31 Fascinating Facts to Cram Inside Your Thinking Cap
Nathan Johnson
Published
06/03/2024
in
wow
The more you know. . .
The squirrel, in theory, can survive a fall from any height because their terminal velocity is so low. Now, that doesn't mean you should test this theory, but that's what knowledge is for, having and holding onto like a special little secret you can impress people with at parties.
Knowledge can help put things into perspective. But context is what makes it funny. You probably didn't know but more people died taking selfies (379) than from shark attacks (90) between 2008 and 2021. So when are we getting a Selfie thriller? Hollywood, we're waiting.
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1.
in his suicide note, mass shooter Charles Whitman requested his body be autopsied because he felt something was wrong with him. The autopsy discovered that Whitman had a pecan-sized tumor pressing against his amygdala, a brain structure that regulates fear and aggression. -
2.
A group of horses were trained to communicate whether they wanted a jacket. All horses in the group successfully communicated that they did want a jacket when it was cold and did not want a jacket when it was hot. -
3.
Octopuses deliberately throw shells at each other. Researchers found that 66% of throws were made by females, often in response to mating attempts. For a creature with no thumbs or rotator cuffs, they had a 17% hit rate. -
4.
In 2015, a woman's parachute failed to deploy while skydiving, surviving with life-threatening injuries. Days before, she survived a mysterious gas leak at her house. Both were later found to be intentional murder plots by her husband. -
5.
In 2001, a 13-year-old Boy Scout named Cody Clawson went missing for over 18 hours near Yellowstone Park. Clawson resorted to using his belt buckle to signal to planes overhead. Eventually, he got a pilot’s attention - and that pilot was none other than Harrison Ford - who rescued Clawson. -
6.
A man named Göran Kropp from Sweden rode his bicycle to Nepal, climbed Mount Everest alone without Sherpas or bottled oxygen, then cycled back to Sweden again. -
7.
The first African American woman to win an Oscar, Hattie McDaniel in 1939, wasn't even able to attend the premiere of the movie she preformed in due to it being held at a whites-only theater. -
8.
Muhammad Ali's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is on a wall instead of on the ground. This is because Ali, a devout Muslim, did not want people stepping on the name "Muhammad". -
9.
On April 18 1930, the BBC's evening news report simply said "there is no news" and then played piano music for the entire segment. -
10.
Chief Baker of the Titanic, Charles Joughin, survived by getting smashed on Brandy and calmly paddling around until dawn when he was rescued by a lifeboat. He was also one of the last people off the ship, riding the stern rail into the sea like an elevator. -
11.
Most animals can see UV light — humans being blind to it is the exception not the rule. -
12.
Squirrels terminal velocity is so low they can fall from any height and survive. -
13.
Lady Gaga is the first woman in history to win an Oscar, Grammy, BAFTA & Golden Globe in a single year, in 2019 for her perfomance in A Star is Born. -
14.
The reason why animal shelters are full of huskies, is because of the TV show Game of Thrones. Everyone wanted their own real life dire Wolf, but then abandoned them after they realize how much work they are. -
15.
While dogs may not pass the traditional mirror test, they do pass a "smell mirror" test, suggesting they understand the concept of 'self'. -
16.
More people died taking selfies (379) than from shark attacks (90) between 2008-2021. -
17.
Craigslist generates over $600 million in revenue annually with only 50 employees. -
18.
French geologist Michel Siffre, who in a 1962 experiment spent 2 months in a cave without any references to the passing time. He eventually settled on a 25 hour day and thought it was a month earlier than the date he finally emerged from the cave. -
19.
War pigs were used by the Romans because the squeals would scare war elephants into fleeing, and cause them to trample their own armies. -
20.
In 2016, an Oregon man essentially dissolved inside a hot spring at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming after he accidentally fell into it. -
21.
Louis XIV had an elephant at Versailles, a gift from Portugal's king in 1668. The animal became part of the Ménagerie, the palace's zoo, and was fed 80 pounds of bread, 12 pints of wine, and two buckets of soup daily. It is the only African elephant recorded in Europe between 1483 and 1862. -
22.
If you have a fear of bridges, you can hire a service where someone gets behind the wheel of your car and drives you across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, a 4.3-mile stretch in Maryland known as one of the scariest bridges in the world. -
23.
If you tune your radio to 91.9 FM for one city block in Montclair, NJ you can hear a looped recording of "I'll Make Love to You" by Boyz II Men which has been broadcasting for at least 13 years straight. -
24.
The largest unfinished church in the world, the Sagrada Família, began construction in 1886. It is expected to be completed in 2026, nearly 150 years after it began construction. -
25.
Combining 50mL of alcohol and 50mL of water doesn't make 100mL. -
26.
In the USA, 60 people die from walk-in freezer accidents per year. -
27.
29 bars in NJ were caught serving things like rubbing alcohol + food coloring as scotch and dirty water as liquor. -
28.
Actress Alicia Witt's parents were found frozen to death in their Massachusetts home in December 2021.They refused help on home repairs repeatedly. -
29.
Mike Tyson went bankrupt in 2003. Despite having earned $400 million from boxing, examples of reckless spending included $6.3 million on luxury cars and $580K on his 30th birthday party. He has improved his financial situation and now receives $900K/month from his cannabis company, however. -
30.
Kurt Cobain was wearing 3 pairs of pants when he died. -
31.
Brazil turned Pelé into a national treasure to stop him from leaving the country to play soccer in Europe.
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