40 Interesting Facts About Practically Everything You Might Not Have Known, Shared By This Instagram Page

On his owner's return he discovered that his home and everything else on his property was completely destroyed. Except for Odin, who was there waiting for him — with all eight goats. A group of deer had gathered with Odin and the goats, Handel said, perhaps also taking advantage of the brave pooch's protection. The deer scattered when Handel approached. He believes the dog led the other animals to a clearing at the centre of a high outcropping of rocks to avoid contact with the flames.

To recognize and honor dogs during Tihar, a garland of flowers is draped around the neck of every dog—pets, police canines, service animals, and strays alike. In addition to the flower necklace, each dog gets a red mark on its forehead called a tika, made from a red dye powder. The tika marks the dog as a sacred being (who is definitely allowed on the couch even with muddy paws). The tika also works as a way of letting dogs display their own appreciation as the mark serves as a blessing to anyone who encounters the dog during Tihar.

Cummings, who also voices Tigger, puts his character's fame to good use by lending his voice to the Make-a-Wish Foundation and calling sick children who are in hospital. Jim Cummings is the voice behind Winnie the Pooh, a children's character who's known around the world as a friendly and insightful yellow bear with a famous warm voice. He also recalled another instance where a young boy with autism asked him to do all the voices that he's done. Soon after, he found out from his mother during an emotional phone call that her son had not spoken much until that point, and he continued to speak for over an hour afterwards.

This is surprising for many reasons. While of course dolphins are well known for being intelligent, this smart move by Kelly means that she has a sense of delayed gratification. She doesn't feel the need to rush to get a fish right away. She smartly knows that the future holds the possibility of a much greater amount of fish.⁠ 🍽️ Amazingly, this dolphin, hasn't stopped there with her brilliance. When a bird landed in the pool, Kelly snatched it and delivered it to her trainers. She received a large amount of fish in return. Knowing this, she decided to start hiding fish each time she was fed. She would then use the fish to lure birds when none of her trainers were around. Kelly knew that by saving one or two fish now, she could get many more fish later by turning in a bird. 

It took 150 minutes for him to recite the full list of names because he only memorized one name per verse and had to recite each verse in full in order to properly remember the next name

The three-point seatbelt is so widely adopted because Volvo opened up the patent so that any car manufacturer could use it in their design. They decided that the invention was so significant, it had more value as a free life saving tool than something to profit from. Volvo’s managing director Alan Dessell is quoted as saying: “The decision to release the three-point seat belt patent was visionary and in line with Volvo’s guiding principle of safety.”

As their bond strengthened over the years, Chito (the local fisherman) and Pocho grew to trust each other so completely that they spent hours each day swimming and playing together. Remarkably, Pocho the crocodile was gentle and patient with his human companion and would even respond to his name when called. Thousands of tourists, scientists and animal behavior experts came to see Chito and Pocho having fun.⁠ After many years of friendship, Pocho the crocodile died of natural causes last year at the age of 50. Hundreds of people attended his funeral. Chito was naturally devastated by Pocho's death, but continues to share his friend's story to raise awareness about just how special crocodiles are.⁠ The story of Chito and Pocho shows that even crocodiles can appreciate an act of kindness.

It is located in a park in front of the Institute of Cytology and Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and was completed on July 1, 2013, coinciding with the 120th anniversary of the founding of the city. The monument commemorates the sacrifice of the mice in genetic research used to understand biological and physiological mechanisms for developing new drugs and curing of diseases. The monument, which sits on a granite pedestal, is of a laboratory mouse wearing pince-nez on the tip of its nose. The mouse holds knitting needles in its paws and is shown knitting a double helix of DNA. The bronze figure is itself only 70 cm (27½”) high, but the total height of the monument including the pedestal is 2.5 meters (98"). The DNA spiral emerging from the knitting needles winds to the left, thus showing that it is the still poorly understood Z-DNA - this symbolic of scientific research that is still to be done. In contrast, the more common B-DNA (depicted in school lessons) winds to the right.

