December 2010
87 posts
A Chinese designer made a Coca-Cola powered cell phone.
Daizi Zheng came up with the idea of a cell phone powered by sustainable energy sources. She designed a battery that uses enzymes generate electricity from carbs. That way she can use sugary drinks like Coke or Pepsi to charge the battery. Better still, the by-products of the charging process are just water and oxygen!
As a side-benefit,...
A Chinese woman quit her job and sold her house and car in order to adopt over 1,500 dogs and 200 cats.
Ha Wenjin started out with only a few dogs, but gradually expanded until she had her own animal shelter that she had to tend to full-time. She even has 12 workers helping her (10 for the dogs and 2 more for the cats). Additionally, she had a number of volunteers.
Sadly, the Chinese reclaimed...
A penny dropped from a skyscraper CANNOT kill a person.
Firing a penny at terminal velocity (65 miles per hour) into a ballistics gel head with a human skull failed to result in any penetrations because the speed is too low and a penny’s mass too small. Even modifying a rifle to shoot a penny at supersonic speeds failed to cause a penetration. Visiting the Empire State Building, which is...
Quicksand typically is not dangerous.
Quicksand is pretty much just ordinary sand that is oversaturated with water. This oversaturation reduces the amount of friction between the grains and makes the sand unable to bear weight. As shown in the movies, the more you struggle in quicksand, the deeper and faster you will sink. It is possible to drown in quicksand, but it is quite unlikely that...
Polar bears do not hibernate in dens during the winter like brown and black bears.
The only time polar bears enter a den is when females become pregnant! They remain inside until their cubs are old enough to venture outside. Unlike other species of bears, polars typically remain active year-round. However, they are able to enter a state called ‘walking hibernation’ when food is scarce. In doing...
Tapeworms can grow to lengths of 120 feet.
The longest tapeworm to ever be withdrawn from a human was removed from Sally Mae Wallace on September 5, 1991. In all, doctors pulled 37 FEET of tapeworm out through Sally Mae’s mouth! If you think that’s bad, just be glad you’re not a whale - tapeworms in our giant aquatic friends can reach lengths of 120 feet!
(source)
Porcupines float in water.
Their quills actually help them float! The quills have a spongelike filling inside. They can use their quills to float on rivers and streams to eat all the water plants. Porcupines have 30,000 of these quills. They use them for defense, though, unlike what you may have seen in the cartoons, they can’t throw them at their enemies.
There are also some porcupines that...
Although Native Americans represent less than 1% of the U.S. population, their bones make up over 50% of the skeletal collection in the Smithsonian Institution.
In 1988, some 43,000 Native American skeletons were on display in 163 museums in the United States! Many Native Americans were upset by the fact that so many of their ancestors’ remains had been excavated. This brought about the Native...
The heaviest baby ever born weighed 23 pounds, 12 ounces.
Part of the reason he was so large had to due with the fact that his mother was 7 feet, 5 inches tall! Unfortunately, this baby boy passed away just 11 hours after his birth. The heaviest baby to survive, however, was born in Aversa, Italy in 1955 and weighed 22 pounds, 8 ounces! And the lightest surviving baby ever? Well, that would be...
A man has been cured of HIV!
Doctors believe that a man infected with HIV has been cured through the use of experimental stem cell treatment. Timothy Ray Brown, aka the “Berlin Patient”, received a stem-cell transplant in 2007. This year, his HIV is gone, making him the first person to be cured of HIV.
Another victory in the fight against AIDS: studies show that when healthy people take...
In the past 9 years of its existence, the TSA hasn’t caught any terrorists.
You know those screenings you go through before getting on an airplane? Those screenings are conducted by the Transportation Security Administration, an agency with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that was formed in 2001 after September 11. Their stated goal is “to prevent any terrorist or criminal activity”....
Jell-O hooked up to an electroencephalograph (EEG) can display readings similar to human brain function.
Normally, brain death is signaled by a flatline EEG reading. This means that some of the most basic brainstem processes have ceased to function, such as contraction of the pupils in response to light. The Jell-O can pick up misleading signals that prevent the acquisition of a proper flatline...
The world’s longest running television cooking program has been on the air since 1960.
Hasta La Cocina has been broadcast each weekday on Mexico’s Channel 4 since December 1, 1960. That makes for a total of 11,232 episodes as of January 2010!
(1,2)
There is a real life Sleeping Beauty in England who dozes for two weeks at a time.
15-year-old Louisa Ball is afflicted with an extremely rare disorder called Kleine-Levin Syndrome, in which sufferers often fall into slumbers that can last up to several weeks at a time! Ball first developed the condition back in October of 2008 after recovering from a week-long case of the flu. She now misses...
El Salvador once went to war with Honduras over a soccer game.
In 1969, the two countries were in the middle of a 3-game match to qualify for the World Cup. Fights broke out and fans were injured. Honduras broke diplomatic relations with El Salvador and El Salvador invaded. The resulting “Soccer War” (or “Football War”) lasted for 4 days and left thousands of civilians...
