1Rabies Transmission
There has never been a documented case of rabies being transmitted by one human-biting another. All of the recorded cases of human-to-human transmission of rabies occurred through organ transplants from infected donors.
2. Followers of the Yazidi religion do not eat lettuce, as it is thought that when a 13th-century Yazidi saint was executed, the crowd pelted him with heads of lettuce.
3. It takes about 3 million presses to wear out a button on an Xbox controller.
4. ‘Connections’ was a science education TV series which was created by science historian James Burke. This series, which premiered in 1978, contended that one cannot consider the development of any particular piece of the modern world in isolation but rather that interconnected isolated events are what drives history and innovation.
5. About 3% of the general population has antisocial personality disorder. It is a mental health disorder characterized by disregard for other people.
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15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
6Sir James Chadwick
Sir James Chadwick, the English physicist who discovered the neutron and was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1935, actually enrolled in Physics by mistake when he was a university student. He wanted to study mathematics. He also led the British team on the Manhattan project.
7. Yuri Knorozov was a Soviet officer during World War 2. After the war ended, he played an essential role in deciphering the Mayan hieroglyphics, after he stumbled upon a book in the German National Library, which said that "Mayan Hieroglyphics were indecipherable."
8. The Verve only made about $1000 from their song ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ due to a copyright issue. The Rolling Stones had originally ended up with the rights before they returned them in 2019.
9. In 1965, Norman Morrison, a Quaker Pacifist doused himself in kerosene and committed self-immolation in front of the Pentagon to protest the US involvement in the Vietnam War.
10. The hippocampus of food-storing birds increases in size by up to 30% for a short period each year, so that they could remember where they hid their food.
11Stephan Bibrowski
A Polish man named Stephan Bibrowski (1890–1932), was also known as Lionel the lion-faced man due to the 8-inch-long hair that covered his entire face. Stephan's mother gave him away at the age of 4 as she had witnessed a lion mauling her husband while she was pregnant with Stephan, and thus viewed him as an abomination.
12. Before becoming president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh worked as a dishwasher at the Drayton Court Hotel in London, as a line manager for General Motors in Boston, and as a pastry chef in Brooklyn among other jobs.
13. Counterfeit detector pens used in grocery stores contain an iodine solution that reacts with the starch in wood-based paper to create a black stain. When the solution is applied to the fiber-based paper used in real bills, no discoloration occurs.
14. In 1912, after the sinking of the RMS Titanic, crewmen on its sister ship RMS Olympic went on strike over its small number and poor quality of lifeboats.
15. Chocolate is crystalline and therefore has 6 phases (different ways of arranging crystals). This is important for the production of glossy, brittle, melt-in-mouth-not-in-hand tempered chocolate.
16Jet Gemstone
The color "Jet Black" comes from a gemstone called jet. Jet is extremely dark, and so jet black refers to that dark.
17. Bananas are curved because they are negatively geotropic. They curve upwards to break through the banana leaf canopy to reach sunlight.
18. The asteroid belt is splintered and cannot coalesce into a planet because of the effects of Jupiter's gravity, which disrupts the asteroids and keeps them colliding with each other.
19. Circular Breathing is a technique used to continuously sustain embouchure on wind instruments without interruption. It is achieved by breathing in through the nose while simultaneously pushing air out through the mouth using air stored in the cheeks. Like a chipmunk. With this technique, you can play a wind instrument forever.
20. Empress Leopoldina from the house of Habsburg was the first woman to become head of state in an independent country in America. She was one of the masterminds behind Brazil's independence and the yellow in the flag symbolizes her house of Habsburg. She was also behind German migrations there.
21Queen Ants
Queen ants can live for 15 to 30 years and worker ants (female) up to 1-3 years. Male ants may only live for several weeks, mate once, and then die.
22. Doctors in popular media are often portrayed as wearing mirrors over their forehead. These mirrors are actually meant to be worn over one of the doctor's eyes when in use.
23. The "sailing stones" in Death Valley move in very short 15-minute bursts due to a very specific combination of rain, freezing temperatures, and wind.
24. Antarctica has a museum, gift shop, and a post office in the same building, known as Port Lockroy, which is open to all public. It is operated by the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust. Around 70,000 cards are sent from its post office each year.
25. As a result of the "Baby Einstein" franchise of videos and books being named after Albert Einstein, royalties paid to his estate made Einstein one of the top five earning dead celebrities for a time.
