Many parents do not like their children to play video games. One reason is that it is a waste of time. Instead of playing games, they could be spending their time wisely, doing homework, exercising, or cleaning the house. Another reason is that many games are destructive and violent, causing children to behave badly and aggressively in the real world. Finally, video games are often addictive and thus discourage children from having other hobbies and interests. All of these are good reasons to dislike video games. Nevertheless, there are some good reasons to allow children to play them. For one thing, not all video games are mindless time-wasters. Nowadays, there is much more variety and lots of games to choose from that are educational and instructive. Parents simply need to spend more time paying attention to the kinds of games children play and encourage them to choose games that develop their minds.

Spencer was an engineer, philosopher and psychologist, who in his day was as famous as Darwin. He first coined the phrase ‘survival of the fittest’. Darwin paid him the compliment of using it himself. Herbert was the eldest of nine children, all the rest of whom died in infancy. Trained as a civil engineer, he became a philosopher, psychologist, sociologist, economist and inventor. He sold more than a million books in his lifetime and was the first to apply evolutionary theory to psychology, philosophy and the study of society.

He also invented the paperclip. The device was called Spencer’s Binding Pin and was produced on a modified hook-and-eye machine. It did well in its first year, but demand dried up. During the Second World War, paperclips were an emotive symbol of Norwegian resistance to the German occupation. A giant paperclip was later erected in Oslo.

A mountain is a form of land that rises high in a limited area. It is higher and steeper than a hill. Mountains must be higher than 600 metres. They consist of rocks and earth. They usually have steep, sloping sides. They also have sharp or slightly rounded peaks. Some mountains may have trees which grow on their sides. Very high mountains may have snow on their peaks. Long chains or groups of mountains are mountain ranges. They can be short or very long. A group of these makes a mountain system.

Mountains exist on every continent of our planet and even beneath the ocean. In fact, some of the highest mountains are at he bottom of the sea. For example, Hawaii is at the top of a volcanic mountain in the Pacific Ocean. More than half the mountain is below water. 75% of the world’s countries have mountains.

People have enjoyed sports for thousands of years. Children, men and women play sports both for pleasure and for challenge. Every sport involves physical skill. Every sport has a set of rules that the players of the sport follow. In some sports one person competes against other individuals. Examples of these sports include boxing, tennis and so on. In many games one team competes against the other team.

People can go in for winter and summer sports. Summer sports are typical for warmer countries. Those who live in regions that experience cold winters have long enjoyed ice skating, skiing, and sledding. These activities have grown immensely in popularity over the years. Today thousands of resorts cater to the winter tourist trade, and millions of people each year take winter sports vacations.

Some paintings found in different caves around the world are recognized as the work of Stone Age artists. But what was the purpose of the paintings? Why were they hidden in a dark room where there is no evidence that cave people lived?

No one really knows, but there is one theory that makes great sense. It is called the theory of Sympathetic Magic. According to this, the cave people believed that if they could make a likeness of an animal, they could put a spell over it. This spell would give the tribe power over the live animal.

Stone Age existence depended on killing animals – for food, clothing, and even weapons and tools. The animals were large and fierce; the cave people had only the most simple weapons. Hunters had to be brave and fearless. They needed more than a spear or club; they needed all the magic they could get. The magic could help the hunters catch the animals.

How many nostrils do you have? Four. Two you can see, two you can’t. This discovery came from observing how fish breathe. Fish get their oxygen from water. Most of them have two pairs of nostrils, a forward-facing set for letting water in and a pair of «exhaust pipes» for letting it out again. The question is, if humans evolved from fishes, where did the other pair of nostrils go. The answer is that they migrated back inside the head to become internal. To do this they somehow had to work their way back through the teeth.

Similar gaps between the teeth can also be seen at an early stage of the human birth. When they fail to join up, the result is a cleft palate. So one ancient fish explains two ancient human mysteries. The most recent research on noses, incidentally, shows that we use each of our two external nostrils to detect different smells.

Until fairly recently, it was a mystery how certain large bees, bumblebees in particular, were able to fly. To scientists who study the physical laws of flight a bee’s body seemed too heavy and its wings too small for it to become airborne and remain so. Bees “can’t” fly... but do. The mystery became so intriguing that a few scientists decided to study it.

Most insects fly by using muscles that flap their wings with great speed. For example, the locust beats its wings at a rate of about 20 times per second to fly. Other flying insects have to beat their wings even faster — some as rapidly as 100 times per second.

But bees must work extra hard to become airborne. Honeybees, for instance, must beat their wings about 200 times a second to fly. Yet larger bees — like bumblebees — whose bodies are heavier, wider, and longer — have to do even better.

Antarctica is the driest place on Earth. Parts of the continent have seen no rain for two million years. A desert is technically defined as a place that receives less than 10 inches of rain a year. The Sahara gets just 1 inch of rain a year.

As well as the driest place on Earth, Antarctica can also claim to be the wettest and the windiest. Seventy percent of the world’s fresh water is found there in the form of ice, and its wind speeds are the fastest ever recorded. 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 the force of gravity. Though Antarctica is a desert, these completely dry parts of it are called, somewhat ironically, oases. They are so similar to conditions on Mars that NASA used them to test the Viking mission.

Charles Darwin was driven by gastronomic, as well as scientific, curiosity and once ate an oil. While reading Divinity at Cambridge University, he became a member of the Glutton club which met once a week and actively sought to eat animals not normally found on menus. Darwin’s son commenting on his father’s letters, noted that the Glutton club enjoyed, among other things, hawk and bittern.

Over the years, Darwin sharpened up considerably in the academic arena and lost his faith in God, but he never lost his taste for the allure of an interesting menu. In the Galapagos, Darwin wolfed down a few helpings of giant tortoise. Not realising the importance of giant tortoises to his later evolutionary theory, forty-eight specimens were loaded aboard the Beagle. Darwin and his shipmates proceeded to eat them, throwing the shells overboard as they finished.