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30 Random Facts About The World That Might Change Your Perspective On Certain Things, By Factourism (New Pics)
It's never too late to learn something. And Factourism is probably the best place online to do so.
Created by Ferdio, an infographic agency in Copenhagen, Denmark, it shares cool facts about our world — whether it's the inventor of the office wheelchair or the most frequently used password, everyone and everything has its place on Factourism.
And that's the beauty of it. You never know what these guys will drop next! Continue scrolling to check out their recent posts and fire up our earlier piece for the older ones.
More info: factourism.com | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Turning left puts drivers against the flow of vehicles coming the other way, which leads them to wait 30–45 seconds each time with the engine running. A new routing system introduced a few years ago, which calculates routes favouring right turns, saves the whole UPS 10 million gallons (38 million litres) of fuel every year. On top of that, right turns are more safe, leading to only 1.2% of crashes instead of 22.2% for left turns.
Danny Ruiz 4 years ago
People driving away from a huge public events just don't get this concept. Instead, they back up traffic for miles trying to make a left turn. The worst is when they take up both lanes to make a left...and they do.
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Arthur Waite 4 years ago
Yup! Garbage trucks and recycling in Toronto. Some people wonder why they go down the street in the morning, then up the street in the afternoon - just the right-only route in action.
Lauren Caswell 4 years ago
I was confused, but duh I forget sometimes most of you all drive on the right
Philippa Davies 4 years ago
So was I for a second, coming from Australia!
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lara 4 years ago
J. Edgar Hoover, would not allow his car to take left turns. In fact a book entitled "No left turns" is about Hoover and some of the other "farcical" orders and "adventures" of a former FBI agent.
Bobert Robertson 4 years ago
They person who invented this probably only got a thank you email for the cost saving solution
The team at Ferdio aren't quite sure if there's an actual pattern to which facts their followers like the most. "In general, it seems that facts which are surprising and relatable get the most attention," a company spokesperson told Bored Panda.
"We always try to do proper research and properly check the fact before we illustrate it. If it's questionable, we skip it ... We always try to rely on academic and scientific literature with reliable sources."
RELATED:
#2
Thanks to modern television screens, dogs are able to watch TV as well as humansHuman eyes can register around 55 images a second, while dogs, better at detecting quick movements, can see around 75 images a second. Older television sets were flickering around 60 times a second, good for humans but not adapted to dogs. New television screens have higher frequencies, so dogs can finally appreciate what happens on TV.
Lauren Caswell 4 years ago
When I fostered a kitten I tried one of those cat apps: it had moving bugs he could stomp, alternating with water dripping. Poor wee dear would wait to catch the bug when it was supposed to "come out" from the side of the iPad, and tried to drink the water :D I think he'd have given it a 10/10 for realism!
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M O'Connell 4 years ago
I've definitely observed this with cats. High-resolution LCD panels are much clearer at close distances than color CRT screens ever were.
Crochet lady 4 years ago
My beloved dog who I just lost last year watched Homeward Bound on rainy days when he was stuck in the house more. He absolutely loved that movie and would stand with his paws on the tv stand and put his ball down for the dogs in the movie, he would bark at really exciting parts He would also run around to the back of the tv looking for the dogs. He also liked the live action version of the Lion King. I miss that boy, miss watching movies with him.
Grace and Lucy 4 years ago
While dog sitting for my son his French Bull dog not only watched pro basketball but ran from one end of the tv to the other end syncing himself with the players. He asked for a uniform but I told him , wait til Christmas.
#3
Several species of ants, attines, started farming 55 to 60 millions of years before humans did. Their favourite food? Fungus. They organise themselves around cutting grass and leaves, bringing them back to their colony, watching after fungus growing on the harvested crop, and then collecting and eating the fungus. The fungus species evolves along with each ant species.
Bacony Cakes 4 years ago
No, because if Sci-Fi has taught us anything, all insect colonies are secretly communist states.
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Eglė Bukauskaitė 3 years ago
they also grow bugs as their protein source! Like we grow cattle!!!
When the company started Factourism, each of their fact posts included only a simple title, an illustration, and a link to the source. Eventually, however, they realized that many readers don't click the link, so they started to include a small description next to their facts as well.
Even though Factourism has been running for quite some time now, Ferdio say they aren't running out of ideas. "We have an ongoing list of hundreds of facts that are waiting to be checked and illustrated. However, we tend to spend more time on researching sources to make sure that each fact is well-documented."
#4
Wine glasses are seven times larger than they used to be{Weekend Repost}The average wine glass from the 1700s was about 66ml, against 417ml in the 2000s. That is a finding of research conducted by scientists from the university of Cambridge. Comparing 411 glasses from the past 300 years found in museums, catalogues, and other sources, they found that their size got six to seven times larger during that time. The larger increase has been happening in the last few decades, leading to the question of what it can mean in terms of alcohol consumption.
Dave P 4 years ago
in the old days they filled the glass to the top, today we fill it less to allow the aromas the help with the tasting. Also 1700's wine glasses for port and similar were that small, regular drinking wine glasses were about 150ml filled to the top. Today we have huge glasses but only fill to 150ml per serving.
Margaret Martin 4 years ago
They still make "Sherry/ Cordial" glasses now... which look EXACTLY like those tiny "stemmed shot glasses" this one is claiming were "Wine" glasses when- actually- back then Wine was typically drunk straight from leather bags or out of large mugs/ goblets.
Crochet lady 4 years ago
We still have the smaller glasses we received as wedding presents 30 years ago and my husband still gets tipsy after one glass. He definitely doesn't need a bigger glass. He gets the giggles and acts really silly. My sons (grown) all think it's hysterical how lightweight he is. I can't drink wine, seem to be allergic to it. Always get a horrible painful stomach and a nasty headache.
Alexis Draskinis 4 years ago
In some places. During certain time periods, alcohol was safer to drink than water so they drank quite a bit of it
Load More Replies... Downunderdude 4 years ago
Well...well...I'm seven times bigger...or seven times thirstier...or evaporation is seven times worse...or something. Give me a minute...
Alexis Draskinis 4 years ago
Id also assume though that alcohol was much more potent back then. The smaller glass was probably preferable
Bill 4 years ago
No worse quality. The best wine in the world 200 years ago wouldn't stand up to the cheapest wines on the shelves
Load More Replies... #5
Plants can communicate with one another. Some correspond with each other by emitting volatile organic chemicals, some even send electric signals. The meaning of the messages can have different goals, such as alerting about insects, advising nice directions for growing, regulating temperature, etc.
Nathan Pogorzala 4 years ago
There was an example of a grove of trees collectively not producing acorns for one year to starve away squirrels and when the amount of squirrels was acceptable, they all fruited again.
Scagsy 4 years ago
Quite. But it doesn't make it any less boring, I'm afraid.
Load More Replies... lara 4 years ago
Trees also commit suicide. When they are overwhelmingly damaged they release a scent that attracts insects that finish the job started by insane tree trimmers hired by stupid people to "clear" limbs from whateverinthehell. A friend of mine had a 60 year old, gorgeous, absolutely beautiful American Elm on her property. Freaking city came in with a bunch of clueless "tree trimmers" who whacked the s**t out of the tree. It was dead in three months.
Zophra 4 years ago
I have just searched for this information as it is interesting, but have not found anything.. do you have a source?
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Pamda Panda 4 years ago
This topic actually gets really intense when you read into it. The whole thing from Avatar with how the plants are connected-- actually not that far off from trees on earth.
Cain Hargreaves 4 years ago
I've heard that grass is another plant that emits a signal to other plants. That smell of cut grass that people love so much? That's the warning signal to the rest of the grass that something's out there and destroying some leaves, so pull your resources into your roots until the danger has passed.
Terry Tobias 4 years ago
I knew that about trees but not that grass does the same kind of thing. Now I'll be thinking about that when I smell freshly cut grass! Fascinating!
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Leonie Rijnbende 4 years ago
watch the movie The Happening and you will never sleep again with this knowledge...
The project recently culminated in a book. "Factourism: An Illustrated Journey of Funny, Horrible, and Unbelievable Facts About...Everything" offers to discover remarkable information about science, animals, history, and other areas, presenting 150 of the most extraordinary things that have happened in our world.
The interesting pieces of trivia are accompanied by bright, colorful illustrations just like on Factourism's Instagram account, and each beautifully designed page holds something unique.
#6
The visibly never ending shelf-life of honey is surprising: archaeologists have excavated honey from thousands of years ago, and it’s still unspoiled. One reason is that as a substance, honey has very low moisture, an environment in which very few bacterias can survive. Another is that it is very acidic, again a characteristic that bacterias don’t like. Finally, the bees produce hydrogen peroxide from the nectar, a known antiseptic, to the point that honey can be used in traditional medicine to treat wounds against infection. In a word, honey is hell for bacterias and other microorganisms, so as long as it is sealed and not mixed with anything, they won't dare grow on it and spoil it.
nunya bussiness 4 years ago
they found 3,000 year old honey in a tomb from ancient egypt. heres the full article if you want to read it: https://beemission.com/blogs/news/worlds-oldest-honey
john smith 4 years ago
Evidently, my grocery store believes the same applies to a lot of the other products they carry, lol.
