25 Random but Fascinating Trivia Facts That You Probably Didn’t Know — 3rd ed.
The colour we perceive is basically atom waste product, everything we do will literally be forever remembered in the stars, women get hard-ons, Russians use fake ambulances to get places faster, and much more
Everyone loves a little bit of trivia, here are 25 random facts that you probably didn’t know.
It’s very popular to talk about the Aurora Borealis mainly because everyone wants to see one. However, what is not well known is that an aurora in the southern hemisphere has a different name, it is called the Aurora Australis. They look the same, but one is in the north and one is in the south.
The reason colour exists is because our atoms swallow light — this is why light heats us up — but while it absorbs most of it to create heat, it spits some back out. Specifically, the light rays it has no use for. This process is what defines what colour something will be. For example, when light hits a tomato, all the visible light rays are absorbed; however, because the red-light rays serve no purpose to the tomato’s atoms, they spit them back out, which is why tomatoes look red. So, what defines an item’s colour is what light rays its atoms want and don’t want, which means what our eyes are seeing when we perceive colour are the waste product of atoms i.e. we are seeing the light rays that atoms have swallowed but spat back out because they don’t want them.
If we could work out how to travel faster than light and could invent a telescope with a long enough range, we would be able to see planet Earth in the past. Not just that, if we could invent a means to properly read light and could travel faster than light, we could watch every single moment from Earth’s history play out. This is because light does not travel through time — because it moves at the speed of light, it expends all its energy on velocity and thus none of its energy moving through time, which means it’s frozen in time. That means everything light captures is recorded forever. That means the entire Earth’s history, from conception to now, including your entire life from conception to death, is flying through space right now at the speed of light. This means you and everyone and everything truly are eternal, and your memory will never die because there will always be a record of every moment of your life flying through the universe, just waiting for someone to capture it.
Ever wondered why London’s black taxis are so tall compared to taxis from other places? It is because they were designed to allow men to ride in them without having to remove their top hats.
In some cities in the Netherlands, if you die but don’t have a next-of-kin, the city poet will try to learn about you and write and recite a poem at your funeral. This is done to make certain that there will always be at least one attendee at a person’s funeral and is part of a project called “the Lonely Funeral.”
Back in 2013, a Nigerian man called Harrison Okene survived in freezing seawater after the tugboat he was on capsized in heavy swells. The boat sank to a depth of 30 metres, 20 miles off the coast of Nigeria. However, Okene swam through the freezing water to an air pocket at the ship’s hull where he remained half-submerged for 60 hours before he was found. He reportedly missed the first diver but grabbed the second diver immediately on arrival, “giving him quite the shock”, as they were expecting to find no survivors. However, he was not able to immediately leave, he had to spend time in a decompression chamber to normalise his body pressure so as to avoid cardiac arrest on the ascent.
The best place to keep rubber bands is in the fridge. This is because the polymer chains in rubber bands when stretched become very ordered, which expels thermal energy, shortening its lifespan, so the less stretched a rubber band is, the longer its lifespan will be because the less energy it will expend. Putting a rubber band in the fridge cools it down, which makes its polymers even less ordered, which makes it even less stretched, which makes it expend less energy, which extends its lifespan. Just remember to allow it to return to room temperature after taking it out of the fridge before stretching it, otherwise, you will break it.
Researchers found that if you are overweight, by losing weight you can improve not only your concentration but your memory. No jokes. Numerous studies have shown that those who are overweight who lose weight, after losing the weight, see a meaningful improvement in both concentration and memory along with general cognitive ability. That means if you’re overweight, one of the best ways to improve your memory and general cognitive ability is losing weight.
Rather insanely, there are 293 ways to make change for a dollar. More insanely, there are 3,237,135 ways to make change for 10 dollars. Even more insanely, there are 9,823,546,661,906 ways to make change for 100 dollars.
A 2022 study published in Science has answered the question of why humans have evolved to talk, but monkeys and other apes have not. Despite humans and all other primates’ vocal structures looking almost identical, there is a slight difference between humans and their fellow primates. Human vocal structures are simpler in design. Paradoxically, it is believed that this is why we can speak, and they can’t. Basically, sound is produced in all primates by forcing air through something called a larynx. This causes folds of tissue to vibrate, producing sounds. Nonhuman primates were found to have additional features to go with these folds of tissue — they have a thin flap of tissue at the end known as a vocal membrane (basically a small muscle above the vocal cord). They were also found to have balloon-like laryngeal structures called air sacs. These extra features allow apes to produce loud calls and screams but hinder their ability to stabilise the sound coming out of their throats. This means rather crazily humans can speak and apes can’t because the design of human vocal cords is simpler. The question is whether we once had these apelike structures and lost them through evolution, or never had them in the first place, and that’s why we evolved to speak, but other apes did not.