The marathon CPR went on for 96 minutes. First responders shocked Snitzer's heart 12 times, and they administered intravenous dru_gs. When they finally had a pulse and a regular heart beat a, Snitzer was airlifted to the Mayo Clinic. After 10 days, he was released from the hospital -- miraculously healthy, and incredibly grateful. "My heart wasn't pumping anything, so the only thing that was pumping my blood was those guys doing CPR," he said. "I think it's the quality of the person," he said. "We're in small-town America, hard-working people. I happened to have a king-size heart attack in the right place and the right time, and these guys would not give up." He came to thank his neighbors -- no longer strangers. People who simply would not quit when he needed them most. "I feel like I have a responsibility to them to live the best life possible and honor the effort they made," Snitzer said. ~ As per reports.

The medal was later sold in 2013 at auction for £1,100. The 1941 Blue Cross medal was found in a property clearance in Bristol along with a painting of Great Dane Juliana. A plaque on it describes how the dog put out an incendiary bomb dropped by the Luftwaffe on her owner's home. Mr Taubenheim, of Wotton Auction Rooms, in Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, said it was a "remarkable story". He said the medal had been found at a property which had belonged to a relative of Juliana's owner.

Ross painted an estimated 30,000 paintings during his lifetime. Despite the unusually high supply of original paintings, Bob Ross original paintings are scarce on the art market, with sale prices of the paintings averaging in the thousands of dollars and frequently topping $10,000. The major auction houses have never sold any of Ross's paintings, and Bob Ross Inc. continues to own many of the ones he painted for The Joy of Painting, as Ross himself was opposed to having his work turned into financial instruments. In contrast to more traditionally famous artists, Ross's work—described by an art appraisal service as a cross between "fine art" and "entertainment memorabilia"—is most highly sought after by common fans of The Joy of Painting, as opposed to wealthy collectors. The artwork circulating among collectors is largely from Ross's work from before he launched the television show.

John Cena had long ago turned "Never give up" from his wrestling catchphrase into a motto for sick children who have to fight daily more than the WWE superstar ever has inside the ring. "I want them to have an experience that will stay with them to forever," Cena said. "I don't ever want the children or their families to be treated in a way where they feel as if they're up against anything at all."

"Where the Wild Things Are" is a classic in the world of children’s picture books, with the titular “things” becoming beloved (if at times scary) storybook characters. But those characters weren’t originally going to be so-called “things.”  In another funny twist that Sendak acknowledged was somewhat rude, the things in the story were based on his relatives. While sitting shiva (a Jewish tradition of mourning), Sendak and his siblings saw many of their aunts, uncles and cousins, who inspired the monster-like characters.  “I remember our relatives used to come from the old country, those few who got in before the gate closed, all on my mother’s side. And how we detested them,” Sendak told Moyers. “The cruelty that children ... you know, kids are hard. And these people didn’t speak English. And they were unkempt. Their teeth were horrifying ... hair unraveling out of their noses. And they’d pick you up, hug you and kiss you [and say], ‘Aggghh. Oh, we could eat you up.’” Sendak included the phrase, “We’ll eat you up, we love you so,” in his book, which was first published in 1963 and inspired a movie version released in 2009, as a nod to his family, whom he learned to appreciate in his later years.  “And when I remember [my relatives], the discussion with my brother and sister, how we laughed about these people who we of course grew up to love very much, I decided to render them as the wild things, my aunts and my uncles and my cousins,” he said. “And that’s who they are.”

Inmates in federal prisons holding some of Brazil’s most notorious criminals are able to read up to 12 works of literature, philosophy, science or classics to trim a maximum 48 days off their sentence each year, the government announced. Prisoners will have up to four weeks to read each book and write an essay which must “make correct use of paragraphs, be free of corrections, use margins and legible joined-up writing,” said the notice published on Monday in the official gazette. A special panel will decide which inmates are eligible to participate in the program dubbed “Redemption through Reading”. “A person can leave prison more enlightened and with an enlarged vision of the world,” said a lawyer, who heads a book donation project for prisons.

The young owls resting on a tree branch don’t fall off, thanks to the strength of their back toe called the hallux. The hallux tethers the creature to the branch and it won’t move until the owlet bends its leg. Adult owls are able to support the weight of their heads as they gain strength after a few months. But younger owls struggle to do so and have to lie down while napping.
 