Cain Hargreaves 4 years ago
Australian honey is apparently so pure and free of pesticides and contaminants that it's used to treat burn patients. It's gentler than bandages, seals the wound to prevent loss of fluids, and it prevents infection.
wifeofweasley 4 years ago
and they still put a best before date on every single glass of honey... Same thing with salt. We could find an 3000 y/o salt crystal an dwould say its best before august 2022
Monday 4 years ago
To be fair some of what is sold as "honey" in stores might have so much crap added to it that it can expire.
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Justyna G. 4 years ago
Well, it can ferment. My parents always buy honey directly from bee keepers. One time, a jar of honey got fermented so my dad improvised and used it to make honey liquor.
#7
Play-Doh was originally sold and used as a wallpaper cleaner. The company making Play-Doh, then called Kutol, was mainly producing soap, until the supermarket chain Kroger ordered wallpaper cleaner, a common product at a time where households were heated with dirty coal, from them in the 30s. They started producing the clay-like cleaner, and it soon became their main product. However, the use of wall cleaner declined greatly by the time the 50s arrived. That’s when employee Kay Zufall came in: she had seen a magazine wallpaper cleaner used as a material for kids to model Christmas decorations. She suggested selling the dough as a creative toy for kids. They removed the detergent in it, added colouring and an almond smell, and finally marketed it as Play-Doh.
john smith 4 years ago
I'm retired, and to this day, if I get a chance to pop the lid on a can, in a Walmart or a dollar store, I don't hesitate. The pleasant, unique, apperantly almond scented aroma(never knew this till today), immediately brings me back 50 or 60 years. More proof about how memories and smells are intertwined.
Vetus Vespertilio 4 years ago
My mother died in 1961; all I have to do is smell Revlon Fire and Ice lipstick, and I can remember her perfectly.
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Nicole Weymann 4 years ago
Upvote for the employee's name: "Zufall" means "coincidence" in German 😄
Terry Tobias 4 years ago (edited)
Well... now parents know that they should use their kids Play-Doh to clean their kids crayon off of the walls.
#8
Some cities in the US used to have ‘ugly laws’, fining people $1 to $50 for how they lookedAnd by ugly, mayors mostly meant poor or with a disability. The laws were a pretext to force beggars, people with missing limbs or visible diseases, to stay away from public space. From the 19th century, several cities of the West and Midwest had laws like this. The last one, in Chicago, was only repealed in 1974.
Mysterious Panda 4 years ago
This was back when they believed in phrenology. Basically if you had a weird facial feature in a certain spot, they would think you were evil.
Monday 4 years ago
Hey at least cops are stopping us when we walk to the street and writing us a fine cause our noses are too crooked....
Load More Replies... MikeInSociety (they/them) 1 year ago
And its still going on now because of influencers and unrealistic standards
#9
Pigeons, birds with a pretty good visual memory, were trained at classifying mammograms: some with and some without cancerous cells. If they were right, they would be rewarded with a treat. After two weeks, they were able to be 85% accurate. And when using four birds working on the same images, the accuracy of diagnosis went up to 99%. The birds’ newfound medical skills could be used to improve medical imagery data.
bruh (still *me*) 4 years ago
It’s time to replace greys anatomy with doctor Gideon the pigeon
Hannah Edwards 4 years ago
That’s not going to do the self esteem of the human experts any good.
Terry Tobias 4 years ago
I heard some of the pigeons cheated; they just copied the previous bird's answers.
#10
A donut-shaped planet is technically possible{Weekend Repost}Even if extremely unlikely to happen naturally, the possibility of a planet shaped as a torus — the true name of a doughnut shape — is not physically impossible. Researchers have made simulations and calculated the gravitational forces implicated, and everything seems alright. The weather would be very peculiar, and there could even be moons with orbits going through the central hole.
Smutná_elfka 4 years ago
Now I want scifi set on donut planet! If you were inside, you'd able to see people on the other side with binoculars. So many interesting connotations.
Pink Floydian Panda 4 years ago
"Your theory of a donut shaped universe is intriguing, Homer. I may have to steal it.” Stephen Hawking to Homer Simpson.
Arthur Waite 4 years ago
No magnetic iron core means no ionosphere, so no protection from solar flares and cosmic rays = No life on board.
• Lemønchu • 4 years ago
Are you kidding? I thought everyone knew it's a cube! 🙄 People these days
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AzKhaleesi 4 years ago
imagine living by the hole. That would be amazing to see especially at night.
Pink Floydian Panda 4 years ago
I was thinking same thing! I know Stephen Hawking discusses the possibility with Homer on The Simpsons in a very funny scene, but is there seriously another top scientific mind out there who presented a donut shaped universe theory to his colleagues?
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Amy Jo Buchanan 4 years ago
I would absolutely LOVE to be able to witness something like that! The sky would look so drastically different as well as the stars and other planets ! That'd be amazing!
#11
Don’t mess with a crow: they will remember your face. Researchers have been either nice or not nice to crows for scientific purposes, all while wearing different masks. Crows were able to remember which masks were not nice to them, and scans of their heads showed that a region of the brain associated with bad memories — until now only studied in mammals — was activating in the presence of a face they remembered as threatening.
Pamda Panda 4 years ago
They can also communicate to other crows that the person is not nice. Crows that never interacted with the not nice researchers would harass them while they walked through the campus.
Easily Excitable Panda 4 years ago
Oh, they'd interact - they'd harass the researchers. I think the researchers all wore light blue shirts and tan chinos, plus a George Bush mask.
Load More Replies... Margaret Martin 4 years ago
They can also recognize Friends! Sometimes they will even give "sparkly/ shiny gifts" to those they like.
Easily Excitable Panda 4 years ago
Crows also make remarkably good friends. If you feed them, they'll reward you with pretty trinkets.
Cain Hargreaves 4 years ago
My grandfather would throw kitchen scraps out for the crows. He'd carry them up in a bowl and the crows would start to gather. And when he knocked the bowl on the ground 3 times to get everything out, the crows in the trees would just go WILD, calling and jumping between branches. They knew him. They knew the 3-knock signal that means SNACKS.
Evil Piggy 4 years ago
Help a crow once, it never forgets. My friend and I removed string tangled around a crow and gave it food and water long ago. It came back to visit for years, bringing little gifts and eventually a friend/mate.
Maria Batsouri 4 years ago
Crows are misunderstood creature. They are extremely smart. They started to come to my garden for food and water and after a while the brought me little shiny things as a gift.
#12
The powerful producers of the MGM film required the teenage actress to look as young and thin as possible so as to fit their whim, so they imposed on her a strict diet of some soup and coffee, along with an abundant amount of cigarettes so that would not get too hungry. On top of that, she was put on pills to reduce her appetite and to keep her awake during the long filming hours and a forced lack of sleep. Not exactly “wonderful”.
Aunt Messy 4 years ago
It's what eventually killed her. She became addicted to amphetamines and that triggered a lifetime of drug problems. Elizabeth Taylor lived longer, but she became addicted to amphetamines while filming "National Velvet" so that she would look child-like, and because of an injury while filming also became addicted to opiate pain killers and suffered back and neck pain for her entire life.
Bacony Cakes 4 years ago
The raining asbestos probably also did something too.
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Sinéad Quinn 4 years ago
It was truly child abuse they way they treated young actors back then.
Suzanne McHenry 4 years ago (edited)
I read that Judy was abused by the actors who played the Munchkins, groping her and such. Really bang out of order! https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/feb/08/judy-garland-allegedly-sexually-harassed-by-munchkins-on-wizard-of-oz-set
Lily Mae Kitty 4 years ago
her breasts grew during filming and they would wrap them up super tight.
Frannie Kaplan 3 years ago
And amphetamines. That's how so many women, especially actresses, stayed slim. It wasn't "natural" as dumb men claim today
Mayesha Bhuiyan 4 years ago
That looks like the worst diet a doc could ever prescribe to you...
Amy Jo Buchanan 4 years ago
So, basically she had 2 packs of cigarettes by breakfast, 2 by lunch, 2 by her snack and 2 more to finish up after dinner...that's hArD to wrap my mind around. Poor woman.
