December 2010
Pablo Picasso had to burn his paintings to keep warm
When Picasso was in his early 20’s, he was going through a period of poverty and was dealing with the recent suicide of one of his friends. In this Blue Period, Picasso’s paintings depicted people who were poor and destitute, and they also heavily featured the color blue.
In this time in Picasso’s life, he often did not have enough money for...
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...
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...
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...
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!
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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...
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...
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...
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 titof 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...
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...
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,...
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...
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.
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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?
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The cucumber is technically a fruit. So are squash and peppers!
The reason for this is because cucumbers are the matured ovaries of a flower and therefore contain seeds. However, much like tomatoes, peppers, melons, and squash, they are commonly referred to as vegetables at the dinner table.
We’ve covered this topic before: For more things that are surprisingly fruits, check out this...
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.
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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.
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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...
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!
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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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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.
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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.
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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...
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...
In The Little Mermaid, when King Triton’s crown falls it has eight prongs instead of its usual five.
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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...
In 2007, a dozen 7-Eleven convenience stores were converted to Kwik-E-Marts.
7-11 and Fox came up with the idea in 2006 as a way to promote the release of The Simpsons Movie. They not only changed the marquees on the front of the stores, but they even changed the products on the shelves as well.
Familiar products from the Simpsons universe, like Krusty O’s cereal and Buzz cola can be found...
The time machine in Back to the Future was originally intended to be a refrigerator.
Director Robert Zemeckis stated that the idea was thrown out because they did not want children to begin climbing in their refrigerators as a result! The original script had Marty McFly getting zapped with a laser gun that sends him back in time to a refrigerator in the 1950s. Then, to go home, the refrigerator...
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...
Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were born on the same day.
That day was February 12, 1809. Lincoln’s biography. Darwin’s biography.
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!
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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.
Mayan rulers pierced their penises to offer the blood to their gods.
They would ritualistically pierce their penises, collected the blood on paper, and burned it as a sacrifice. This, along with other self-cutting acts, is a Mesoamerican cultural phenomenon known as blood-letting. In the Maya belief system, the gods sacrificed some of their divine blood in creating human life. Therefore, the...
The Baltimore Ravens are named after Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven.”
The name was chosen in 1996 from the results of a poll conducted by the Baltimore Sun. Poe wrote this, one of his most famous poems, while living in Baltimore back in the 1830s. The teams mascots are even named Edgar, Allan, and Poe!
This was after the Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore. They decided to change the name, and...
In five years, the number of Chinese skiers increased by 25 times.
In 2000, there were 200,000 Chinese skiers. In 2005, that number went up to 5 million. The China Ski Association estimates that number will be 25 million in the year 2014. This is just a sign of an increasingly affluent middle class in China. The result is that leisure activities have been booming.
Still, in China, 90% of...
The largest recorded earthquake in the U.S. lasted 3 minutes.
This Good Friday Earthquake took place in Alaska near the Prince William Sound. It also generated a tsunami with waves that reached heights of 220 feet! Together, the quake and ensuing tsunami caused about $311 in property damage and took the lives of 118 Alaskans.
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You can buy frozen milk in Siberia.
Yakutsk, Siberia has been dubbed “the coldest city”. Winter there lasts from October until May, and the temperature can get as low as -55 degrees. 98% of the town is covered in permafrost. Since permafrost is an unstable surface to build on, the buildings there are built on stilts that are drilled into the ground. The stores there sell frozen milk and frozen...
A hardworking adult can sweat up to around 4 gallons a day.
The amount a human sweats varies based on factors such as humidity and temperature. In normal conditions, we typically sweat about a gallon and a half each day. Half a pint of this perspiration comes from the feet alone! Also, even though men tend to sweat more, women have more sweat glands. And if you have a condition called...
Before the invention of the light bulb, most people slept 3 hours longer than we do now.
Before Thomas Edison’s electric light came out in 1879, people used to sleep for 10 hours every night. In the ensuing 100 years, people have gradually reduced the amount of time they sleep by 20%. That number has continued to decline in recent years. Now people sleep close to 7 hours every night. We no...
Many cats are lactose intolerant.
Despite the prevailing notion that cats love milk, most are not able to digest it well. Serving a cat milk can lead to an upset stomach, indigestion, cramps and kitty gas. If your cat insists on having milk, try giving it a small bowl of cream once in a while (a few times a week at most). Strangely enough, milk with less fat tends to have more lactose, so avoid...
A policeman who promised a waitress half his lottery winnings kept his word after the numbers they chose together were selected.
Robert Cunningham, a 30-year-old detective, was a regular customer at Sal’s Pizzeria in Yonkers, New York. One Friday evening in 1984 he made an offer to his favorite waitress, Phyllis Penzo – they would each select three numbers, which he would use to purchase a...
“Snowball II”, Lisa’s cat on The Simpsons, is actually the fifth cat named “Snowball” that the family has owned.
To clarify, after the original Snowball II died, Lisa tried replacing him in the same episode. The first two replacements also perished - Snowball III drowned trying to catch a fish in an aquarium, and Snowball IV jumped out a window because it was...
Pumice is the only rock that floats on water.
It will eventually become waterlogged and sink though!
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