70 february 2019
andrey_kuzmin/shutterstock (ostrich). shutterstock (hope diamond)Reader’s Digest Cover Story
20
The Hope
Diamond is the
biggest in the world. At
45.52 carats, it is a mere
bauble compared with
the 545.67 carat Golden
Jubilee. 21 You can get
tetanus from a rusty nail.
It’s the dirt around the
nail that can carry the
Clostridium tetani bac-
teria. 22 Water conducts
electricity. Pure H2O is
an insulator. 23 You
can tell a ladybug’s age
by counting its spots.
A ladybug’s spots do not
change once it becomes
an adult. 24 Earth is
closer to the sun in the
summer. Just the oppo-
site: We’re closest in
January. 25 Maine is
the easternmost state.
Alaska’s Semisopochnoi
Island is so far west
that it crosses into the
Eastern Hemisphere.17
Ostriches bury their heads
in the sand. The birds
would suffocate if they did.
If a predator is approaching,
a frightened ostrich will lay
its head and neck flat against the ground as
a camouflage ploy. Some human onlookers
have assumed that the birds’ light-colored
heads were actually in the sand.18
Minnesota has
more lakes
than any other state.
Minnesota, aka the
Land of 10,000 Lakes,
actually has almost
12,000 of them—but
Alaska has more than
3 million.19
Space is always
cold. Without
an atmosphere, there’s
nothing absorbing the
sun’s harmful rays or
trapping in heat. When
astronauts are orbiting
Earth, the temperature
can range anywhere
from −250°F to 250°F.FALSE