#13
If everyone on the planet consumed as much as the average US citizen, four Earths would be needed to sustain them{Weekend Repost}A set of data produced by the Global Footprint Network measures the ecological impact of the populations of different countries. Their footprint is calculated using statistics about the natural resources used to make the products they consume, as well as their carbon emissions. The researchers calculated the amount of land and sea necessary to sustain each country. The whole world needs 1.5 Earths to be sustainable the way we consume now, and if the entire humanity were to consume the way the United States does, we would need 3.9 Earths. Yet it isn’t the worst, as it is topped by Kuwait (5.1 Earths), Australia (4.8 Earths), the United Arab Emirates (4.7 Earths), and Qatar (4.0 Earths).
Nathan Pogorzala 4 years ago
Wait? we are not the biggest consumers? impossible. we need to be #1. (sarcasm on)
Monday 4 years ago
You gotta pump those numbers up! Those are rookie numbers!
Load More Replies... Foxxy (The Original) 4 years ago (edited)
For shame Australia. That's pretty bad for the size of our population. Curious to know how they got this figure from since manufacturing in Australia has dropped dramatically in the past 10 years. Our farming has also reduced due to drought so I kind of question this. EDIT: NVM I decided to have a google and now I understand why.
Anita Pickle 4 years ago
Not sure why you had a down vote your comment is great and directly related to and adds to the conversation. Here is an up vote.
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Robert Thompson 4 years ago
Yeah, that sounds about right. So now we are looking into mining asteroids for their minerals.
#14
The Scots language has 421 words for snowThe Historical Thesaurus of Scots is a big dictionary of the Scots language, the native language of Lowland Scotland, in which academics have been compiling every single known word the language ever had (even though it focuses for now on vocabulary about the weather, sports and games, topics cherished by Scots). And a lot of them have to do with snow: 421 collected so far.
Aeon Flux 4 years ago
They might have been poetic and effusive because they were so jazzed about the season.
Load More Replies... #15
Cheerleading started as an all-male activityCheerleading in the US can be traced back to the late 19th century, when male students rebelled and, besides taking part in riots, also started practising sports in universities. One of the earliest documented examples of cheerleading dates from 1877, happening at Princeton University. It’s only in 1923 that the University of Minnesota allowed women to join, and most universities followed much later, in the 1940s. By the 1970s, most cheerleaders were women.
Lauren Caswell 4 years ago
I think they've changed the article now, I'm guessing it said 18th. A classic bored panda switcheroo :D
Load More Replies... Agnes Jekyll 4 years ago
so many cheerleaders have major injuries yet they wear no protection and are not considered athletes
Aeon Flux 4 years ago
Their attractiveness to others is considered more valuable than their safety.
Load More Replies... Amy Jo Buchanan 4 years ago
I saw a photo of George Bush on his cheerleading team in college! Or high school? But anyway he was a cheerleader!
#16
Baby giraffes are born falling 1.5 metres to the ground. It’s no secret that giraffes are very tall animals, but a lesser known fact is that they give birth standing up. The first experience of a giraffe calf is a 1.5 metres (about 5 feet) high fall. Infants are then able to stand up in the first half hour of their life, and can run within 10 hours.
Foxxy (The Original) 4 years ago
And yet human babies are completely helpless for the first 6-12 months lol.
Kateryna 4 years ago
It's because we are all pretty much born premature. We can't develop more before birth because then our heads would be too big
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V Martinez 4 years ago
I've heard this on many of the animal/vet shows. They've been very informative! One post here said about a mom giraffe stepping on and killing her baby. I wonder if it was an accidental misstep, or she just did it and we don't know why?
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Mando 4 years ago (edited)
It was so sad, the local zoo had just had a giraffe birth, and the baby was SO cute. Unfortunately, the mom stepped on the baby after it was born, and it didn’t survive. Many people wondered if something was wrong with the baby that made the mom kill it.
AJ 4 years ago
Momma giraffe might have been too stressed to take care of the baby because of captivity.
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Call Me Mars 4 years ago
The impact of the fall actually gets the blood flowing and wakes them up.
pusheen buttercup 4 years ago
I hear the fall is important in starting the baby's heart but I could be wrong
#17
29% of San Francisco’s air pollution comes from Asia. Geochemists have analysed the air of the San Francisco Bay Area, both from an urban spot and from a coastal location, looking at pollution particles smaller than 2.5 microns over the course of six months. They have found that 29% of these were 208Pb particles, a specific form of lead that is characteristic of East Asia.
#18
Final score:
89points
Cip IESAN 4 years ago
Good guys! Better than pooping from a tall branch on the head of some tourist taking a break under the tree!
Monika Rhodes 4 years ago
Maybe they should since they're in danger on the ground since they're so slow ;)
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MikeInSociety (they/them) 1 year ago
Respect to them for holding it in so that other animals (or people) will get s**t on their head.
Milena Papajani 4 years ago
And that because it gets three and half days for them to get to the bottom
#19
There are no stop signs in Paris(the last one was removed in the 2010s)With over 2 million inhabitants and a considerable amount of cars, the French capital has managed to do just fine without any stop signs, a sight that is usually very common in cities. At any unmarked crossing, drivers follow the “priority to the right” rule: cars coming from the right have the right of way. And of course, bigger intersections have traffic lights. It wasn’t always the case, with the last known stop sign disappearing from its street sometime between 2012 and 2014.
Patrice Bourget 4 years ago
Yep, but it's not necessarily meant as name calling. It's very often just meant as a curse word.
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Nikki Sevven 4 years ago
That would never work in the US. Half the people here don't understand how a 4-way stop works, even when there are stop signs in all four directions.
Vicky Z 4 years ago
I believe it wouldn't work in many countries including mine! On the other hand most people in my country ignore the stop signs so what's the point
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wifeofweasley 4 years ago
the traffic in paris is an absolute mess. 4 - 5 lane roundabouts wtf ?!
Eglė Bukauskaitė 3 years ago
"Common" is very general. I.E. We do almost have none left in Lithuania either as it is proved to be ineffective.
Michael Willemin 4 years ago
priority on the right is here in the states but nobody pays attention
#20
The IKEA catalogue is as widespread as the BibleWith a print run of more than 200 million copies for each edition, the IKEA catalogue is a bestseller — if it was being sold, that is. It is one of the top most printed books, along with the Bible, the Quran, and Harry Potter.
Philly Bob Squires 4 years ago (edited)
I ordered a genuine leather living room set from IKEA. They sent two cows, some logs and a book of instructions.
bruh (still *me*) 4 years ago
Dear ikea lord pls help me *couch drops from ikea heaven* there’s a murderer in here but Ig that works
Suzanne Haigh 4 years ago
If you had to pay for the Ikea catalogue I think the numbers would considerably reduce, you just can not compare
Gin. No tonic 4 years ago
Lucky you! It's just 300 pages of ads glued together, dropped into your mailbox without asking. Spamming, basically.
Load More Replies... #21
There is a polar bear jail in CanadaThe town of Churchill in northern Manitoba, visited by a thousand polar bears in the summer, has a special facility for the most troublesome or dangerous of these special visitors: nothing else than a jail, comprising about fifty cells where the bears are locked up to one month and without food. After that, they are flown far away from the town with a helicopter. The theory is that this would be memorable enough for the bear that they won’t want to approach the town ever again, even though they cannot find food anywhere else any more since the ice in the region has melted and their usual food, seals, are now not that common.
François Carré 4 years ago
Way to punish the animals for what humans are actually responsible for.
Agnes Jekyll 4 years ago
the humans are absolutely responsible. There are still thousands of climate deniers out there--and businesses that deny it o they can keep destroying the planet for financial gain.
Load More Replies... john smith 4 years ago
Compared to the 670K dogs and 860K cats that are destroyed each year in the US, jailing 50 or so, +700lb killing machines, for 2-30 says and then giving them a free helicopter ride seems downright civilized, but whatever.
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Nathan Pogorzala 4 years ago
Polar Bears go long periods without food. A month shouldn't be too bad.
Agnes Jekyll 4 years ago
it's not outdated as more and more polar bears are coming into town because they cannot find food to sustain themselves due to global warming. The goal is to make sure they do not want to come to town, if they do, they will be killed. Yet, there are still climate deniers out there.
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#22
Queen Elizabeth was a mechanic during WWIIDuring the second world war, Elizabeth II, then princess, now queen of the United Kingdom, was working full-time as a mechanic and driver to help the war efforts. She was 18 in 1944 when she decided, against her father’s (King George V) initial opinion, that she would join the Auxiliary Territorial Service, a women’s branch of the British army. A photo from that time has her fixing a car engine while her mother Queen Elizabeth I is visiting.
Vetus Vespertilio 4 years ago
Queen Elizabeth I was born in 1533 and died in 1603. Good trick if they have a photo of her!
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Suzanne Haigh 4 years ago
I don't think she would have been old enough and certainly not have a job she got her hands dirty. You are mixing her up with QE 11, who did something in WW11
#23
Tennis players produce up to 3 litres of sweat an hour. A tennis player can create more sweat than their body is able to replace during a 5 hours match, especially when the weather conditions are very hot. Players have to be selective about what balls to put effort into, in order to reduce their own heat and not outdo what their body can take.