Out of the 200 million eggs a female oyster produces only a handful grow to adulthood.
Oysters can produce up to 200 million eggs in a mating season, but only a few of these offspring will develop into mature larvae and even fewer reach adulthood. (The larvae are called “spat”)
However, one oyster species, the Olympia oyster, doesn’t release its babies until they have grown...
A Malaysian man received a $218 trillion phone bill!
Yahaya Wahab in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia, had disconnected his deceased father’s phone line in January 2006, so you can imagine his surprise months later that his phone company still sent him a bill. He was more surprised to see the bill: 806,400,000,000,000.01 ringgit (the equivalent of 218 TRILLION US dollars) to be paid in the next 10 days....
Leave It To Beaver was the first television program to air a toilet.
In 1957, television networks were uneasy about showing a BATHROOM onscreen, let alone a toilet! An episode of Leave It To Beaver was filmed in which Wally and the Beaver hide an alligator in the tank of a toilet. Due to censorship of the bathroom, the episode was postponed a week in order to be edited. The compromise? The final...
Kangaroos can produce two different types of breast milk simultaneously.
Baby kangaroos, also called joeys, spend their first several months attached to a teat inside their mother’s pouch. After it leaves the pouch, it typical will continue to drink its mother’s milk until it is over a year old!
If the mother gives birth to another child, an amazing phenomenon occurs – one teat will produce a...
Alcoholic beverages contain all the minerals necessary to sustain human life.
These essential minerals include: calcium, chloride, chromium, copper, iodine, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, sodium, and zinc.
Beer contains a total of more than 30 minerals and trace elements, which mostly come from the malt used in the brewing process. Two pints of beer almost covers half of the...
When the Allies invaded Normandy on D-Day in 1944, “Mickey Mouse” was used as a password between intelligence officers.
More facts about Mickey Mouse:
Mickey Mouse was the first talking cartoon character. In 1929’s “The Karnival Kid,” Mickey’s first spoken words were “Hot dogs!”
Only one Mickey Mouse short has won an Academy Award. The 1941 cartoon “Lend a Paw” received the...
A protein is named after Sonic the Hedgehog.
This protein, Sonic hedgehog, was first discovered in Drosophilia flies and is indeed named after the eponymous hero of Sega Genesis fame. The other two variations in the protein are named after actual species of hedgehog. The hedgehog gene that produces these proteins was christened as such because of the spiky appearance it causes in Drosophilia...
Blood is only visible in in two scenes of the slasher horror film Halloween.
Over the course of the movie, Michael Myers claims the lives of 7 victims. However, the only times blood is actually shown are when Judith Myers is killed and when Michael cuts Laurie’s arm with a knife!
(source)
Potato chips were born of a cook’s attempt at revenge.
In 1853, George Crum was told by a dissatisfied customer that his French fries were “too thick and soggy” and “not salty enough.” Being the head chef at Moon’s Lake House resort in Saratoga Springs, Crum had too much pride to ignore this type of criticism.
He responded by slicing a potato as thinly as...
The “#2” on a #2 pencil indicates that it is the second softest model.
During the Napoleonic Wars, France was unable to import graphite from the Grey Knotts mines in Great Britain. This was the world’s only known source of solid graphite! In 1795, a French soldier by the name of Nicholas Jacques Conté found that powdered graphite could be mixed with clay and formed into rods by firing the...
Three of the six men who played “The Three Stooges” were brothers.
The original troublesome trio was comprised of brothers Moses and Samuel Horwitz and Louis Feinberg. The threesome went by the stage names of Moe Howard, Shemp Howard, and Larry Fine. In 1932, Shemp became frustrated and quit the act, so Moe suggested that his younger brother Jerry take Shemp’s place. After shaving his head,...
For all his writing skill, Thomas Jefferson did not deliver most of his speeches aloud.
That’s right - the eloquent statesman who penned the Declaration of Independence by himself did not enjoy reading his own material in public! Regarding Jefferson’s tenure in the Continental Congress, John Adams wrote, “Mr. Jefferson had been now about a Year a Member of Congress, but had...
While looking into a case of alleged child abuse back in 2009, British police mistook a coconut shard for a human skull.
This disastrous investigation of a children’s home began as a simple child abuse case. It was blown out of proportion when a coconut shell was thought to be part of a skull! Detective Lenny Harper could not have mishandled this case much more thoroughly – he spent thousands of...
The full name of world famous artist Pablo Picasso is Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santisma Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso.
(source)
On the popular cartoon The Jetsons, Jane Jetson is 32 and her daughter Judy is 16.
This means that Jane was already pregnant with Judy at HER age! Who knew Teen Mom had already been popular back in the ’60s?
(source)
Beavers used to be the size of black bears.
The giant beaver, a relative of our modern American beaver, roamed the earth during the Ice Age. These creatures used to reach lengths of up to 7 ½ feet! Thank God they went extinct 10,000 years ago…dam.
(source)
Koalas rarely drink water.
This is because they typically get all their moisture from eucalyptus leaves, which are poisonous to most other mammals! However, in cases of severe drought the amount of moisture in these leaves is reduced, but this is one of the rare times a koala would need to imbibe additional water.
