Weird Facts 31
- The shortest war on record was fought between Zanzibar and England in 1896. Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes.
- The Internet weighs the same as a strawberry: The weight of all the electrons in motion that make up the internet at any one moment is equivalent to 50 grams. Source
- Artificial Raspberry flavor is milked from the anal glands of a beaver. Source
- Wearing a lab coat may make you smarter. A group of researchers conducted an experiment to see if they could increase intellectual performance by having people wear different clothes. What they found is that clothes that people associate with being smart make people perform better in attention-related tasks. Wearing a lab coat described as a doctor’s coat increased sustained attention compared to wearing a lab coat described as a painter’s coat. Source
- Penn and Teller created a game called Desert Bus. The object is to drive in REALTIME from Tucson, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada. There is no pause button and it needs constant steering. If you make the entire 8 hour trip, you earn one point. Source
- 10-year old Tilly Smith saved her family and 100 other tourists from the 2004 Asian tsunami, by recognizing signs of tsunamis she had learned in a geography lesson two weeks before. Source
- The standard U.S. railroad width (4 feet, 8.5 inches) is directly derived from the width of Roman war chariots. This is because the English expatriates who designed the U.S. railroad system based their measurements on the pre-railroad tramways built in England. Those tramways were built using the same tools used to build wagons, which were also that width. The reason wagons were built to that width is because otherwise, they would break during long treks across the old English roads. Those roads--built by the Romans--were full of ruts carved out by Roman war chariots. All Roman chariots were built to a standard width of 4 feet, 8.5 inches, and so English wagons were built so that their wheels would fit into those ruts.
- In 1959 a pilot ejected from his plane directly into a violent thunder cloud. The storm winds kept him aloft for 40 minutes, pelting him with hailstones and so much rain that at times he had to hold his breath to keep from drowning in mid-air. Source
- The driest place on Earth is in Antarctica in an area called the Dry Valleys, which have seen no rain for nearly 2 million years. There is absolutely no precipitation in this region. Source
- The supersonic Concorde jet made its first trial flight on January 1, 1969.
- Two days before signing the constitution the founding fathers drank “54 bottles of Madeira, 60 bottles of claret, eight of whiskey, 22 of porter, eight of hard cider, 12 of beer and seven bowls of alcoholic punch.“ Source
- The Titanic was the first ship to use the SOS signal. It was adopted as the international signal for distress in 1912, and the Titanic struck the iceberg in April of that year. False
In reality, another ship, a Cunard liner named Slavonia, first broadcast the SOS signal on June 10, 1909, a full 3 years before the Titanic. Also, the SOS became the official distress signal in 1906, replacing the old CQD code. - The total number of Americans killed in the Civil War is greater than the combined total of Americans killed in all other wars.
- A rock shot from a lawn mower can have the same force as a bullet from a .357 magnum. Source
- 90% of baby changing tables in public UK bathrooms tested positive for cocaine. Source
- Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a "Friday the 13th."
- The Mantis Shrimp delivers a punch so fast and deadly that its acceleration is 10,000 times greater than gravity and creates a pressure wave that boils the water around it. Japanese people have a weird show where they make sea animals fight. Source
- More money is printed daily for the Monopoly game than by the U.S. Treasury.
- The FBI, under COINTELPRO, admitted to sending Black Panther Party leader, Geranamo Pratt to prison for 27 years based on absolute false charges. Source
- In January 2012 a “superpack” of 400 wolves attacked the Siberian town of Verkhoyansk, leading to an official state of emergency. Source
- More people are killed each year from bees than from snakes.
- There is a table saw that automatically stops in less 1/1000th of a second when it comes in contact with flesh, and the inventor was crazy enough to test it with his finger. Source
- In New York City, for the last half century, the price of a slice of pizza and that of a subway ride have been nearly exactly the same. And a rise in one predicts the other. Source
- In 1974 a newscaster committed suicide during a live broadcast. Her last words were “In keeping with Channel 40′s policy of bringing you the latest in ‘blood and guts’, and in living color, you are going to see another first—attempted suicide.” Source
- Cameron Diaz advocates urinating outdoors or during a shower because it conserves electricity and water. Source
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