PineappleQueen 4 years ago
I guess this must be pro tennis players because I definitely don’t sweat that much.
#24
When Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created Apple in 1976, the first of the two Steves came up with the name Apple for two reasons: he had a nice experience working in an apple orchard a few years earlier, and the name would get them before Atari in the phone book, the company where Jobs was working previously.
Dave P 4 years ago
actually Woz explained the name was connected to Newtons Apple story, which was also their original logo
Frannie Kaplan 3 years ago
No it's not. That myth propagated after a reporter suggested it
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BrokenPS2 4 years ago
Nobody really knows for sure why it's called apple. Some think it's about Alan Turing, some think it's because of this, and some think it's just because jobs liked apples. Personally I don't know, but if I had to go with one, I'd say it's just because jobs liked apples. Just seems like the simplest explanation
MikeInSociety (they/them) 1 year ago
Ah, smart way to get people to buy your product. I must take notes from them!!!
Trulee Stewart 4 years ago
I heard it was his love of the fruit which is also how Macintosh came about.
#25
We hold 0.2 mg of gold inside us. An average person weighing 70 kilograms hosts 43 kg of oxygen, 16 kg of carbon, 7 kg of hydrogen… and 0.2 mg of gold.
Philly Bob Squires 4 years ago
I'm full of heavy metal... I have silver in my hair, gold in my teeth and lead in my ass...
Lara Verne 4 years ago
So that's why human transmutation never worked. They forgot gold!
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wifeofweasley 4 years ago
0,2 mg gold are worth 12 USD... which means I'm not as worthless as I thought
#26
From the 1200s, the Tower of London started to host a menagerie of exotic animals, the ancestor of what would eventually move and become the London Zoo in the 1830s. The place was finally opened to the general public under Elizabeth I. The entrance was half-pence, but was free if you brought a cat or a dog.
Marianne 4 years ago (edited)
I don't think people would bring their pets, but rather strays that they found in the streets or unwanted kittens/puppies. They probably were a nuisance in the cities anyway, so it would be a win-win (I'm just assuming, but makes sense to me).
Phica Afton 4 years ago
If the radio demon says it's evil you know it's evil
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Anna Banana 4 years ago
Why is this worse than feeding the lions any other animal? They are carnivores, they are fed meat anyway, why are people more outraged by eating dogs than pigs?
Nina g. 4 years ago
You're right they should have just fed them babies, because they're meat too. *sarcasm btw*
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Sue Knerl 4 years ago
That's a disgusting thing to do to another animal. Only humans would think of that.
Ozacoter 4 years ago
Unlike the rest of carnivores or omnivore animals that would never kill another being...
Load More Replies... #27
A sheep, a duck and a rooster were the first passengers on a hot air balloon1783. The Montgolfier brothers, Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne, have been doing experiments with hot air balloons for about a year, when they got invited to make their first demonstration with passengers in Versailles, attended by the king Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. The passengers are three farm animals, chosen for their characteristics: a sheep that is not that different from a human, a bird that can fly and a bird that can’t. The balloon flew eight minutes and went 500 metres high, before landing peacefully. The animals were almost fine: the duck was not disrupted, the sheep was eating its hay like nothing happened, but had sat on the rooster, breaking its beak. They became honoured residents of the royal menagerie. A month later, the brothers flew a new balloon, this time with people in it.
Linus Nilsson 4 years ago
"I thought you were a flightless bird" said the sheep to the rooster ..
Daniel Gilroy 4 years ago
So now I finally know why the French call a hot air balloon "un montgolfier!"
debrina blackmoon 4 years ago (edited)
So the lone survivor(or his descendant) from The Town Musicians of Breman is creating a new band.
#28
Studies have shown that life is on average shorter for left-handers. One that looked at 1,000 Californians found out that the left-handed portion died on average 9 years younger. They discovered that left-handers are also five times more likely to die in an accident.
Arctic Fox Lover 4 years ago
Hm, well I thought I read somewhere that this was a myth, and that this was thought to be true because of the obituaries of some newspapers in the 80s or 90s where most of the people who died happened to be left-handed.
Philly Bob Squires 4 years ago
I'm left-handed and it's not the tools that's gonna kill me. It's all that whiskey...
Laura Mende (Human) 4 years ago
Also most things are designed for men. I.e. Pianos. They're built to fit a man's finger and arm span. Or medicines. They are mostly only tested on male subjects, so that they are much too high dosed for the female body.
Laugh or not 4 years ago
Only first-in-human use only males. Current regulations (FDA, EMA, national agencies) mandates that both females and males participates in any clinical trial after phase 1 - except if the disease is only present in one sex (like prostate cancer, ovarian cancer, etc.). Other consideration are: age (most IMP must have a large enough age range if they want to be marketed without age restriction), and race (since some medications have different impact according to genetic background).
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Bella, Your Kitty-Loving Queen 4 years ago
Fun fact! Even your iPhone is designed for right handed people. This is because the camera is on the right side, so if you hold the phone with your right hand, as most right handed people do, your fingers won’t be in the way of the camera.
Lily Mae Kitty 4 years ago
I used to tease my older brother about this-the only south paw in the family. Then he died in an accident.
Maria Schneider 4 years ago
Actually this is a statistic error. There are about eight more male left-handers existing, and females live about eight years longer than men.
john smith 4 years ago
Other than telephone dials, which were more difficult to turn clockwise with a left hand, but are now a moot point, the only real problem I ever encountered, besides smearing ink when writing with a fountain pen, was using RH scissors to cut composite cloth. My airline bought my shop "LH" scissors, because for some reason, lefties were way more overrepresented in my trade, than the average, but they were garbage, since they were just RH scissors with the hand reliefs mirrored, but not the blades. A $50 personal purchase, of a true LH pair, solved that issue. Otherwise, as all lefties do, adapting to a RH world was easy.
M O'Connell 4 years ago
I can think of a number of situations where that could still be a serious issue. Keyboards for instance, the 10-key is always on the right. Some of my power tools are ambidextrous, or don't really need to be operated with the dominant hand, but circular saws are definitely right-handed or left-handed.
Load More Replies... #29
Cacao plants are cultivated in a very narrow strip on the globe: they grow only around the equator, in places that have relatively stable temperature and humidity during the year. But in the next few decades, the climate of these regions is expected to become warmer and dryer, leaving the cacao nowhere to be grown. Giant chocolate companies like Mars are working with scientists to find solutions, like making GMO cacao plants able to withstand these conditions, but we are certainly reaching the end of chocolate as we know it.
Noel Bovae 4 years ago
Obviously not ideal, but couldn't they just make gigantic greenhouses? All this technology we have, and we can't build a room that can grow freaking chocolate? 🤔
Saico Hipe 4 years ago
It may not be that it's *impossible,* necessarily, but it's likely cost prohibitive to recreate the precise tropical ecosystem needed to grow cacao. I'm guessing people are not willing to pay $20+ for a Hershey bar.
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debrina blackmoon 4 years ago
...It's the end of the world as we know it...
Load More Replies... nunya bussiness 4 years ago
nooooooooo! not my precious chocolate!!!! what will i do when i'm sad and lonely during 2050??? :(
Andrea Huber-Murphy 4 years ago
If the equatorial areas are getting too warm and dry, then one would assume they could start growing them in areas that are cooler and wetter. If anything, it may lead to growing cacao beans in more places than before.
#30
The most frequently used password is 123456{Weekend Repost}“123456” has been for several consecutive years the most widely used password, according to a list collecting all those which were hacked and leaked. The top 10 also includes the very imaginative “123456789”, “12345678”, “1234567”, and “12345”. As for the second most used password, it is “password”.
Foxxy (The Original) 4 years ago
How though, since most websites these days you need to have an upper-case letter, number, sometimes a symbol and a partridge in a pear tree.
That_WeirdBunBun! 4 years ago
You have earned a follow because you always make me laugh. Thank you!
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Nikki Sevven 4 years ago
"Sorry, but your password must contain an uppercase letter, a lowercase letter, a number, a Viking rune, a hieroglyph, and a drop of blood from your firstborn child."
ric carter 4 years ago
Then there's the joke of the user setting their universal password: 'invalid'. No matter how wrong any attempt, they're always prompted: "Your password is invalid." Such a helpful reminder!
Laugh or not 4 years ago
"according to a list collecting all those which were hacked and leaked". Not to point the obvious (totally pointing the obvious), but it is not the most used password, it is the most easily hacked password. See also survivorship bias.
#31
Crematoriums produce excess heat, an issue which is often solved by using cooling towers, which consumes in itself a lot of energy as well. Several establishments in Denmark and Sweden have therefore decided to make use of the surplus heat instead. It is a sensible and environmentally-minded solution, although when that energy is sold to power companies, it has been reckoned that the practise might be breaching the ethical code of the International Cremation Federation, which states that “the products or residue of a cremation shall not be used for any commercial purpose”. However, after much deliberation, the Danish Council of Ethics decided that it was perfectly ethical to recycle cremation heat.
