Ripley's Believe It or Not by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for March 08, 2012
March 07, 2012
March 09, 2012
Transcript:
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, a difficult to treat bacteria that often causes skin infections, kills more people in the United States each year than AIDS! Periodical cicadas are incapable of defending themselves, so they all emerge from the ground as adults at the same time, making it impossible for all of them to be eaten by predators! Win or lose- trained Roman gladiators survived their fights 90% of the time!
More From Ripley's Believe It or Not
randymi over 12 years ago
@ T L:Since when has Hollywood has ever gotten anything right?
moe_the_cat over 12 years ago
I would have thought the win/lose ratio to be more like 50/50 but my math could be off by a few letters, but I guess XC% is better than L/L
kelson over 12 years ago
Very interesting.
Aussie Down Under over 12 years ago
Ah, so the first cut was the deepest.
Simon_Jester over 12 years ago
Not all gladiators were slaves, either. A lot of them were freedmen, ( ex slaves ) and a few were even citizens. ( It was a lucrative profession if you were any good at it. )
In addition, gladiators often hired themselves out as bodyguards or bullyboys when they weren’t competing in the arena. They were in especially high demand for that job on election days.
corpcasselbury over 12 years ago
And each of the gladiatorial bouts also had a referee. I was very much surprised when I found that out.
Puddleglum2 over 12 years ago
For Periodical Cicadas, “there’s safety in numbers”!
tuslog64 over 12 years ago
The cicadas are a mean bunch. By emerging in synch, they outnumber their predators, mainly birds. The birds, being well fed, lay more eggs, and thus the next year’s crop of birds face starvation as the cicadas are gone. One of nature’s dirty tricks. (Their singing can be very irritating also at times)