Weird but interesting facts of life
Some are funny facts and some will make you say WTF. But being inconvenient and not useless, all those facts will enrich your knowledge base and help you pass through.
The ancient Greeks used the term barbarian for anyone who didn't speed Greek, including ancient Egyptians, as another language sounded like 'bar bar bar' to the Greeks which lead to the term 'barbarian'
During the SARS epidemic in 2004, a 45-year-old Taiwanese woman died from alcohol poisoning after immersing herself in a bathtub full of 40% alcohol for 12 hours, likely because she thought the alcohol would decontaminate her if she had been exposed to the virus.
The text in ReCAPTCHA security codes looks so strange because they're actually helping to digitize books and other text. The company has designed their system so that humans enter the words optical character recognition software can't recognize. Their old slogan was "Stop spam, read books."
Despite being worth an estimated $8.3 billion there is no public record of Steve Jobs giving money to charity. He declined to participate in the Giving Pledge founded by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates
Golf balls were once smooth. Golfers eventually realized that old, beat up balls flew farther. Modern day golf balls now have dimples around them because they increase turbulence, which allow them to fly farther.
Maurice Sendak's classic book "Where the Wild Things Are" was supposed to be titled "Where the Wild Horses Are" but he realized he couldn't draw horses so he changed it to "things" instead
The farthest a person has ever fallen and survived is at least 33,330 feet. Serbian flight attendant Vesna Vulovic was blown out of a plane when a bomb went off in its baggage compartment in 1972. She had no memory of the event and wasn't afraid to fly afterward.
Satellites before the advent of digital imaging used standard film reels, which were recovered by dropping them from space and catching them mid air in a passing aircraft.
Mail carriers are NOT permitted to accept cash and cash equivalents, such as checks or gift cards. Carriers are permitted to accept a gift worth $20 or less from a customer per occasion, such as Christmas.
36% of Americans said that they screamed, yelled, cursed, or physically assaulted their computers in the last 6 months
The Dragonfly is one of the most skilled predators on the planet being absolutely lethal to other insects, missing only one prey in twenty.
In the 1930s, Meyer Lansky (a major mob figure) would frequently disrupt Nazi rallies by breaking legs, cracking skulls and throwing attendants out of windows.
The reason today's artificial banana flavoring for candy tastes so differently than an actual banana is because it is based on the Gros Michel Banana, which was nearly wiped out in the 50's due to a fungus. The bananas we eat today are from the Cavendish family.
H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard were friends, and due to the connections between their works, many people consider Conan the Barbarian to be a part of the Cthulhu Mythos
When asked what he would say to the Columbine shooters, Marilyn Manson said; ''I wouldn't say a single word to them, I would listen to what they had to say, and that's what no one did.''