#32
Blood makes a loop around your body 1,500 times a dayBlood circulates through the body continuously: starting from the heart, it irrigates all parts of the body, passes through the lungs for a new supply in oxygen, and gets to the heart again before starting the tour again. Our 5 litres of blood recirculates about 1500 times each day, and that without exercise that can also increase the number of loops.
#33
Cows that are called by name produce 258 litres more milk per year than those who aren’t{Weekend Repost}Cows that are stressed make less milk because of the interference of hormones, and the ones that are anxious are more likely to resist milking. A relaxed and cared about cow, however, is going to give more milk. A study conducted across British cows in 500 hundreds farms showed that the ones that had a name, usually alongside being gently stroked and talked to, got on average 258 more litres of milk a year. Baby cows that are not yet of age for making milk are also more likely to give a good amount of milk later on if they are treated as individuals rather than ignored.
Cip IESAN 4 years ago
Imagine the milk production of the cows called by the first name and the second name!
Monday 4 years ago
Ah good day Lady Mooington of Perth III, how fare you today?
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Cori 4 years ago
I just came in from feeding my orphan calf. She lost her mama at birth. I tried to hook her up with a foster mom. But despite having a name (Red Mama) and being talked to very nicely, she still kicked me and routinely beat the crap out of her foster kid. I guess cows are like people and some of them are going to be bad tempered no matter what. I don't blame her though. I never bothered to ask her if she wanted to raise someone else's kid, but when she made a point of maintaining eye contact with me while she throttled the kid I'd forced on her, it became abundantly clear how she really felt about the situation. So now my baby drinks milk replacer out of a bucket and Red gets to raise her biological kid in peace.
#34
A jellyfish’ body is like a jelly structure inflated with water. In fact, only 2% of the creature is not water. So if washed ashore under the sun, most of a jellyfish will evaporate: its only remains being very thin and transparent, what’s left of its organs, skin and tentacles.
#35
The word ‘avocado’ comes from a Native Central American word meaning both avocado and testicleIn Nahuatl, an Aztecan language spoken in Central America, the fruit has been called “āhuacatl”, the same word that is used for testicles. After all, both have obvious similarities. When the Spanish invaders colonised the region, they took the word and made it “aguacate”, which later became “avocado” and was borrowed in turn into the English language.
#36
The oldest known customer complaint was written on a clay tablet 4000 years ago in Mesopotamia{Weekend Repost}The year is 1750 B.C. Nanni writes to their provider in copper, a merchant named Ea-Nasir. Not only the copper was of such bad quality that Nanni had to refuse it, but the money that was paid in advance was never refunded, even after sending several messengers, through a war zone on top of that. ”[How can] you treat somebody like me with such contempt?”, Nanni traces angrily on a clay tablet. The message is written in the Akkadian language, using cuneiform letters.
Bacony Cakes 4 years ago
To be fair, the seller scammed the customer with bin quality copper.
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#37
The United States Supreme Court building, built in 1935 in Washington D.C., does not only house a courtroom. It has five floors, the last one being a gym with a basketball court, referred to as “the highest court in the land”.
#38
A study by the University of Michigan found that cheese and dishes containing cheese ranked high in their experiment about addictive food. One of the major components of cheese is casein, which produces casomorphins when digested. Casomorphins are opioids, and acts on the brain’s opioid receptors, the same that get activated when consuming opium or morphine for instance.
CATMONSTER2018 4 years ago
Phew... I don't think I need to worry about getting a drug addiction... (Its not that I hate cheese... It just tastes weird to me unless if its a ham/cheese sandwich or on spagetthi)
#39
Professor of mathematics and statistics at Stanford University and former professional magician Persi Diaconis and his fellow researchers Susan Holmes and Richard Montgomery once published a scientific paper called “Dynamic bias in the coin toss”. In it, they explore the odds of a coin flip, using high-speed photography, a custom coin-tossing machine and statistical methods. They arrived at the conclusion that 51% of the time, the coin lands in the same direction it was thrown,
Matheus Oliveira 4 years ago
Does it have to do with the slight weight imbalace between the sides?
Monday 4 years ago
Maybe. Could also have something to do with humans not flipping precisely? Like our flick might be slightly off center or something?
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Cactus McCoy 4 years ago
If the starting orientation isn't chosen but random it should come out at 50/50 again, right?
#40
The sound of a black hole is a B-flat note(57 octaves lower than the middle B)Astronomers have been measuring the sound waves emanating from a black hole located in the Perseus galaxy cluster. The black hole continuously hums a single note: a very low B♭. The drone has too deep of a frequency to be heard by human ears, as it would be located 57 octaves lower – i.e. several meters to the left – from the middle C note of a piano.
#41
Canada has a strategic maple syrup reserveThe production of maple syrup is a crucial industry for Canada. But also a risky one, as maple trees are depending on precise weather, the amount of syrup varying a lot from year to year. Maple syrup reserves were therefore put in place to smooth out difficult years. In 2012, in what might be the greatest Canadian heist, $30 million dollars worth of syrup was stolen from one reserve.
Seabeast 4 years ago
No, we don't have sugar maples in Saskatchewan. However, there are people here who make syrup from a different variety of maple (Acer negundo). It has a darker colour and slightly more intense flavour.
Load More Replies... M O'Connell 4 years ago
I suppose they could, though it's an economic reserve as maple syrup is consumed extensively on a domestic basis, as well as exported. Production is variable according to the weather. I've made some myself and it requires a very stable period of time where daytime temperatures are just above freezing and nighttime temperatures below freezing. If it got very warm suddenly in the spring for a few weeks, production would be seriously impacted.
Load More Replies... #42
A central part of academic research is all about writing papers. Researchers methodically write down in detail everything they study into articles, carefully structured and referenced, including citations of previous papers on the subject. Once written, they submit their work to scientific journals, academic publications that are often focusing on a specific research topic. The journals’ editors then assemble a team of peer reviewers, scholars whose expertise in the field is the reason they are specifically chosen to read and comment the submitted article. If the papers are approved and the original authors make appropriate changes after receiving the reviewers’ comments, the papers are finally published in the journals, alongside all the world’s latest research. About half of the articles then proceed not to be ever read by anyone whatsoever. That is how science and human knowledge advances.
lara 4 years ago
And the reason most of these papers are never read is because they are the most boring and pretentious crap you will ever read. Most academics, say 90% do NOT know how to write. Oh, yes, they can write, but they become an "academic voiced" individual. They write in what, they think, is an "intellectual style" and thus ensure that no one will read them. And that is the least of their egregious crimes against readers.
M O'Connell 4 years ago
There's a difference between creative writing and the presentation of academic research. Actual scientific journals are written for scientists within that field of study, and aren't casual reading material.
Load More Replies... Cain Hargreaves 4 years ago
Having written a few academic papers myself, I would be totally *fine* with no one reading them ever.
lara 4 years ago
When I think of all the worthless "research" being "published" because of publish or perish I am reminded that dreck is considered to be superior to quality.
Load More Replies... #43
Researchers from the University of Arizona have estimated that 90% of “clean” cups in an office actually carry germs. 20% are identified as bacteria usually present in faeces, such as coliform and E. coli, revealing how unhygienic office settings and behaviours can be.
#44
Fanta was created in Nazi Germany due to difficulties importing Coca-Cola syrup during World War II {Weekend Repost} Coke was present in Germany since the late twenties, and continued operation when the nation was overtaken by Nazism. When the war broke however, some key ingredients couldn’t be imported. To keep the company running, its executives launched a new drink made from the leftovers of other food industries, Fanta.
Chewie Baron 4 years ago
The first two are not. Adi Dassler started his company in the 1920s. Before the Nazis came to power. Puma was started by Adi's brother Rudi after they had an argument. Again, this had nothing to do with the Nazis. Volkswagen does, in a way. The first "People's Car/VolksWagen" was designed by Ferdinand Porsche, and the first six cars he made carried the Porsche badge. Then a few hundred were built in a factory in Wolfsburg but the whole thing was an absolute scam. The Nazis engineered a weekly stamp subscription to eventually buy a car, but all the money was used to make plans, tanks, weapons etc. Volkswagen itself finally came to be when the factory and the company was rescued by a British Major who in five years, got them making cars, selling them and making a profit. He tried to sell the company to Renault, Peugeot, Rover and Austin but they all refused. So he gave it to the city of Wolfsburg.
Load More Replies... #45
You are one or two centimetres taller when you get out of bed in the morning
All the pressure put on our spine during the day, compressing our cartilage down, makes us a little smaller when we go to bed. Your body can finally relax during the night, finding again its initial height, usually 1-2 cm more than on evenings.
