FAST FACTS – Fascinating tid bids to keep you amused and entertained.

Get the feeling there are more twins around than there used to be? A study in the journal Human Reproduction says the “twinning rate” has increased since the ’80s, up from nine to 12 twins per 1000 deliveries. That adds up to about 1.6 million twins born each year across the world, meaning one in every 42 babies is a twin. Helping drive this is the increasing use of medically assisted reproduction and the delay in childbearing (twinning has been found to increase with a mother’s age).

Quote of the week

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

Word of the day

A narwhal’s tusk reveals a lot about its past. Recent research led by a bioscience professor at Denmark’s Aarhus University has shown this arctic whale adds a layer to its distinctive tusk each year. These layers offer insight into the age of the narwhal (they’ve been known to live up to 50 years) and the conditions in which they lived, such as what their diet consisted of.

By the numbers

Sunnyboys? These triangular icy treats were the epitome of childhood summers in Australia. The ice blocks were extremely popular all the way through to the early 1990s, being cheaply available throughout tuckshops, discount stores and milk bars across Australia. They were discontinued in 2016.

5% 12%

Five per cent of all people are deaf or have disabling hearing loss.

2755

The number of billionaires globally. Only 12 per cent of people in the world are six-foot tall or over.

6962 metres

The world record for the longest ever wedding veil.

Today in history – March 3

1924 – The last remnant of the Ottoman empire in Turkey is abolished. The end of the Islamic caliphate marked the demise of the 600-year-old empire and gave way to the formation of a reformed Turkey under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. 1938 – The world’s fastest steam locomotive is built. The Mallard could reach a speed of more than 160 kilometres per hour and gave England the world’s fastest train until the French took the title in the early 1950s. 1985 – The UK miners’ strike ends. The year-long dispute was the country’s longest-running industrial dispute and a defining issue of Margaret Thatcher’s conservative government.

Descry

To see (usually something unclear or distant) by looking carefully.