A recent theory claims to have solved the mystery of why we can’t work out how the brain creates consciousness. Dr Nir Lahav, a physicist from Bar-Ilan University in Israel, claims that the reason we have been struggling to understand how the brain creates consciousness is that we have been looking at it the wrong way. He has theorised that if we change our assumption about consciousness and turn it into a relativistic phenomenon, the difficulty understanding how the brain creates it — at least in the way we are trying to answer it — disappears. His theory is as follows, if you look at a person’s brain, you are looking at consciousness from a different perspective to the person whose brain you are looking at, who will read their brain using their consciousness. For example, the person whose brain is being scanned will measure their experience as being consciousness, but the person doing the brain scan will measure that experience as brain activity with no sign of the actual conscious experience. So, the theory is the reason we can’t work out why the brain creates consciousness, is because we are looking at the phenomenon from totally different perspectives, yet expecting to find the same results. If this theory proves to be true, it would mean that we were seeing consciousness when looking at brain scans, we just never knew it. If this were true, it would completely revolutionise how we look for consciousness in brain scans i.e. it would mean we would be able to work out just who was conscious and who was not through brain scans. Potentially.
The clitoris can become erect. It is not remotely as noticeable as a male erection, but it happens. Basically, the clitoris’ vestibular bulbs fill with blood, giving women a noticeable — if you look for it — erection that becomes increasingly firmer the more blood that flows into it. That means just as men go hard when they are turned on, so do women.
Viagra doesn’t just work on men, it also works on flowers. Researchers from Israel and Australia back in 1999 discovered that small concentrations of Viagra, when dissolved in a vase, doubled the shelf life of cut flowers, including fruits and vegetables. It did this by hindering the breakdown of cyclic guanosine monophosphate, the build-up of which causes plants to wither and die. To go with increasing plant cell life, they discovered that Viagra also has the power to cause flowers to ripen as well. That means Viagra is one of the best plant foods for keeping cut flowers erect and for bringing flowers to ripening.
Einstein’s brain was in effect stolen by his pathologist. Albert Einstein made clear that he did not want his brain or body to be studied and left behind clear instructions insisting that he be cremated in full. However, when he died on 18 April 1955, the pathologist on call, Thomas Harvey, dismissed Einstein’s wishes and stole his brain. A few days after the thievery, Einstein’s family became aware of what had happened, but Harvey “persuaded” Einstein’s son to give retroactive permission under the stipulation that it would be used only in the interests of science. That means Harvey in effect manipulated Einstein’s son to allow him to use Einstein’s brain in the exact way that Einstein did not want it to be used. Much research has been done into Einstein’s brain against Einstein’s explicit wishes, and to this day, just as Einstein predicted, that research has only brought about useless science that has been debunked every time. In terms of where Einstein’s brain was kept, it spent most of its time in jars in Harvey’s basement, and inside a cider box under a beer cooler. It was only freed upon Harvey’s death in 1998. Now it is in the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia, and many argue what remains should be cremated as per Einstein’s wishes.
A 2014 report from a zoo in China stated that a panda faked a pregnancy to get better treatment. Its name was Ai Hin, and it was reported that she started showing signs of pregnancy and so the zookeepers started giving her special treatment; however, it was found that there was no pregnancy. The claim is that she faked a pregnancy to get given better food and special treatment. However, many believe that the panda did not fake the pregnancy, and that hormonal changes in the panda were behind the signs of pregnancy. The reasoning is that giant pandas — after they have mated or been artificially inseminated — can experience pregnancy hormones even if they are experiencing a pseudopregnancy i.e. they have either lost the child or never had it in the first place. That means after the panda has been inseminated, even if they are not pregnant, or even if they’ve lost a child, the panda may get flooded with pregnancy hormones giving the appearance that it is faking a pregnancy when it is not, it is just hormones. However, it should also be noted that the experts also report that pandas possibly may carry on with pregnancy behaviour even after the hormones have ceased if they feel they will get better treatment for doing so. That means the story may not be exactly true, but it may have a little truth in it.
Back in 2009, a Russian by the name of Artyom Sidorkin reported having difficulty breathing. Surgeons thought he must have a tumour in his lungs, but when they went in to remove it, what they reported finding was a 2-inch fir tree growing there. It was reported that he must have somehow breathed in the seed and somehow it sprouted, growing a small branch with needles on it. However, many question the validity of the story — it is Russia the story came out of — with many suspecting that it is more likely that the man somehow swallowed the branch, or that it got in there some other way. The reasoning is that for a plant to grow it needs sunlight, and lungs don’t get sunlight.
The wealthy in Russia are known for hiring fake ambulances as a means of getting to locations faster. No jokes. In Russia, there is a small underground industry of fake ambulances operating as taxis. They charge high fees which attract the rich, and the selling point is that they’re able to travel through traffic much faster than a standard taxi.
In 2001, a concert began at St. Burchard church in Halberstadt, Germany. It is expected that this concert will continue until the year 2640. That means it will have lasted 639 years. The concert is being put on by an automated organ, and the chord changes are so slow that people typically have to wait months to hear the next one. There is a constant hum as the current chord is held down. The piece being played was written by John Cage and typically takes between 20 and 70 minutes to play at “normal” speed. However, Cage wrote “as slow as possible” for how it should be played. A group of musicians and philosophers held a conference to decide how slowly “as slow as possible” meant. This concert is the result.