#46
When it was created in 1929, 7-Up had a completely different name: “Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime soda”. It is the “lithiated” part that interests us here: an ingredient of the drink was lithium citrate, a compound well known to people with bipolar disorder as it is one of the most established drugs to stabilise mood states. It is said that its presence in 7-Up did affect the dinker’s mood, until it was removed in 1948.
Cain Hargreaves 4 years ago
First the cocaine in Coca-Cola, then the lithium in 7-Up... Is nothing sacred???
#47
In 2014, two scientists on a mission in Antarctica, one housed in a tent from a field camp in the Dry Valleys, another staying at the McMurdo Station, had the same idea: checking Tinder. No profiles appeared at first, but when extending the radius of the search, they found each other. It turned out they matched! As for actually going on a date, they did manage to meet up once, but that was the day before one of them was leaving the continent.
#48
Researchers have sampled the body odours of both subjects who had eaten normally and subjects who had eaten a lot more garlic than the first ones. Their odours were then rated by a separate panel of volunteers. The smells of the garlic-eaters were evaluated more pleasant, more attractive, and less intense than the others. It’s worth noting that: 1. The subjects were all men and the raters were all women; 2. The study only included body smell and not breath smell.
Ross Keim 4 years ago
Not mine, my sweat actually smells like garlic if I eat any, like any amount
Banana Vic 4 years ago
So you smell like a delicious Italian dish? I don't see the downside 😊
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Tamsin Far 4 years ago
Honestly, we once had a garlic soup containing.. well, mostly garlic, and it tasted terrific! But even one week later I just couldn`t stand my own smell, it was so intense... I`m somewhat doubtful of this "fact".
Nevits Yibble 4 years ago (edited)
"The study only included body smell and not breath smell." Lol. Yeah - let's not include the breath smell. Is there anything more disgusting than garlic breath? I'd rather inhale vomit fumes.
#49
The first shopping cart was made from a folding chair with a basket on the seat and wheels on the legsIn 1936, Sylvan Goldman was the owner of a self-service store, in which customers were picking and carrying their own groceries, a relatively new concept at a time when many shops still had a behind-the-counter model. Sitting on his wooden chair thinking about how customers could carry more groceries at a time, he had an eureka moment, put a basket on the chair and imagined some wheels. With the help of a mechanic, Fred Young, they finally built the first prototype, with a metal frame and two wire baskets: a huge success that was soon adopted by other stores and led to the carts we know today.
#50
We sigh every 5 minutes on average, without which our lungs would collapseHumans sigh 12 times per hour, and it’s not always related to being tired or exasperated. Scientists have identified this regular sighing as a life-sustaining reflex, made to prevent the alveoli in our lungs from collapsing. If alveoli collapse, they would not be able to reinflate, causing the lungs to fail.
Tamsin Far 4 years ago
Anyone else here trying in panic to remember how to sigh after reading this?
Monday 4 years ago
Can I interest you in a round of manual blinking as well?
Load More Replies... M O'Connell 4 years ago
It is helpful. "Sigh control" is a vital function of mechanical respirators.
Load More Replies... Terry Tobias 4 years ago
My dog sighs all of the time. I just thought he was full of doggy angst.
Sean Baxter 4 years ago
This was the reason people who had to use iron lungs died, the lungs couldn't sigh.
#51
There are a lot of ingredients in a lipstick: for instance beeswax, Carnauba wax from palm trees, lanolin from wool, castor oil from beans, any dye either from vegetal, animal, or synthetic origin, and sometimes guanine, a substance that can be found in fish scales and gives the product a pearl-like appearance
Lauren Caswell 4 years ago
I think fish scales are, or were, used in winemaking maybe in a filtration process? Or am I imagining things again. Now I've gta Google it
Lauren Caswell 4 years ago
"Though bull's blood, a traditional fining agent, was banned by the EU a few years ago, a number of animal-derived products are still permitted for the production of wine sold in Europe. Among the most prevalent are isinglass (fish bladders), gelatin, casein (milk protein) and albumen (egg whites)." I was close!
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#52
While not ideal and not really advised, coconut water has been used in multiple occasions as a hydration fluid, injected straight into blood, substituting a more standard saline solution that was otherwise not available.
#53
A spa house in Japan is offering ramen noodle baths{Weekend Repost}The Yunessan Spa House in Hakone in Japan has bathtubs full of soup, pork broth and noodles. It is meant to boost collagen and increase metabolism.
Daniel Atkins 4 years ago
Would definitely make me steer clean of any Ramen shop nearby one of these spas.
Load More Replies... Yours truly 3 years ago
Honestly I find that kinda weird ngl. Who would want to do that? Not I said the fly
#54
Fish are getting dumped from aeroplanes in order to repopulate lakesLakes needing more fish can get their new population to fly over: aerial firefighting airplanes get their tank full of water and fish, and they all get dropped when the aircraft flies over their destination. Practised for decades already, the practise is meant to be relatively harmless for the fish.
Richard Henderson 4 years ago
Utah. There’s a link on the picture. It takes you to a news paper story.
Load More Replies... Terry Tobias 4 years ago
Can you imagine being in a boat on the lake... minding your own business... enjoying the day... doing a little fishing.....
Ploploplop 4 years ago (edited)
No bags involved. It's like when planes dump fire retardant on forest fires. A giant tank is filled with water and fish. The doors open on the tank over a body of water and they freefall to the water.
Load More Replies... #55
A lemon will float in water, but a lime will sinkThe density of a lemon is less than the one of a lime: compared to water, a lime is denser. That’s the reason why they will react differently if they’re placed in water.
#56
The birth rate of pandas is really low. In the wild, after a failed pregnancy, female pandas sometimes continue to behave like they were still pregnant, a phenomenon not entirely explained. In captivity, that behaviour has sometimes been interpreted as a way to access all the perks that pregnant animals get in zoos, extra comfort and food. It estimated that 10–20% of pregnancies in pandas are make-believe.
#57
Sultan from 1623 to 1640, Murad IV banned drugs in his empire. Alcohol: prohibited. Tobacco: forbidden. And coffee? Outlawed too. In fact, Murad IV made it personal: it is told that he would disguise himself as a layman, walk around town with his sabre, and behead any coffee drinker who would cross his way. One of the main reasons behind his crusade against coffee was the popularity of cafés, where men would gather, chit chat, listen to poetry, play chess and backgammon… and not go to the mosque. Was death penalty enough to dissuade coffee drinkers? Absolutely not. Coffee remained very popular, and religious scholars ended up accepting the fact that people were not going to give up on it. As for Murad IV, he died of cirrhosis, possibly because of drinking too much alcohol himself.
Eslamala 4 years ago
Some countries still kill people over dumb shït like that, though. Also those religions with forbidden foods... Ridiculous and dumb, but dumber are the ones who follow such rules.
Petra Christovová 4 years ago
Those who are following the rules do not really have the choice. I would say that people who protect and enforce those rules are the dumb ones.
Load More Replies... #58
In his office in Down House, in Kent, England, Charles Darwin had laid out all the specimens he collected during his research expeditions all around the room. But getting up, moving his heavy armchair, and sitting down again and again all the time, comparing specimens from table to table, wasn’t really practical. So he fastened four swivel caster wheels to his armchair’s feet, and could then roll around the study easily, effectively creating the first known wheeled office chair.
Dave P 4 years ago
except Thomas Jefferson made one back in the 1700s and they existed in the 1700s in America. This is false.
Gin. No tonic 4 years ago
Jefferson created the swivel chair (turns around its axis), but that chair didn't have wheels. Darwin created the first office chair with wheels. There might have been other chairs with wheels before, but those were used as wheelchairs (two big wheels in the sides).
Load More Replies... #59
The world’s largest pizza was about 3 times as big as a basketball courtThe Nazionale Italiana Pizzaioli has held since 2012 the world record for the largest pizza, with a surface of 1,261.65 m². It’s also gluten-free. For reference, a professional basketball court measures 420 m². The same organisation also brewed the world’s biggest cappuccino – a 2,350 litres coffee cup – and a variety of other biggest Italian specialities.
#60
Before the can opener was invented, people used chisels and hammers{Weekend Repost}Although food started to be tinned as early as in the late 18th century, no dedicated tool for can opening was produced before at least the 1850s. More thought was given on how to preserve the content than on how to retrieve it. So people used chisels and hammers, and early instructions advised to do so.
Cip IESAN 4 years ago
The best can opener ever is the Kalashnikov bayonet, trust me, I opened billions of cans during my military service! The gun grease gave a great extra taste.
Marianne 4 years ago
I cannot wrap my head around the fact that people would start putting food in cans without any idea how to open them later.
