of the area of the British Isles. The crater on the top is big enough to swallow London.

Mount Olympus doesn't conform to most people’s idea of a mountain. It is flat-topped-like a vast plateau in a sea drained of water--- and its sides aren't even steep. Their slight incline of between one and three degrees means you wouldn't even break sweat if you climbed it. 

Reference:

 Ask an Astronomer. (n.d.). Retrieved May 6, 2015, from http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/ask/199-Where-is-the-highest-mountain-in-our-Solar-System-  

Where is the driest place on earth?

http://geog-ashu.blogspot.com/2010/04/driest-place-on-earth.html

Most of us think that Atacama is the driest places on Earth, but there are parts of Antarctica that have not experienced rain for two million years.

The unique conditions in the dry valleys of Antarctica are caused by so –called katabatic winds. These occur when cold, dense air is pulled downhill simply by force of gravity. The winds can reach speeds of 320kph evaporating all moisture, water, ice and snow--- in the process.

Though Antarctica is a desert, these completely dry parts of it are called, somewhat ironically, oases. 

Reference:

Lloyd, J., & Mitchinson, J. (2006). The book of general ignorance. New York: Harmony Books.

 GeographyBlog. (n.d.). Retrieved May 6, 2015, from http://geog-ashu.blogspot.com/2010/04/driest-place-on-earth.html  

Who invented the telephone? Alexander Graham bell?

 Read for you to know….

http://motor-kid.com/cartoon-old-telephone.html

Antonio Meucci was the first person who demonstrated a working model of an electric device called the “teletrofono”. He made it 5 years before Alexander Graham bell’s telephone patent.

Since Meucci got Ill, he failed to send the $10 required to renew his caveat in 1974.

When Graham bell patent was registered in 1876, Meucci sued. He’d sent his original sketches and working models to the lab at Western Union. By an extraordinary coincidence, Bell worked in the very same lab and the models had mysteriously disappeared.

Meucci died while his case against bell was still under way. As a result, it was Bell, not Meucci who got the credit for the invention.

In 2004, the balance was partly redressed by the US House of Representatives who passed a resolution that “the life achievement of Antonio Meucci should be recognized, and his work in the invention of the telephone should be acknowledged”.

 Reference:

Lloyd, J., & Mitchinson, J. (2006). The book of general ignorance. New York: Harmony Books.