26Soviet Union

The Soviet Union was issued “.su”, a top-level internet domain just before its 1991 collapse. The domain was never deactivated and has since become a haven for cybercriminals due to its lack of regulation.
27. Viagra is given to some premature babies to increase oxygen transport by widening the blood vessels, as their lungs often haven't developed enough to transport oxygen efficiently on their own.
28. Scheherazade, the storyteller from One Thousand and One Nights tells her stories (Aladdin, Sinbad, ...) to the monarch so that he would stop marrying and killing a new virgin every day after his first wife betrayed him. He had already killed 1001 women when they met.
29. In Russian culture "British Scientists," is a running joke and Internet meme used as an ironic reference to absurd news reports about scientific discoveries, particularly ones that have no practical value. For example, "British scientists debunked the myth that mice love cheese."
30. Bilingual reduced emotional resonance is a fairly well-established phenomenon where many bilinguals report “feeling less” in their second language, which might make it easier to use highly emotional vocabulary, and swear.
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31Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Sentinels guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier wear no rank insignia, ensuring that the guard is always junior in rank to whoever is buried in the tomb.
32. American boxer John Morrissey went from being a famous gambler during the Gold Rush to a heavyweight boxing champ to the boss of the Irish mob to a New York senator to Grand Sachem of Tammany Hall, which basically controlled New York politics for the Gilded Age, all before dying at 47 years old.
33. Octopuses are immune to the stings of various types of jellyfish. They know this and will often rip off the stings of man-o-war (species closely related to jellyfish) and use them as whips to defend themselves from larger predators.
34. When Nelson Mandela left the prison gates in 1990, one newsman shoved a modern microphone in his face. He recoiled slightly, wondering if it were some newfangled weapon that had been developed while he was in prison.
35. Mapmakers used to plant fictitious streets in their maps, so that if a person copied their map, they could point out the replication of the fake street to prove copyright infringement.