M O'Connell 4 years ago
Most early cans lacked a standardized rim design which would have been necessary for a universal can-opening tool to be developed. It didn't take very long for lever-style can openers to be invented, and "spam-can" style key-tabs to gain popularity.
Load More Replies... Terry Tobias 4 years ago
You mean they invented canned food without inventing a way to open it?! That's kinda' putting the cart before the horse.
#61
Judges are more likely to grant parole after lunch{Weekend Repost}Researchers have analysed the decisions of eight judges in the course of more than 1000 rulings. They found out that prisoners in the beginning of the day or just after the lunch break are two to six times more likely to get a release than the prisoners at the end. The probability of a favourable decision is around 65% in the early morning and early afternoon, and decline steadily to nearly zero as the time passes.
Terry Tobias 4 years ago
They're probably sleepy after their lunch as well and need their naps.
#62
Tintin is called Tantan in Japanese because ‘Tintin’ would read as the slang for ‘penis’An unfortunate name: Tintin in Japanese would be written ちンちン (pronounced “chin-chin”), a word already used to say ‘penis’. Rather than wearing this ridiculous name, the famous Belgian character was renamed タンタン (“tan-tan”), with his adventures published in Japan since the late sixties.
Cip IESAN 4 years ago
A former ambassador told me once he had a cocktail with many diplomats and the Italian was clinking glasses with the Japanese colleague and toasted in Italian "Cin-cin!". The Japanese couldn't stop laughing for half an hour; after, he explained that "Cin-cin" is "penis".
Juririn 4 years ago
Actually, "chin-chin" in Japanese is more like "willie" in English; still funny, though 🍆😁
Load More Replies... Lauren Caswell 4 years ago
Rather like the hasty last minute re-naming of Pac man from 'Puck Man', as the 'P' is far too easy a target to alter
Zedrapazia 4 years ago
In the German version he's called Tim, despite Tintin not having any meaning at all.
Pantea 4 years ago
I never understood the reasoning behind "Tim und Struppi". The dog's name is Milou.
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Kristin Ingersoll 4 years ago
I hosted a Mexican exchange student in high school in the 80s. We took him to Chi-Chis and he was so mortified. He finally explained to my brother. I never understood how a major chain got away with that.
#63
A cow and bison hybrid is called a ‘beefalo’Cows and bisons are both bovines and can breed with each other. They are natural instances of it happening, but it is mainly practised by livestock farmers, usually with a male cow and a female bison. The appearance of the animal is usually close to cattle, with specimens that are more bison-like sometimes named ‘cattalo’ as well.
#64
Pineapples were status symbols in 18th century Europe(they were so expensive that people rented them for the evening to show off at parties)Originally from South America, Christopher Columbus brought back pineapple to Europe in the 15th century, but they didn’t acclimate well to the local conditions. By the 17th century, pineapples were still rare there and considered very luxurious, one fruit costing up to 7000€ in today’s money.
#65
Kiwis are possibly evolving to become sightless. A recent study on 160 birds discovered that a third of them had eye issues and several were even born blind… while living perfectly well their kiwi life. It is simply possible that they don’t need a vision that much: they live at night, have no predators and a good sense of hearing and smell. After all, they are already doing fine being wingless.
Chewie Baron 4 years ago
Technically Kiwi birds have the shortest beak of all birds. Beaks are generally measured from the nostrils to the end of the beak. Kiwi birds nostrils are at the end of their beak.
Marianne 4 years ago
They USED to have no predators. Nowadays, imported animals like cats and foxes have brought them close to extinction. Getting blind won't do them any good, as they are already not suited to avoid predators.
Marianne 4 years ago
I visited a Kiwi center in New Zealand. Kiwis are the most adorable little fellows, but they have no instincts to safeguard them from predators. They make noise! When watching them in utter darkness, I could always tell where they were with my bad human senses at night. Now imagine a cat on the hunt.
Load More Replies... Crazy Meerkat Lady 4 years ago
To me, kiwis look like undercover moles. Like a mole dressed up as a bird. Clip on beak and feather coat and off we go
#66
Pepper is a spice from South India, which has long been used as a medicinal plant and as a cooking ingredient. It was already traded and used in Europe during Antiquity. By the middle ages however, the rarity of the spice on the continent made it very expensive. Later, these difficulties to import black pepper and other spices made Christopher Columbus sail West to access India bypassing the Ottoman Empire. When his expedition arrived in the Americas instead, they naturally didn’t find black pepper there. But they found out about chilli peppers instead, which was brought back and eventually found its way to India, where it became a cornerstone of the local cuisine.
Olivier van Remoortel 4 years ago
In Dutch we still call expensive things "peperduur", translated: as expensive as pepper
Kristin Ingersoll 4 years ago
SLightly off-topic, but there is a book called "Salt: A World History" by Mark Kurlansky. I laughed when my dad suggested I read it. It was absolutely fascinating. HIGHLY recommend!!!
#67
#68
Arctic Fox Lover 4 years ago
But the dominant male will extend a flipper (which is like a whale erection 😬), which acts as a signal to the female, so she'll go into their mating position, until they're lying belly to belly, while the other male just kinda swims off. xd
#69
The world’s longest pedal-powered tandem bicycle has 52 seats{Weekend Repost}It started with two sisters fancying the same boy, arguing about which of them would ride with him on their tandem bicycle. Their father welded another frame and seat to solve the issue. They later got carried away and added seats after seats to accommodate all the family and their friends. The eventual “bi”cycle is 42 metres long, has 52 seats, and 26 wheels.
Monday 4 years ago
Tandem technically just means one following behind the other, so whether it's two or fifteen it's still tandem.
Load More Replies... M O'Connell 4 years ago
The "bi" doesn't need to be in quotes, as it still has just two wheels.
#70
Tiny mites are living and having sex on your faceThe human skin is home to several species of microscopic mites, from Demodex folliculorum who lives in the pores to Demodex brevis who settles in oil glands. Related to spiders, these mites are born on your skin, live on your skin, and die on your skin after their short 2-week lives. In the meantime, they mate with each other, males visiting females who in turn lay eggs in your pores.
#71
Eggplants contain nicotineThree doctors measured the amount of nicotine in plants of the nightshade family: comprising tobacco, they also include aubergines, but also tomatoes and potatoes, all species containing nicotine. A sample result: ten kilogrammes of eggplants, or aubergines, provide as much nicotine as one cigarette.
#72
The buzz of flies is made by their wings flapping — in the case of a housefly, 190 times a second. In musical terms, this frequency sounds to human ears just like a pitch along the F major scale. This key is believed to be one of the most heard in nature.
Terry Tobias 4 years ago
I wouldn't say the housefly hums exactly, they buzz... annoyingly, continually, maddeningly buzz until you find them with the fly swatter! What musical key that noise is in has never been in my thoughts as I try to murder them... and I'm ok with that!
#73
Salmon, sardines and mackerel are all fish that have a good amount of fatty acids, in particular omega-3, which helps with hair health, shininess and loss prevention. The fish also have protein and biotin, which can improve hair strength and prevent breakage.
#74
The history of printing is rich and black-and-white. It includes this bit from the 1860s: William Bullock, an American inventor known for improving the rotary press and turning it into a machine capable of printing up to 12,000 pages an hour, died after he kicked his invention and got his leg caught and crushed in the device.
Terry Tobias 4 years ago
Is that for real or are you joking, because either way it's great!
Load More Replies... #75
Most starfish can regenerate bits of their body if damaged, and some can regenerate a full limb if lost. A few however can even regrow their full central body from a single remaining limb. The process can take months to years, and the animal is very vulnerable during that time. Some species use that ability for reproduction: lose a limb, let it regrow a body, you’re now two.
michael reid 4 years ago
You can get several sea sponges, of different species, and blend them all together in seawater in a blender, into liquid. Then if you leave them, they will separate out into the original animals, and be alive
#76
A Japanese toilet brand has built a motorcycle that runs on excrementThe toilet manufacturer Toto has created a prototype of a three-wheeled motorcycle, the Toilet Bike Neo. Its fuel? Bio-gas created by purifying methane, itself extracted from livestock “waste”, i.e. poop. Three years of research was needed to develop the vehicle.
#77
In 1930s London, babies were dangled out of windows in “baby cages”Fresh air. That is the reason why London parents living in flats a hundred years ago would purchase cages similar to chicken coops, hang them by the window, and put their little kids in it.
Marianne 4 years ago
If I think about London air in the 1930s, I assume that the air inside would have been fresher.
Bacony Cakes 4 years ago
This fell out of style about the same time that lead started being put in petrol.
#78
Bank notes that are too old and torn or written on get removed from circulation and end up being shredded. In the US, it is $6,000,000 that are cut in pieces daily. These piles of small bits of money used to get in landfill, but are now taken to a compost facility where they are blended with other waste and turned to soil.