On second place, the joint-second fastest athlete American sprinter Tyson, has served two do_ping bans and was stripped off his 2012 Olympics silver. Jamaica's Usain Bolt holds the record for the three fastest 100m sprints in history.
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Additional Information: Usain St Leo Bolt, OJ, CD is a Jamaican former sprinter, widely considered to be the greatest sprinter of all time. He is a world record holder in the 100 metres, 200 metres and 4 × 100 metres relay. Finishing the 100m in under 10 seconds is an exceptional physical and psychological achievement that only 124 men have accomplished. For historical context, the first 100m Olympic gold medal winner finished the sprint in 12 seconds. In total Bolt has broken the 10-second barrier 49 times during his career, earning him six gold medals in world championships and Olympics. Bolt holds nine out of the 30 fastest 100m times and is the only athlete on that leaderboard to have never failed a dr_ug test. It is not only his 100m feats that set him apart, however. In a world of ever-improving performances and otherwise short-lived triumphs, “Lightning” Bolt has also set and continually defended the world record in the 200m, a discipline he has excelled in since his youth.

Back in 2011, Roman Ostriakov, a homeless man from Ukraine living in Genova, was convicted for theft after he stole cheese and sausages amounting to €4 from a supermarket. A customer had seen Ostriakov put two pieces of cheese and a packet of sausages in his pocket and only pay for breadsticks at the cashier. He was subsequently sentenced to six months in jail and a €100 fine in 2015. The case went through three rulings in court before it was rejected in May 2016 in a historic ruling citing that the ‘right to survival prevails over property.’ It cited the importance of maintaining a shared humanity and that no one should be allowed to starve in a civilized society.

Morgan Freeman in an interview said:⁠ "I always wanted an earring. It has to do with my attachment to the sea. When I was around 35 I was separated from my wife and she said, 'I'm going to pierce your ear.' I'm an avid sailor, a dyed-in-the-wool blue-water man. You know why sailors used to wear a gold earring? It's enough money to bury you in a foreign country. There are two or three tricks to being a good sailor. One is courage. You have to be willing to face the sea. And the rest is just knowledge – you can learn a lot by listening to other sailors about how to survive almost unsurvivable situations."⁠ "I've been in dangerous storms. There comes a moment when you think you may not get through, and in that moment there's a peacefulness that settles over you and you're no longer afraid. That's also the moment when you have to say, "I'm going to face this demon. I'm going to stand up and I'm going to do what I have to do. Not just by lying down and letting the sea wash over me, but by fighting it."

Typical ending in many tales is ‘Bad criminal/animal was punished by local government official. {And men and women lived happily}/{Ghost with grudge never came because her grudge was vanished.}’....The Korean mode of storytelling began with either "Once upon a time back when tigers used to smoke," "Once upon a time when tigers smoked pipes," "A long, time ago when tigers were smoking," or "Once upon a time when tigers were smoking.”
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That intro to a story does sound odd to those of us who are used to "Once upon a time. "A long time ago, before the 17th century, tobacco was touted as a medicinal product in Korea, and smoking tobacco was something most could afford to do. Alas, in the 17th century, tobacco became a luxury item, and only aristocrats were allowed to smoke tobacco. Peasants used to watch the well-to-do enjoy their smoking of tobacco, and the peasants would lament, "We miss the days when even the tigers were smoking." Back when tigers used to smoke," would not be acceptable these days.

Cats have been carried on ships for many reasons, most importantly to control rodents. Vermin aboard a ship can cause damage to ropes, woodwork, and more recently, electrical wiring. In addition, rodents threaten ships' stores, devour crews' foodstuff, and can cause economic damage to ships' cargo, such as grain. They are also a source of disease, which is dangerous for ships that are at sea for long periods of time. Rat fleas are carriers of plague, and rats on ships were believed to be a primary vector of the Black Death.

She did so to hide any privacy complaints. She had affairs with married men (as per sources) and waited for her husband and others to die before publication of her autobiography.

Horses are smart like that... Back in the early 1900s, when a local person (let's assume) used to get so drunk at the bar that he would subconsciously pass out there, the other local drinkers would put him in his buggy and slap his horse on the butt to send it off home. The horse knew the way and would carry the drunk man back to his house every time.

