In the film Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, a pod from the Discovery (the ship from 2001: A Space Odyssey that goes to Jupiter) can be seen behind Qui-Gon in Watto’s junkyard.

There is a bagpipe-and-drum band in Oman that plays while riding camels.

The Gerontology Research Group keeps an up-to-date list of all supercentenarians – people over 110 years old. www.grg.org

Measuring frozen precipitation as part of an area’s total annual precipitation can be tricky. One method involves taking frozen precipitation collected in a gauge indoors where it can be melted, and the amount of equivalent liquid precipitation can then be calculated.

Fear of clowns is a recognized condition known as “coulrophobia.”

This article appears in April 25 • 2003.

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