Noel Bovae 4 years ago
You can actually buy bags of this shredded money from the US Mint. (Don't get too excited though, it's just a novelty item. You could never find enough matching parts to try to piece any back together. It'd be impossible.)
Cain Hargreaves 4 years ago
Yeah, I knew someone who had some to use as kindling for his fireplace because of that old joke about being so rich you can burn money.
Load More Replies... #79
If today’s marshmallows are mainly made from gelatin, marshmallow is at first a flowery plant, which has been used for centuries. It has been known during Antiquity as a medicinal remedy for about everything, and served as food during famines. But the first people to use it in a sweet confection were the Ancient Egyptians, who mixed its sap with nuts and honey. The treat was only for the nobility and gods, though, and didn’t look at all like what we know today. It’s only in the 19th century that marshmallows would start getting closer to the familiar candy, and gelatin started to be used instead of plant extract. In the 1950s finally, marshmallows took their current form with a newly invented process pressuring the mixture to make it more airy and reaching its unique texture.
#80
McDonald’s once made bubblegum flavoured broccoliIn an failed attempt to provide slightly healthier menus for kids, McDonald’s developed a few years ago a broccoli with bubblegum flavour as a test. It did not work: kids testing it were confused by the taste more than anything, and the idea was quickly dropped.
Aunt Messy 4 years ago
And that should tell you all you need to know about what fast food joints call "food".
debrina blackmoon 4 years ago
I like it raw in salads or cooked with cheese sauce:).
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#81
Pen-tailed treeshrews spend every night drinking fermented nectar (drinking the human equivalent of 9 glasses of wine a night)A little mammal living in Southeast Asia and Oceania, the pen-tailed treeshrew is the only known animal, besides humans, to consume alcohol regularly. In fact, the threeshrews drink fermented nectar from flowers every single night, as it is their main source of nutrition. Their favourite brewery? The bertam palm plant, which produces drinks with up to 3.8 percent concentration of alcohol. And last but not least: they don’t show any sign of being drunk, suggesting a more efficient metabolism than ours in terms of alcohol detoxification.
Lauren Caswell 4 years ago
Okay I know what I want my next reincarnation to be, if I'm getting the tiny mammal category :)
#82
Scientists can grow teeth out of the stem cells found in urineExtracting stem cells from urine samples, researchers at the Guangzhou institute of biomedicine then proceeded to grow artificial teeth from there. As the teeth were not as hard as natural teeth, and the cells not in their best state, urine might not be the best source: further research is needed. But growing teeth in a lab might become a viable way in dentistry to replace a damaged tooth.
lara 4 years ago
Scientists in England CURED paralysis in dachshunds whose spinal cords were severed. They used stem cells taken from the nose of the dogs. One dog had been paralyzed for several years, yet grew back his spinal cord "connection." I thought there would be a great deal of research done, and nothing came of it.
Tim Douglass 4 years ago
Research is slow and is seldom interesting to the press. It's probably still being researched, just not reported. Other possibility is that further tests showed it to be an anomaly and of no medical use at all. Happens a lot. It's not a conspiracy with big pharma or anything, it's just that "Paralyzed dog healed!" makes a better headline than "we tried it and thought it seemed to work, but hasn't really panned out now that we are looking deeper."
Load More Replies... #83
Our eyes are closed for roughly 10% of our waking hours{Weekend Repost}We blink 15 to 20 times a minute, more than what we need in order to keep our eyes moisturised. So why are we blinking that much? Researchers from Osaka University in Japan discovered that the brain switches to some sort of idle state during the blink. Not having to focus and process any visual information for a fraction of a second, the mind gets some rest.
#84
Batman, capital of the Batman province and home of the Batman University and the Batman football club, is a city in southeastern Turkey. Originally a village named Iluh, it grew into a city in the 1950s and was renamed after the river flowing nearby. The origin of the name is unclear, though it might be a contraction of “Bati Raman”, a local landmark. Worth noting is that a thousand kilometres away from the city lays another municipality: the village of Batman, in Iran.
#85
May 11, 1947, Le Bourget airport, Paris, France. Winston Churchill, then between his two mandates as a prime minister of the UK, smokes half a Cuban cigar and stub it out in an ashtray before embarking on his plane to Northolt, UK. That’s when William Alan Turner, an airman working on this flight, discreetly got the cigar out of the ashtray and brought it home as a souvenir for flying the British statesman. Fast forward October 11, 2017, RR auction house, Boston, USA. The cigar resurfaces. A Floridian collector buys it for no less than $12,000.
Foxxy (The Original) 4 years ago (edited)
That's nothing, an imaginary, and I mean IMAGINARY sculpture was sold for approx 18 thousand dollars just recently.
Crazy Meerkat Lady 4 years ago
So I missed my calling in life. I could have just sold imaginary art. Mine is really great
Load More Replies... Linus Nilsson 4 years ago
Pfft, any real cigar-smoker knows not to stub out the cigar, but to let it burn out. Whatta n00b
#86
On July 20, 1969, the Eagle lunar module landed on the Moon, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong on board. They stepped on it, said some nice words, planted a flag, walked around a bit. At one point however, they had to go home. So they flew off, but not before losing as much weight in the spacecraft as possible, especially since they picked up some nice rocks during their visit. Neil Armstrong’s boots are part of what has been jettisoned before returning home.
Bacony Cakes 4 years ago
And don't forget the Apollo 10 space turd. Still floating around in the capsule.
Load More Replies... #87
On February 20, 1947, a few fruit flies became the first animals from Earth to visit space. Sent by Americans, 11 years before the foundation of NASA, the flies were housed in a German missile that was seized at the end of World War 2. They reached a little more than 100 kilometres of altitude, just enough to be now considered as a trip to space. After being parachuted back, the flies were still alive, and studies showed they had not mutated – opening the way for a long series of missions sending various animals beyond the atmosphere, notably monkeys, dogs, and humans.
#88
Blood can have different colours depending on its components. Most vertebrates have red blood due to its content in iron. Animals that have copper in their blood for instance have theirs blue (octopuses, squids, crustaceans, spiders, smurfs probably). Vanabin gives yellow blood (beetles, sea squirts, sea cucumbers), chlorocruorin makes for green blood (worms, leeches), and hemerythrin leads to purple blood (several sorts of worms).
#89
When English immigrant William Colgate founded his company in 1806 in New York City, he was making soap and candles. It is only in 1873, well after his death, that the company started to sell toothpaste, originally sold in jars.
Saico Hipe 4 years ago
They also used to sell a line of frozen dinners. Can't imagine why those didn't take off! LOL
#90
We have launched so many things into orbit – many that are not in use anymore and that has been left crumbling there – that the Earth is now surrounded with a lot of debris. Scientists at the European Space Agency estimate that there are around 29,000 objects that are larger than 10 cm out there. Add to that objects that are between 1 and 10 cm, about 670,000 of them, and the 170 million things that are in between 1 mm and 1 cm. All of these are very harmful to any new spacecraft or satellite, which have to fly through this layer of junk without encountering any.
Terry Tobias 4 years ago
Has anybody ever thought of making a space garbage truck to clean all the space waste? There could also be a place for recyclables. Unfortunately, the trucks would probably wake up the people in the Space Station and annoy them the same way that I'm annoyed every Wednesday morning at 6:00am
M O'Connell 4 years ago
If you're referring to Starlink unlike older satellites, they at least have design considerations for deorbiting them at their EOL.
Load More Replies... #91
A flight from New York to Houston in 1973 took about 2,5 hours. It now takes almost 4 hours. This slowing down of flights is generalised. One reason has to do with fuel consumption: flying slower uses less fuel and airlines are making economies like this, especially in a time when the price of fuel raised a lot. Another reason is a practise known as “schedule padding”: airlines plan for generous flight times to avoid getting in the situation of being late.
Dave P 4 years ago
acutally this is false. The average speed back then was 0.70 mach, today Jets go at 0.85mach. They fly faster and use less fuel. The reason for the time has been shown to be padding the schedule to avoid late penalties. Look at the actual time you spend on the plane. I was on a flight that listed the time as 1:30 hours, from when we pulled out of the airport till we hit the ground was 43min. They pad the schedules.
Foxxy (The Original) 4 years ago
I would also presume it's because there are more planes on the air so slowing down can help prevent aviation accidents.
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What do you think ?
M O'Connell 4 years ago
I suppose another one could be that solar panels also work in reverse. If you apply voltage to them, they emit light (outside the wavelengths humans can see). This video explains it pretty well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WGKz2sUa0w
Candace Fitzpatrick 4 years ago
The only thing better than these cool facts are the cute illustrations!
M O'Connell 4 years ago
I suppose another one could be that solar panels also work in reverse. If you apply voltage to them, they emit light (outside the wavelengths humans can see). This video explains it pretty well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WGKz2sUa0w
Candace Fitzpatrick 4 years ago
The only thing better than these cool facts are the cute illustrations!
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