fact
There’s an 1,800 year-old Roman version of present day Swiss Army Knife, complete with folding spoon, fork, spatula, pick, spike and knife. It was made mostly from silver, so it has held up pretty well. The spike might have helped in extracting the meat from snails, and the spatula in poking sauce out of narrow-necked […]
In 2012 a scientific study predicted a 39 inch rise in sea level along the North Carolina coast over the next century. In response, North Carolina lawmakers passed a law banning the use of scientific predictions of sea level rise when considering new developments along the coast. 00
The word “procrastinate” comes from Latin meaning “to put off until tomorrow” and there is another word “perendinate” that means “to put off until the day after tomorrow”. For some people, procrastination is more than a bad habit; it’s a sign of a serious underlying health issue. For example, ADHD , OCD , anxiety, and […]
Chipmunks and other small rodents have fast reaction time because they process light faster. Relative to us humans, they see the world in slow motion. 00
Guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier take an average of six hours to prepare their uniform. They are also required to memorize 35 pages of information about Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, including the locations of 300 graves and who is buried in each one. 00
Coco Chanel made sun bathing fashionable. Historically exposure to the sun had been the mark of laborers and a milky skin used to be a sure sign of aristocracy. Chanel took in the sun, making suntans not only acceptable, but a symbol denoting a life of privilege and leisure. 00
An IT Director, fed up with sales calls where the caller lied to reach IT staff, said to transfer one such caller ‘straight to hell’. This led to the creation of a special extension for such calls where horrible hold music and faked queue messages play on an endless loop to increase hold time. 00
90 years before the invention of the modern wireless telephone, Alexander Graham Bell invented a device that could transmit speech using sunlight. Bell was immensely proud of the achievement, to the point that he wanted to name his new second daughter “Photophone”, which was subtly discouraged by his wife Mabel Bell (they instead chose “Marian”, […]
Recalling a memory more often makes the memory less accurate.That’s because instead of remembering the actual memory, you’re recalling the memory of the last time you remembered it and any mistakes that might have been introduced there. 00
Technically, you COULD stop a hurricane by shooting at it, if you had ~5000 machine guns firing constantly into the wind for 24 hours straight. So there you have it, folks: if you wanna kill a hurricane with bullets, all you need is 24 hours, a fortified brigade of heavy artillerymen, and $20 billion worth […]