1Shifting Baseline Syndrome
Shifting Baseline Syndrome describes the phenomena, where each generation uses previous reference points as baselines despite those points representing significant changes from even earlier states. Each generation defines the "natural" state differently, and large changes over time often go unnoticed.
2. A man named Steve Easton sneezed out the tip (penny sized) of a toy dart while he was at his computer. The toy had been lodged unknowingly in his nasal cavity for 44 years. He had to confirm with his mom.
3. The South Pacific island of Vanuatu banned the imports of western junk food as a way to combat future health problems.
4. One of the reasons the gloves didn't fit O.J. Simpson is that he stopped taking medication for his arthritis which led to his hands becoming swollen.
5. In the 1880s, a man named Larry Donovan tried to make a living by jumping off bridges to gain fame and recognition. After he died penniless jumping off a low bridge on a drunken bet, his mother was quoted as saying: "I told him that jumping off bridges was a poor way of earning a living."
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15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
6James Cameron
Director James Cameron reached the Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the Mariana Trench in 2012. He is the first person to accomplish the trip solo. The data he collected resulted in interesting new finds in the field of marine biology, including new species of sea cucumber and squid worm.
7. A Mexican diplomat named Gilberto Bosques Saldivar rescued 40,000 people, mainly Spaniards and Jews, who wanted to flee Nazi occupied France during World War 2. His heroism remained unknown to the world at large for some 60 years.
8. In 2006, skydiver Michael Holmes jumped out of a plane at 15,000 feet wearing a helmet camera. His first parachute failed, then his reserve failed too. Then he waved goodbye before landing in a blackberry bush and surviving.
9. Despite receiving an annual rainfall of just 3 inches, Yuma, Arizona produces 90% of the United States' lettuce during the winter.
10. The Brontosaurus once was considered to have never existed but has recently been declared to have actually existed. It was thought to have been in the same genus as the Apatosaurus but recent discoveries have separated the two as distinct.
11Kiln
The kiln was originally pronounced with a silent "n." Linguists believe that when written descriptions of kilns reached people who had never heard of them before; they assumed the "n" was pronounced, and this mispronunciation took over.
12. Bob Marley's song, Buffalo Soldier, refers to the name given to black troops by Native Americans, who thought black soldiers' hair looked and felt like a buffalo's pelt. Buffalo Soldiers settled railroad disputes, built and repaired forts, and protected settlers from Native American attacks.
13. Recently, a group of parents among a subset of the anti-vaxxer community are actively trying to cure their children's autism with daily bleach enemas.
14. The CEO of Spotify (Daniel Ek) was the CEO of uTorrent in 2006.
15. The Goldman family was given legal ownership of OJ Simpson's canceled book "If I Did It." They republished with a new cover hiding the word "If" so the title appeared to be "I Did It."
16Mel Blanc
Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny, once voiced Barney Rubble from the Flintstones while he was in the full-body cast as he laid flat on his back with the other Flintstones co-stars gathered around him after a car crash.
17. Planktons perform 45% of Earth's photosynthesis, yet constitute less than 1% of its total plant mass.
18. During O.J. Simpson's 1995 verdict announcement for murder, long-distance calls declined by 58%, trading on the New York Stock Exchange decreased by 41%, water usage decreased, and there was an estimated $480 million in lost productivity due to work stopping.
19. Search and rescue dogs searching for survivors after 9/11 would experience depression-like symptoms because they couldn't find survivors, only bodies.
20. Anne Frank only assumed that her father was killed in the concentration camps and that a childhood friend of hers stated that if she knew he was still alive she believed Anne would have summoned the courage to survive.
21Sultan Ibrahim I
The Ottoman Empire's Sultan Ibrahim I had 280 of his concubines drowned in the ocean after one of them slept with another man.
22. Moths make up a large portion of Yellowstone bears' diets, and they can eat up to 20,000 calories worth of moths in a day.
23. Simon Cowell praised Rebecca Black's song "Friday": "the fact that it's making people so angry is brilliant". He advised her to not "listen to anyone over the age of 18. I'm being deadly serious. Whatever she's done has worked ... she's the most talked-about artist in America right now".
24. Deborah Sampson who disguised herself as a man to fight in the U.S. Revolutionary War served in an elite Light Infantry unit and was wounded in battle. After her secret was discovered, she was honorably discharged but had to fight to receive her veteran's pension.
25. Banner blindness is a phenomenon where web users sub consciously ignore information on web pages from ad-like banners.
