31 Fast Facts for a Trivial Treat

You can learn something new every day.

Published 3 years ago in Ftw

A pool of interesting facts for you to swim through -- because if we're going to sit afloat in a pool of ever-accruing human knowledge, it should at least be fun.

1
110 years ago Dr Charles Campbell constructed 30 feet high bat roost to fight malaria. Bats that lived in the roost ate the mosquitoes and Mitchell's lake municipality was malaria-free in 4 years.

2
While alcohol made from apples is called cider, alcohol made from pears is called "Perry"

3
In the early 2000's Serena and Venus Williams, along with their father Richard, were regularly accused of "match fixing" when the sisters competed against one another. One incident, where Venus pulled out entirely from a semifinal match against her sister (tendinitis), had fans demanding refunds
4
The song "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" by the artist Skrillex was observed as a mosquito repellent due to its low-frequency vibrations. The scientists also found that mosquitoes exposed to the song had sex "far less often" than other mosquitos without music.

5
Mexico was the only country to protest the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany. To honor that support, there is a square in Vienna named "Mexikoplatz"
6
The FTC actually recommends against organizations using regular password changing policies as it only encourages users to use simple, easy to remember passwords that they then only alter in predictable ways.
7
The first child protective services organization in the world was created after the founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals realized laws protecting animals from abuse were stronger than laws protecting children

8
The British army breaks step when crossing bridges. This is because in 1831 a suspension bridge collapsed from all the soldiers marching in unison.
9
There was a man who shot a protected saguaro cactus down with his shotgun in 1982. The cactus fell on him, crushing and impaling him to death.
10
Enya lives in a castle in Ireland, and when Bo Burnham wanted to include Orinoco Flow in his film, he had to send her a hand written letter

11
Today I learned Charlie Chaplin didn't actually have a mustache, it was a part of his makeup.
12
According to a 2011 study, SpongeBob is messing with the memory retention of children, impairing their “readiness for learning.” Findings show that allowing preschoolers to watch the series causes short-term disruptions in mental function and attention span due to frequent camera cut scenes.
13
The sex of alligator hatchlings is based purely on temperature while incubating. At 86F or lower, the babies will all be female; at 93F or higher, they will all be male. The mother can sense these changes in temperature and will alter the nest to maintain an optimum temperature.

14
The Vatican has its own telescope staffed by priests, and has previously been given awards for the pursuit of scientific research.
15
The ancient Egyptians would give opium to quiet crying babies. This practice was also a popular way to calm babies in the Victorian era, but it sometimes caused infants to starve to death as they were kept in a constant state of narcotism.
16
There are garden hermits, people encouraged to dress as druids and live in caves and grottoes on the estates of rich people effectively as decoration in the 18th century, usually receiving room and board as payment. One such hermit was fired three weeks into a seven year term after being found drinking at a local pub.

17
James Blunt(singer) developed scurvy in university when he ate only meat for two months 'out of principle' to annoy vegetarian classmates
18
In China 209 BC two generals were going to be late which was punishable by death. They realized that the punish for rebellion was the same as the one for being late, so they decided to rebel and created an uprising.
19
Stalin struggled with depression and summoned renowned Russian psychiatrist Vladimir Bekhterev to examine him. After the examination Bekhterev said only one word - "paranoiac". He died on the very next day from what most believed was poisoning.

20
Half of all panda births result in twins, however, it is very rare for both cubs to survive as giant pandas almost always abandon a cub if they give birth to more than one
21
In 1939 an experiment was conducted at the University of Iowa on orphans in which the purpose was to induce stuttering in otherwise normally speaking children. Dubbed the "monster study", it caused lifelong psychological issues in some of the subjects.
22
A day on Venus is longer than a year on Venus. It takes Venus longer to rotate once on its axis than to complete one orbit of the Sun. That's 243 Earth days to rotate once, and 225 Earth days to complete one orbit of the Sun.

23
The destruction of Hiroshima was caused by only half a gram of matter being converted to energy: the weight of a butterfly
24
It only takes the average person 10-20 minutes to fall asleep
25
There is a full taxidermed whale in a Swedish museum that was open to the public until a couple was caught making love inside it

26
l an english garbage man won the lottery for 10 million pounds (25 mill USD in today's money), lost all of it then 8 years later reapplied for his old job as a garbage man.
27
The most expensive first class tickets on the Titanic were $4350 (or £870) in 1912 money. That's over $100,000 today.
28
The two least profitable movies of all time both take place on Mars. Mars Needs Moms, an animated Disney film, lost $143 million, and John Carter, a live action Disney film, lost nearly $127 million.

29
A group of engineering students from Purdue University reported that its licking machine, modeled after a human tongue, took an average of 364 licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop.
30
Vince Gilligan strongly regretted introducing the machine gun to Breaking Bad's last season and found writing a convincing explanation for it so difficult that he nearly abandoned the plot device out of frustration
31
Humans didn't perform the critically acclaimed high five before the 70's.

32
Smarties candy was originally made with machines that were built to make gunpowder pellets for ammunition during World War I.
33
Americans Watched Over 57 Billion Minutes Of The Office In 2020
34
Spirit Halloween, which is owned by Spencer's, runs over 1200 locations each year for 4-8 weeks. They spend the rest of the year scouting empty locations for the next Halloween season