(source)
In the Taal Volcano there is an island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island.
That’s right – this Philippine volcano can be found Vulcan Point within Crater Lake, on Taal Island within Lake Taal, on the island of Luzon!
(source)
(Picture!)
Aslan the lion from The Chronicles of Narnia represents Jesus Christ.
There has been much discussion and debate over the years as to what author C.S. Lewis intended as the themes of his popular Narnia series. In 2005, an unpublished fan letter by Lewis was discovered that stated simply, “The whole Narnian story is about Christ.” He created the stories as an allegory – Christ became human in...
Camels’ milk has 10 times more iron than cows’ milk.
It’s also rich in vitamins B and C, and it is lower in saturated fat. However it also tastes a little saltier. Some research has suggested that it also contains antibodies that can help fight cancer, AIDS, and hepatitis C.
For these reasons, that has been a push to try to market camels’ milk in Western Europe. There are a few setbacks that...
The drug Premarin is produced from the urine of pregnant horses.
This period in a woman’s life typically is marked by a 40 to 60% dropoff in estrogen. The purpose of Premarin is to replace these female hormones and help to reduce symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats, and vaginal dryness. The drug can also help to prevent heart disease, strokes, and osteoporosis, which all may accompany...
Pamela Anderson was Canada’s “Centennial Baby.”
The former Baywatch beauty was the first baby born in her native Canada as it celebrated its 100th birthday on July 1st, 1967! She was born in Ladysmith, a small town on the east coast of Vancouver Island. Anderson received her big break in strange fashion – while attending a B.C. Lions football game, a TV camera found her wearing a Labatt’s beer...
Unlike most cats, tigers love water.
On a hot day, these big cats love taking a dip in a nearby lake or river to cool off! The only stipulation is that they do not like water in their eyes. They will go to any lengths to avoid this, even entering the water backwards! Because they have webbed feet, tigers are also quite the skilled swimmers. They have been known to travel for distances up to 20...
The original “Three Little Pigs” fairy tale did not mention the pigs’ names.
The first story was published around 1843 by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillips. In this version, the pigs are merely numbered. A subsequent retelling published by author Andrew Lang called the three pigs Browny, Blacky, and Whitey. However, in this tale, the villain is a fox instead of a wolf!
One of the most...
In The Little Mermaid, when King Triton’s crown falls it has eight prongs instead of its usual five.
(source)
While filming The Wizard of Oz, Judy Garland was slapped by her director for failing to complete a scene.
During the scene in which Dorothy slaps the Cowardly Lion, Garland got a case of the giggles and could not stop laughing. Unable to get his lead actress to focus, director Victor Fleming brought her off the set and slapped her across the face! After returning, Garland was able to...
A two-year-old girl scored a 156 on the IQ test.
At 2 years and 4 months old, British toddler Elise Tan-Roberts was been accepted as the youngest-ever member of the high IQ fraternity known as Mensa! The club can typically only test children who are older than 10, but an exception was made in Elise’s case because his IQ score was already proven to be in the top 2% of the country.
Tan-Roberts...
Paul Revere did not shout, “The British are coming!”
The phrase that was actually uttered by the famous American patriot was, “The regulars are coming out!” Most colonials still considered themselves to be British at that time, so the phrase would not have made much sense.
(source)
In The Polar Express, the main character’s name is never mentioned.
He is referred to as “Hero Boy” in most reviews and plot summaries.
(source)
A 30-second television commercial for the 2011 Super Bowl costs around $3 million.
By September 2010, Fox had already sold 90% of the ad spots, much better than the only 70% sold by the same time last year. Pepsi plans on running at least 6 30-second spots during the upcoming Super Bowl. That could run up to $18 million!
(source)
Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were born on the same day.
That day was February 12, 1809. Lincoln’s biography. Darwin’s biography.
The Nike clothing brand is named after the Greek goddess of victory.
The winged goddess Nike sat at the side of Zeus. Her presence symbolized victory, and she was said to have presided over some of history’s earliest battles. The company’s distinctive SWOOSH logo represents the goddess’s wing!
From Nike’s website.
The Saudi Arabian weekend is on Thursday and Friday.
Friday is a special day dedicated to prayer for Muslims, so Friday has to be a day off. However, this is a contentious issue for Saudi businesses, because having both Thursday and Friday off, means that there are 4 days in a row where Saudi Arabian businesses can’t stay in touch with Western businesses.
Most Saudi companies do not have 2 day...
A new type of bacteria has been discovered that uses poisonous arsenic to build its DNA.
All life on Earth was thought to have been composed of six elements: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur…until now. This newly-discovered microorganism, called GFAJ-1, was found in Mono Lake, California. The building blocks used to create its genetic material contain arsenic, which is...
You see from the back of your head! Sort of…
The part of your brain that processes visual information is located in the rear section – opposite from your eyes. This section of the brain is called the visual cortex. The visual cortex receives its information from projections that extend all the way through the brain from the eyes. These images first pass through a round structure in the...