It is popular amongst conspiracy theorists to claim that the moon landings were faked; however, the majority of the arguments rest upon the notion that there were only a few clips of the moon landings, and as such, they were staged. However, what is not well known — because no one talks about it anymore — is that the moon landings were played on live TV for the world to see, and the feeds often lasted days. That means many millions watched days-long live feeds of the moon landings — all six of them. This is why even the Soviets admitted that they were real, their sensors picking up that the live feeds were coming from the moon, because the evidence was so resounding even now it would be impossible to fake.
Children’s games have an evolutionary function based on our hunter-gather past. For example, kids have evolved to enjoy playing hide and seek because it teaches them how to hide from prey and how to hunt a.k.a. track, hard to find prey; they’ve evolved to enjoy playing tag because playing tag teaches us how to capture hard-to-catch prey and how to evade hard-to-evade prey; they’ve evolved to enjoy chasing down small animals like cats and dogs et cetera because it teaches them how to catch small animals to eat; they’ve evolved to enjoy throwing rocks and things like them because rocks are a great weapon to use against prey or any person threatening us i.e. being hit with a rock can kill; they’ve evolved to enjoy picking up things and hitting people and things with them for the same reasons; they’ve evolved to enjoy collecting things because it teaches them how to find and gather resources; they’ve evolved to enjoy climbing things because it teaches them how to evade predators but also how to reach nests; they’ve evolved to enjoy running around a lot because humans’ greatest asset is long-distance running and by running around a lot, they build up their long-distance running ability, again helping them become more able hunters and evaders of predators; they’ve evolved to enjoy wrestling with their fathers and siblings because it teaches them how to fight i.e. defend themselves. On and on the list goes. The majority of the things we enjoy as children typically involve teaching us how to hunt and kill prey, gather food, and evade predators. Thankfully though due to us not needing to do that — at least not the way we used to need to — most of these games are now just innocent fun.
If you have ever wondered why your kid will not go to sleep and wants to keep running around, it is because they want to build up their long-distance running ability because doing so improves their survival chances — at least historically it did. This is also why they want to keep playing games, reading books, watching TV shows et cetera. Basically, sleep does not give a toddler or teenager the tools to survive, to get the tools to survive they need to be awake. Historically, children have needed to get those tools as quickly as possible and so have evolved neurochemical reward systems that push them to both constantly seek new learning experiences and build up their survival skills at the expense of everything. Sleep gets in the way of that, hence they try to avoid it for as long as possible. So, the reason it can be so difficult to get toddlers and teenagers to go to bed is that they don’t get rewarded for sleep as much as they get rewarded for finding new learning experiences and honing their survival skills.
The first flushing toilets have been dated as far back as 4500 years ago, with evidence found that communities in Scotland, the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia created pipe systems to carry waste from the inside of buildings to the outdoors. However, the first example of flushing toilets as we know them were invented by Englishman Sir John Harrington back in the 16th century. It was called an Ajax, and he even built one for the Queen at the time, Elizabeth I, but she didn’t like it because she said it was too loud, so it never took off. It’s believed that the often used term “John” when talking of a toilet, is a direct reference to John Harrington.
In 2003, a study found that 1 in 200 people are potentially related to Genghis Khan by direct line of descent. The study saw researchers take tissue samples from 2,000 men from central Asia — specifically within the borders of the Mongol Empire around the time of Genghis Khan.
They studied each of the men’s Y chromosomes and found that 10 percent carried a Y-chromosome that could be traced to an individual that lived approximately 30 to 40 generations ago (750 to 1000 years). Genghis Khan lived from 1206 to 1227. Also, Genghis Khan is known for not only the following quote: “The greatest joy for a man is to defeat his enemies, to drive them before him, to take from them all they possess, to see those they love in tears, to ride their horses, and to hold their wives and daughters in his arms.” He is known for having 30 virgins a year added to his harem and many more sexual exploits. He also lived to the age and 65. Because of this, researchers have proposed that the likelihood is that this super Y-chromosome is Genghis Khan’s i.e. it’s likely he sired a lot of children as did his descendants.
The transporter beam in Star Trek is only a thing because of budget constraints. The original Star Trek did not have a big budget, this presented a problem because the original plan was to have the Enterprise (the name of the ship in Star Trek) land on alien planets. However, it was soon realised that as the plan was to go to lots of different planets, this would cost way too much and so a solution was found. The transporter beam. If Star Trek had had a bigger budget initially, then what went on to be Star Trek’s most famous feature, the transporter beam, would never have been a thing.
Arguably the most famous line in Star Trek is “Beam me up, Scotty”; however, that line was never said once in the entirety of the original Star Trek series or films. The closest anyone ever got to the line was William Shatner in Star Trek IV: The Journey Home, he says, “Scotty, beam me up.” Nobody knows where the line came from, but the theory is fans made it up, and because it flowed nicely and is fun to say, it stuck.
That’s all from me, thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, you may also enjoy the following:
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