In modern fairy tales, wolves are often depicted as cunning animals and described as evil animals. But they are not just the most loyal animal in the world but one of the most loyal animals to humans.  In fact, they have a family life that may be more than human relations.⁠ In general, a group of wolves will contain a male wolf, a female wolf, their children, and be repeated, which is very similar to the family in humans. This makes wolves loyal animals and one of the most faithful animals not just to their partner but to their group and family.

Rottnest Island is the only place quokkas still come together in large numbers: There are as many as 12,000 of them there, of fewer than 14,000 total in the wild—down from probably many tens of thousands in their heyday. When they're not posing for the camera, they usually spend their days sleeping and resting under shady bushes or dense vegetation or munching on grass, leaves, seeds, and roots. But, judging from the photos, these charming creatures don't seem to mind taking time out of their busy schedules to interact with tourists, either. In fact, they look rather elated! Thanks to its adorable expression, the quokka is known as the “happiest animal on earth.”

The book claims to "reveal the most comprehensive understanding of men's knowledge and understanding of the opposite s € x." The book has a rating of 4.3 out of 5 on Amazon's book discovery platform Goodreads. Empty books or blank books are novelty books whose title indicates that they treat some serious subject, but whose pages have been left intentionally blank. A number of such titles have been published as attempts at satire or polemic, to some commercial success. The joke is that "nothing" is the answer to whatever the title of the book asserts. In 2017, The Guardian commented that the trend of publishing political empty books had led to "the noble art of political parody [descending] into a one-joke turn that avoids words".

In 2003, after mentioning this desire in an interview, a friend of his who owns a mall with a supermarket closed it all down for a day to grant him his wish. To give it a feeling of authenticity, Michael's staff, family, and friends populated the grocery store. Some dressed up like the store's staff, others like shoppers. Even the muzak was customized for his experience. Then, the King of Pop put on a single yellow latex glove and pushed his cart up and down the aisles. He played around a lot in the store and likened the experience to being at Disneyland, because as he says, "I got to do something I don't normally get to do." I'm not sure he got an authentic grocery shopping experience but it is fascinating, if not heartbreaking, to watch him try.

After running late to class, George Dantzig copied down two problems he thought were homework and solved them. Those two problems were in fact two famous unsolved problems of statistics, which later earned him his doctorate. One day In 1939, George Bernard Dantzig, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, arrived late for a graduate-level statistics class and found two problems written on the board. Not knowing they were examples of “unsolved” statistics problems, he mistook them for part of a homework assignment, jotted them down, and solved them. (The equations Dantzig tackled are more accurately described not as unsolvable problems, but rather as unproven statistical theorems for which he worked out proofs.) Six weeks later, Dantzig’s statistic professor notified him that he had prepared one of his two “homework” proofs for publication, and Dantzig was given co-author credit on another paper several years later when another mathematician independently worked out the same solution to the second problem.

According to a sheriff office in Salem, Oregon, deputies have heard a man “calling for help from inside the residence” when they arrived at the scene. Upon entering the home, they've found Alexander, the pizza lover, who reportedly suffers from severe health issues, in “need of immediate medical attention.”⁠ Alexander was whisked to the hospital, where he was then recovering there.⁠ The sheriff's office expressed their gratitude to delivery driver Tracey Hamblen, who saved Alexander's life, “for his quick actions and willingness to take time out of his day to care for others.”⁠ The Domino's crew was widely praised on social media for their life-saving actions. Sarah Fuller, the general manager at a Salem-area Domino’s, however, insisted that the team was just doing their job.⁠ “Alexander is just an important customer that’s part of our family here at Domino’s. He orders all the time so we know him. I think we were just doing our job checking in on someone we know who orders a lot. We felt like we needed to do something,” she told back in 2016.

John McCue first became inspired to patch up some of the road hazards in Stellarton, Nova Scotia after he and his mother drove over a particularly nasty pothole. “There was one story a couple of weeks ago where a car was driving through and it nailed one of the biggest potholes here and it ripped the axle right off the car,” McCue told CBC. Rather than waiting for the city government to fix the pavement, McCue grabbed a snow shovel and started shifting gravel and road fill from the roadside ditches and moving it into the potholes. Now that passing traffic has packed the filling into the holes, McCue said that the road is significantly better than when he started. That being said, local police officers had warned McCue that if he did not stop his mission, then he would be charged.

The 1988 movie comedy A Fish Called Wanda features a scene where actor Michael Palin gets some French fries stuffed up his nose. A person named Ole Bentzen found the scene so sidesplittingly funny for almost 25 minutes that his heart rate rose to an estimated 250-500 beats per minute, leading to a heart attack as he laughed his way into the afterlife.

Due to the common association of the label with cheap, low-quality, and often dangerous products, the phrase "Made in China" is often used in a pejorative manner to refer to any low-quality products regardless of origin

The adaptation of several anatomical and biochemical mechanisms to establish an immune privileged microenvironment within the eye makes the eye immunologically unique. It is a tissue site where we may learn how immunity is regulated in inflammation and at rest. Certain sites of the mammalian body have immune privilege, meaning they are able to tolerate the introduction of antigens without eliciting an inflammatory immune response. Tissue grafts are normally recognised as foreign antigen by the body and attacked by the immune system. On such problem is autoimmune retinopathy, which is “usually manifested as a vascular problem” . This means that the immune system attacks and inflames the blood vessels in the back of the eye, on the retina, which can affect vision.

The error was uncovered in 2009 after the wealthy family realized one of the four brothers did not share their likeness and requested a DNA test. After they found out they were not related they searched hospital records and eventually found their true brother in 2011. The man who grew up in poverty never knew his real parents. "When I found out about my true parents, I wish I was brought up by them," he said. "That's the truth. When I was handed the photograph of my [real] parents, it made me want to see them. Every time I see their photograph, for several months tears would well up." Tokyo's Hospital (identity remains anonymous) was ordered by court to pay the man 38 million yen ($371,233) in damages, significantly less than the 250 million yen ($2.5 million) he had been seeking.

As per reports, Otto the Octopus, the six-month-old rabble-rouser, had climbed up the side of his tank and was squirting water at the 2,000-watt spotlight overhead. It turns out the aquarium staff had trained Otto to aim and squirt water, but at visitors, not at the lights. Otto himself had made the connection between turning out the lights and causing a commotion. Kummer says now the people of Coburg are coming up with new ways to keep Otto occupied, like giving him a chess board. Care takers said: He always adapts to his surroundings, but as soon as a chess board is in there, it's just black, white, black, white. So, that keeps him entertained for quite a while. But then, he was like, no, I don't want the chess board. And he just threw it out of the aquarium.

For nearly 25 years, Pelorus Jack, a Risso's dolphin, met and escorted ships travelling between Wellington and Nelson across Admiralty Bay, north of French Pass. In 1904, he was protected by Order in Council under the Sea Fisheries Act - possibly the only individual sea creature to be legally protected anywhere in the world. He remained a protected creature until his disappearance in 1912.  It is thought that ‘Jack' was orphaned, which may have explained his unusual behaviour pattern. It is also presumed that Jack enjoyed getting a ride from the ships' pressure waves as they passed through his territory.1 Jack delighted passengers, who came from all over the world, some travelling the Nelson/Wellington route just to see him.

If a human ever headbutts, you better get out of their way. But with your cat, things are different. Cats headbutt other cats, furniture, and their favorite humans.According to cat behaviorist Pam Johnson-Bennett, cat headbutting is typically used for bonding and social purposes. “For the cat to place his face so close to yours and engage in this bonding behavior is quite an act of trust,” she says

Peacock spiders have eight eyes like all spiders, but it's the unique configuration that makes them cute. Their two biggest forward-facing eyes are so much larger than the rest, it makes the others almost disappear by comparison. It also gives them a look of perpetual surprise. Peacock spiders are extremely small, and generally range in length from 3.5 to 6.5 mm (0.14 to 0.26 inches); and they do not create webs to catch food, rather their prey is stalked and leapt upon. Male peacock spiders generally have an abdomen of bright metallic coloured patterns, from orange, blues, reds and greens.